Vietnam War by Minh Bao Nguyen

The Vietnam War was a major military conflict that started on November 1, 1955 when United States poured troops into Vietnam and ended on April 30, 1975 when Saigon fell to the communists. This war was fought between the communist North Vietnamese, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The Vietnam War created a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, including about 4 million Vietnamese from both sides, 1.5 to 2 million Laotians and Cambodians, and 58,159 U.S. soldiers. So given the perfect opportunity, I decided to interview my parents and my father’s friend to further my understanding of what it was like being Vietnamese people during the time of war.


Mother--- Lan Huong

I was about eight years old when the war started, when American troops began pouring in. My family and I lived in Bien Hoa district of Saigon, which was the South Vietnamese capital city. People felt relatively safe living there because it would be the last city that the Viet Cong (North Vietnamese communists) would attack. Unlike other wars that I heard about, people in Saigon did not evacuate because we were living on the Southeastern tip of Asia and there were communists everywhere around the region. There was no where to run away to.
My father was lucky enough to be part of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) airforce. We also got the privilege of living inside the military camp with many other high officials’ families. The camp was very spacious, containing loads of tanks, choppers, and battle planes provided by US. It was strictly walled off with huge concrete walls and barb wires. There is only one single gate for entering and exiting the area, guarded with dozens of heavily armed soldiers. People entering and exiting the area had to get their IDs checked to ensure that no Viet Cong could sneak inside. Relative visits became a frustration as we had to go through many steps in order to get them inside. But we did not live wealthy lives, my three sisters and I had to help our mother run a small laundry business to earn a living. We would wash the soldiers’ clothes because they did not have washing machines back then. Luckily my working hours did not intervene much with my education.
I remember Christmas was the best holiday. Every child in the camp received a card and everyone would gather at this big square to exchange those cards for Christmas gifts from the Americans, usually a fuzzy doll. Those were the only presents I’ve ever gotten in my childhood. But never did any of us complain about our conditions, in fact, we were very grateful to be able to live in such a safe place. The schools outside the area taught kids a lot of English so we can be the interpreters for the Vietnamese and American soldiers. My friends and I would wander the streets and greet the American soldiers in hope of getting ten or twenty cents from them, and that was enough to buy a delicious Vietnamese meal.
I remember hearing artillery from the Viet Cong sent into the camp where we lived. They were aiming at the high officials and the American consulates but the artillery often ended up in the houses, killing many innocent civilians. One got really close to our house and we were freaking out, had to move out for a day. Whenever the alerting alarm went off, we were expected to hide under furniture for safety.
During 1968, the Tet Offensive occurred when I was about thirteen years old. I saw Viet Congs in black pajamas climbing the over the fence and into the camp. Of course the guard soldiers were shooting like crazy and we were hiding inside our homes. But that was really my first experience with the war. Hundreds of North Vietnamese were shot down and piled up on the street for people to witness. I started questioning myself of why the same race of people, Vietnamese, was taking away the lives of other people of their own race. That event made it more difficult for people to enter and exit the camp.
Outside the camp where I went to school, I began seeing these Vietnamese women coming from the countryside looking for a living. Many of them developed relationships with American soldiers and had Amerasian babies. Those children were discriminated because of their different skin colors. Amerasians with white blood though, were not as discriminated as the black children. They were very pitiful; many went through schools in Vietnam without any friend because they were different. Most of them don’t know who their daddies are, and some were even abandoned by their Vietnamese mothers.
I had an aunt who was very beautiful at the age of nineteen. She met a young American soldier while she worked as a bartender at a club. They developed a relationship and were soon madly in love. The soldier planned on bringing her to America but when she was about to get on the bus to go meet him, she stepped on a Bouncing Betty (specialized mine) set up by the Viet Cong. The mine was intended to kill soldiers but instead it broke a love story. The soldier mourned for days at her funeral. It was a love story that I used to admire because it shows how true love has no borders. My father died in battle when I was growing up so I had to work much more to help my mother take care of my five younger siblings. It became rough from there on but I’m sure many other Vietnamese people suffered a much greater deal than me.


Father--- Quyen Nguyen

I was nine years old, living in Saigon, when the war started. My family and I lived by a South Vietnamese paratrooper base. My father was a paratrooper in Division 7. There were many protests and demonstrations against the war in Saigon. I myself participated in a few because we learned that the South government is very corrupted. They had a false freedom of speech law, none of the newspapers were able to express their points or disagree with the government. Basically, the South Vietnamese government treated us like trash; all they wanted was to defeat the North. There were also Viet Congs in disguised, sneaking around the city trying to start these protests to disrupt the government. The police threw gas grenades and would beat the protestors to teach them a lesson.
Before the Tet Offensive, the Viet Congs signed the treaty of no attacking during the three days of New Year. But then they broke the treaty by launching attacks on many major cities. They used the advantage of the loud fireworks to enter Saigon when the South Vietnamese were celebrating. Everyone hid in their homes and you could hear series of gun shots going on every minute of those days. The Viet Cong is famous for their brutalities and tricks. We heard stories of North Vietnamese soldiers being forced onto the battlefield to fight or else they would get killed. The North had the advantage of a huge supportive and determined population at getting rid of foreign influences.
Back in school, there was very little talk about the war, everything proceeded normally. But when boys turned seventeen years old, they were drafted into the ARVN. The North even drafted fifteen-year-old boys because their soldiers were dying rapidly. Luckily, I was an only child in the family and my father was already serving in the army so I did not have to be drafted. My father was often gone for battles and I mostly lived my childhood with my mother. She was able to open a small business so again, I was lucky enough to go to school and not have to join the army.
On April 30th, 1975, South Vietnam surrendered and the Viet Congs began marching into Saigon. That previous night, my mother had already paid a fisherman about US $2,000, all she had at the time, to take me to a new place. The Viet Cong was going to take all of the money they found anyway because Vietnam became a communist country. So I came on board with a boatload of people, literally, and we drove out into the open sea, hoping to get rescue and end up in another country. But unfortunately four hours into our trip we were all captured by Viet Cong’s navy. Those next few months I spent in the communist jail was probably the hardest stage of my life. We were expected to stay there for about three to four years unless we fed the officials some money to say that we’ve served enough time in prison. No trials, no regulations, no fairness, no nothing. The prisoners lived together in several big rooms. The room was crowded, stinking, sometimes rotted dead people that the guards would not clear out. Everyday we would get two meals, each containing only a handful of plain rice with some salt. We could only receive exactly nine cups of water for bath. Sick people were left to die. I myself had a major diarrhea, so bad that I was crawling on the ground groaning for help. I was almost dead and they did not even bother to check. The crazy thing is, they had a medicine bag hanging on the wall to show that they were treating their prisoners but they only used it on the officials. I am still very pissed at the Viet Congs for that. My friends in there were able to sneak in some anti-bacteria medicines and my diarrhea went away. That’s why I always say, “Never believe what the Viet Congs say but instead witness what they do.”


Father’s friend--- Chi Van Tran

I lived in Hue, central Vietnam, when the war first started in 1955. I was already a young South Vietnamese soldier fighting North Vietnamese expansion. We heard great news about how the United States was coming to help us. The Viet Cong was using very effective guerilla warfare against our infantry. It was extremely frustrating to spot them in the jungle so we just fell back and defended the province of Hue. We asked that the residences there must tell us anything they know about the Viet Cong but very few agreed to cooperate. They kept questioning why is it that Vietnamese people was fighting one another. We told them that communism is a very crazy form of government and that the South was trying to get rid of the dictators. Many of them claims that if it wasn’t for the communists that fought off the French we would all still be under French colonial rule.
After American forces made their way to Hue, I was sent back to Saigon where I met your family. Soldiers that were always on the move like me couldn’t manage to form a family because it would just be a mess. I did hit up a few women here and there, you know, soldiers like me. The war provided me the opportunity to meet a lot of new friends, most of them soldiers. We would share stories, go into battles together, experience hardships together. I believe it’s really those times of hardship that people are able to find their true best friends.
The Viet Cong launched 122mm rockets, supplied by China, into South Vietnamese residence areas and we soldiers would have to track them down. Usually a dozen of guys were sent just to find one or two Viet Cong. It was a very frustrating process. I have a friend who went into the Battle of An Lao in Binh Ninh. His unit was surrounded by hundreds of Viet Congs armed with AK-47s. Those guns are better than the M-16s that were supplied by the US because AK-47s can cool faster and has a deadlier bullet impact. The North Vietnamese would always try to outnumber their opposing forces because even with effective tactics, they always end up losing more men in every battle. Anyway, my friend somehow managed to run away from the Viet Congs. But unfortunately the American airforce dropped napalm bombs in hope of killing the Viet Congs. It burned parts of the guy’s body and he could no longer go back into battle. I followed through the whole Vietnam War and I got to tell you, it is definitely one of the worst wars known to mankind.

The Korean War -Rachel Blazevic

My interviews are about different people’s experiences in the Korean War. I have interviewed someone who was in the National Guard, someone who was a POW and a pair of civilians who were affected by the war.

Interview with my Great Uncle Jerome Blazevic (84 years old):

Before joining the Korean War, Jerome served in World War 2 as a soldier in the army in Belgium during the occupation of Germany after the war. He was discharged after the war and there was a recession sort of like the one today. The plant he was working at almost shut down, so instead of losing his job, he joined the National Guard in Duluth, Minnesota.

The base that Jerome worked at was one of the bases that would protect America from Russian bombing. He never flew, but he was one of the support personal. By that I mean that he worked in the medical department.

Whenever we were at a crisis point (i.e. Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, Gary Powell incident), he was on base because the country was on high alert because of the fear of an attack. This was true especially of his base because it was up North and coming into the United States from the North was the shortest route for Russia.

And although today, Russia has said they would not bomb us, having a good defense with things like that will make them stick to their word.

Jerome’s life in the National Guard lasted for 30 years. He had three sons who also joined the National Guard at the same base. Now one of his grandsons has joined the Air Force Academy in Colorado.

Being in the Cold War changed his direction in life. He served his country. He was also a very successful trapper, and a very successful Scout Master being awarded the highest Silver Beaver award by his scouts.

Interview with my Great Uncle Raymond Blazevic (86 years old):

Hel- *cut off*

Well, first you should know that I grew up in Duluth, Minnesota. In high school we all had to register (for army, as soldiers, etc.) and I did. I got drafted into the army. Then I got went to Fort Snelling (spelling correct?). I had to take lots of tests, and I passed for the Navy’s Officer Program. So I went into the Navy. I also went through electrical courses. I worked on electrical stuff and navigation equipment.

World War 2, and after, I was in Hawaii. We stayed in barracks with no windows. I would fly lots of different planes.

And then I got transferred to San Francisco and I flew sky radar.

When we were in Korea, everything moved at night. During the day, everything was still and no planes were out or anything. Everything moved at night. We would get catapulted off in our planes and the pilots would bomb. We worked with 250 lb. bombs a lot which would destroy bridges. On one of these night time bombings, we had done all of our bombings and we were heading back. We had already been hit multiple times, but we were hit again and the plane caught on fire. We were captured by the Koreans. We went to an interrogation place near the capital. To Manchuria.

I was a prisoner of war. They had a political program and I didn’t agree with it at all. And 3 out of 5 POWs in Korea died. Near the end, there were so few prisoners left. We had to build our own camp out of sticks and mud (chuckles). We had no medical care and two meals a day. We had to carry everything. We had to carry wood, water. We had to boil the water to get rid of the bacteria and bugs before we used it. In the winter we had padded clothing. No one ever escaped. It was 100-150 miles to the nearest port and no one would ever make it. They’d get shot or just die before they made it anywhere.

And, well, what else can I tell ya?

So, how long were you a POW in North Korea?

I was a POW for 27 months.

And earlier you said something about a political program, what was that?

It was the interrogation center. Where they (the North Koreans/Chinese) would try to indoctrinate you into the Communist system. It would be 50 below 0 and we would be sitting there listening to these lectures about how communism was good and capitalism was evil. I didn’t agree with any of it. None of it. But their views and what they said about communism being good and capitalism being bad were interesting.

Also when it came to ruling over the POWs, the Chinese were much better than the North Koreans. They just did it better.

What was the most terrifying thing about being a POW in North Korea?

Oh, I was never terrified. There was lots of interesting things. I saw people get shot and fell into a ditch and was just left there. But nothing scared me or terrified me. The idea of death never scared me.

And the Chinese were a whole lot smarter than the U.S. in interrogation methods. They’d have this hole in the ground and put one of the older POWs in it and have a guard stationed at the top. In the 50 below 0 nights and little food and sitting in their own waste, after a month, they could make the person sign petitions or confessions for this person or that.

And the Chinese tried to blame Japan for the high death rate. In Vietnam too.

How has being in the Korean War, and all the other wars you were in, affected your life today?

It hasn’t. All those people who say they come back with post traumatic stress disorder and whatever, no; they had all the emotional problems before they joined the war. Emotional problems don’t bother me, and not from any war.

The wars, the Korean War, World War 2, the Vietnam War, were just part of my life and they didn’t change it in any particular way.

You said before that you flew lots of different kinds of planes. Like what kinds?

Patrol planes, attack planes, night fighters, lots of different kinds.

And what exactly was your job while flying those.

Oh, I was a radar operator. I told pilots where the targets were and where to drop the bombs and stuff. I was really interesting in electronics and flying. We would also jam enemy transmissions. And now all the computers in the planes are automatic, but then they weren’t. In 1939, I was in 10^th grade and I heard about computers and how they were going to be the next big thing. During the Korean War, we only had analog computers and we had to do most everything by hand, like finding the coordinates of the targets and such. But during the Vietnam War, we only had digital. Those were fantastic planes. We could fly over North Vietnam in no time at all.

During World War 2, I worked on Whidbey Island, near where you are. I was a technician then too, and we would fly from the Aleutian Islands, Sitka, to Japan and bomb, and then come back. And we never lost any planes to the enemy, only to weather. There were some bad storms up there. We worked from 4 to 6, 7 days a week.

You know, you kids have it so easy these days. With the grocery stores and electronics and everything. When I was your age in high school I had to make my own lunch from homemade bread, jam from handpicked berries, and butter from our cows. If I didn’t have a nickel for a carton of milk at school, then I just had a glass of water.

How long were you in the Navy?

I was in the Navy for 3 years, and Korea for 2.5 years. I earned $75 a month. I sent $50 to my family, and by the time all the charges and such were taken out, I was living on about $5 a month. But you get used to it. It’s just how you live, life is.

What is your opinion of the Korean War?

It was caused by the North Koreans deciding to come into South Korea. World War 2 started in 1939. President Roosevelt told Japan to get out of China. They cut off all the oil, fuel, and metal going to Japan. World War 2 ended not with the atomic bomb. All the fire bombings were worse than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Korea ended with President Eisenhower. We were killing the Chinese 10 to 1. He said we were going to bomb Korea in the negations didn’t go through. And what do you know, the negotiations went through.

During the (Cuban) missile crisis, they told Kennedy that they had 7 missiles ready to go and B52s were airborne. Kennedy told them not to go and went to negotiations instead. He didn’t trust the navy or the military, or … That’s a good thing because if the missile crisis had happened, the whole U.S., even Seattle, would be radioactive.

Anything else?

Nope I think that’s it. Thank you so much.

Mhmm. Not a problem.

Interviewer’s Note: When Raymond was shot down and captured as a POW he was first thought to be dead, because his plan was on fire and crashed and no one thought that he could have survived. But he did. When his family found out they were relieved and happy that he was a POW because that meant he was alive, although being a POW was not the best thing in the world. I have two newspaper articles concerning this event from his hometown in Duluth.

Interview with my Grandfather (David) and my Gram (Sally/Sarah):

How did the Korean War affect your lives as civilians in the United States?

Your Grandmother was at Mary Washington College and your Grandfather was at the University of Minnesota when the Korean War broke out. Two things happened: [1] many men were going into the Armed Services, and [2] there was a demand for war materials of all kinds. Your Grandmother graduated in 1951 with a degree in Chemistry, and obtained a job at a chemical company building “solid stage” rockets. Your Grandfather graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and obtained a job in a new steel mill being built because of the Korean War required a lot of steel. So, in a way, the Korean War was helpful as we started out of college. Prior to the 1950’s, the Cold War between the Communistic and Capitalistic countries had been in effect since 1946. Both of these developed nuclear bombs, but both were afraid to use them. However, each side tried to win countries to their side, and “local” wars supported by each side to gain an advantage. One such place was the Korean Peninsula where the North was supported by China and Russia, and the South by the United States and other countries.

During this period we (the people in the USA) were always worried that a major war and bombing of the United States could occur. Many people built “bomb shelters” in their backyards and stockpiled them with food, water, and flashlights to survive a few days in a bomb were dropped. Also my brother Raymond was in the war in Korea, and my other brother were at the “fighter” airplane base in Duluth. So to us, it was more of a “background” worry; but not much a problem of doing without gas, tires, shoes, meat, butter, etc., which had occurred in the Second World War. The feeling can best be described as a “worry” about something that might happen over which we had no control. The options, was let the “worry” be the biggest problem; or live life as if we had a future. Most Americans chose to live life, and “hope” for the best.

What was your opinion of the Korean War?

Most wars were originally about living better at someone else’s expense. My tribe attacked your tribe to get more land, slaves, and food; and your tribe attacked our tribe for the same reason. Slowly the tribes grew to be groups and countries combining their power, but they still went to war over more land and food. In between these wars, there were many “religious” wars by groups who insisted everyone had to believe in the religion I believed in. In the Western world there was the Muslim wars in the 700 to 1000 AD years, the Protestant and Catholic wars in the 1600’s, and probably many smaller wars over the centuries. Slowly, the religious differences were accepted, but after the Industrial Revolution starting in the 18^th Century (1700’s) countries started to fight over countries, minerals, manufacturing processes. These wars were spent capturing colonies and the economic benefits all over the world, and enforced by the military power of many different countries. During this time the education and thinking of people increased, and they saw that the “economic control” was the way to go. In the 1800’s and 1900’s two schools of thought were developed. One was the “capitalistic” concept of letting each individual gain from his “labor” and “ingenuity” with some consideration given to the less gifted people for the common good. The other one was the “communistic” concept that all the land, manufacturing output, minerals, etc. belonged to everyone; and they (meaning those in governmental power) should decide and determine what and how everything is done. The Korean War was a “pin-prick” at the capitalistic group of countries to see if it would quite. It became a “tie”, but China increased its military and manufacturing capacity, Russia used up more of its money for no gain, and the USA and Europe expanded to become more prosperous nations. In my opinion, the Korean War was the “breaking point” of communism, but it took 30 years for Russia to “fall” and China to change its path closer to capitalism.

After the Korean War ended (fighting-wise), how were your lives changed, if at all?

Our life changed because we knew Raymond who was a prisoner of war was coming home, and in relation to work, raising a family, and living the best we could that war meant nothing at all to your Grandmother, Grandfather, or your father.

How did you feel knowing people (soldiers) who were in Korea during the war?

We had friends in the Korean War and were concerned in the same way anyone would be if someone you knew were sick or hurt in an accident. In the case of my brother Raymond, the feeling as stronger because of the relationship was closer.