David Nguyen |
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Introduction
My name is David Nguyen. I am 58 years old, and I live in Simi Valley California. I have been living in California for almost 40 years now. I left Saigon on April 30th, 1975, which is exactly the day South Vietnam fell to the communist. I grew up during the war.
At the time, the only way is going to Thailand or Malaysia. So, at the time, Thailand government couldn’t control the pirates. So the pirates were attacking the Vietnamese left and right, raping people. I know my wife, her friend committed suicide because she was raped. Her brother was killed, younger brother. So, that’s why I said my story is nothing compared to these people. I did not go through any hardships at all, so my story is almost nothing. And people were like eating each other because they were starving to death, but most of these people don’t want to talk about it because it is too hard. Too hard to recall the stories again.
Object Description
| Profile of | David Nguyen |
| Title | The Escape From Saigon |
| Profile bio | David Nguyen is a native of Vietnam. At seventeen years old and in the 11th grade, he escaped with his family from the city of Saigon. They left on April 30, 1975 - the day that the city was captured by the North Vietnamese communist forces. Nguyen now resides in Simi Valley, California. He is an active contributor to archives of Southern Vietnamese experiences during and after the war in Viet Nam. He participated in an interview with PBS and also writes of his various experiences in his own personal blog. His escape story can be found here. In 2013, Nguyen visited the refugee camp in Pennsylvania that he references in this archive. He wrote a blog about this experience. The English version can be found here, and the Vietnamese version here. |
| Profiler bio | Anna Bachand, from Irving, TX, is a Junior at USC studying Biomedical Engineering Michael Villalobos is a first year transfer student at USC, and is majoring in Environmental Science and Health with a pre-dental emphasis. Luma Oliveira is a Senior at USC, from Brazil, and is majoring in Accounting. Zachary Emge is a senior at USC studying History with an emphasis in U.S. History. |
| Subject |
Vietnam Vietnam war refugee escape GI Saigon communist fall of Saigon |
| Profiled by | Emge, Zachary; Oliveira, Luma; Bachand, Anna; Villalobos, Michael |
| Profile date | 2016-02-28 |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | San Diego; Saigon; Ho Chi Minh City; Vũng Tàu; Vung Tau |
| Geographic subject (county) | San Diego |
| Geographic subject (state) | California; Pennsylvania |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA; Vietnam; Thailand; Malaysia; Japan |
| Coverage date | 1975 |
| Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/david-nguyen/ |
| Type |
images video |
| Format | 1 image; 3 video files (00:15:14); 3 transcripts |
| Language | English |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Part of collection | An Other War Memorial -- Memories of the American War in Viet Nam |
| Filename | nguyendavid |
Description
| Profile of | David Nguyen |
| Title | Introduction |
| Format | 1 transcript, 1p. |
| Filename | nguyendavid-vid1_tr1.pdf |
| Full text | Introduction My name is David Nguyen. I am 58 years old, and I live in Simi Valley California. I have been living in California for almost 40 years now. I left Saigon on April 30th, 1975, which is exactly the day South Vietnam fell to the communist. I grew up during the war. At the time, the only way is going to Thailand or Malaysia. So, at the time, Thailand government couldn’t control the pirates. So the pirates were attacking the Vietnamese left and right, raping people. I know my wife, her friend committed suicide because she was raped. Her brother was killed, younger brother. So, that’s why I said my story is nothing compared to these people. I did not go through any hardships at all, so my story is almost nothing. And people were like eating each other because they were starving to death, but most of these people don’t want to talk about it because it is too hard. Too hard to recall the stories again. |
| Archival file | Volume3/nguyendavid-vid1_tr1.pdf |
