Mai Nguyen |
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Profile Highlight Us: What’s your name? Nguyen: Mai Nguyen Us: When were you in Vietnam? Nguyen: I escaped from there March 3, 1980. Us: Did you grow up there? Nguyen: Yes Us: What year were you born? Nguyen: 1957 Us: So you basically saw through the entire Vietnam War? Nguyen: Yeah Us: That must have been quite an experience. Nguyen: Very traumatic and so many painful things that I witnessed during my period in the war. Us: Were you in the North or South? Nguyen: South Us: Were your parents involved at all? Tell me how you grew up. Nguyen: I was born and grew up in the city. My parents grew up in the countryside. In 1954, they settled in the city. My siblings and I were all born and lived in Saigon. Us: What were your experiences with American soldiers? Nguyen: I was quite young. I did not have much direct contact with them but I saw them on the streets and in hotels. My older sister worked for PX – which was a kind of canteen for American soldiers to buy supplies like canned food. She was a receptionist. My cousin was a translator in the army. They talked to each other. To me, the Americans were a good symbol of helping us out. When I was a kid I would ask for chocolate and things like that. Overall, the American men were good to me. They were nice. They got jealous sometimes of the people in the area. At that time, the Americans were good because we were never invaded. We defended our part of the country. We never invaded or attacked them, so we viewed them as friends, to help us and to fight back. I did not get involved in political things so much while in high school. I supported their thoughts on freedom. Even during the war, my family had good appliances such as washer/dryer, refrigerator. I got tears in my eyes, so many years back I can remember, I was working with ICM – which was the organization in the camp to contact people for translation – I had four hours to get out of the camp, and we drove out to help people and give money and aid to their families outside of Bangkok. They kept checking to see if your eyes were infected. Us: Was it like pink eye? Yes. People got split up from their families frequently. I helped people split up their families. In just five years, after the Communists took over, there was so much development. We were so much ahead of them in 1975; everything was upgraded, we had so much more than Thai people had. We had freeways, luxury busses, and we rarely had to pay for things. I spoke English and Thai; we took the wrong busses, but we had the same destiny. The busses were for people who didn’t want to deal with traffic, and could relax with air conditioning and music. Everywhere I looked, our country in those years, if a live person knew how to walk, they would escape too. Us: If the communists came in 1975 why did you wait until 1980 to escape? Nguyen: It was not easy to get out. Why did I leave the country so late? Because of my grandma. She was in her later years. I took care of her while I was 14-18 years old. The 30th of April we lost our country.
Object Description
Profile of | Mai Nguyen |
Title | They Killed Our Country |
Profile bio | Mai Nguyen is a survivor of the American War in Vietnam with a unique perspective and a compelling story. Ms. Nguyen was born in 1957 and lived in Saigon, Vietnam until her escape in 1980. Ms. Nguyen and her family were South Vietnamese who witnessed the American military influence and considered them a good symbol to keep Vietnam intact from communism. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, Ms. Nguyen witnessed first hand the oppression brought by communism and the elimination of freedom. In 1980 she decided to escape with her baby boy to international waters. However, in her escape, she became part of what is called the “boat people” and she encountered a hard and arduous journey. Pirates held up her boat various times, people around her were mugged, raped, and beaten—fortunately her strong will and faith in God saved her. Upon docking she arrived in Thailand as a refugee. Later, she moved to Canada, opened two successful restaurants and has been an anti-communist activist for the Vietnamese Community ever since. Ms. Nguyen later immigrated to the United States and her transition was also not easy. However, after confronting hardships in America she finally found peace. Mai Nguyen now resides in a beautiful neighborhood in Anaheim, California having raised two successful children. |
Profiler bio | Joseph Donaway is a senior majoring in psychology. Juan Cueto is a senior majoring in business administration. Diego Ramirez is a senior in the Viterbi School of Engineering. |
Subject |
Vietnam Vietnam war civil war boat people pirates communism refugee escape |
Profiled by | Donaway, Joseph; Cueto, Juan; Ramirez, Diego |
Profile date | 2011-04-01 |
Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Saigon; Ho Chi Minh City; Anaheim |
Geographic subject (county) | Orange |
Geographic subject (state) | California |
Geographic subject (country) | Vietnam; USA; Thailand; Canada |
Coverage date | 1980 |
Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/mai-nguyen/ |
Type |
images video |
Language | English |
Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
Part of collection | An Other War Memorial -- Memories of the American War in Viet Nam |
Filename | nguyenmai1 |
Description
Profile of | Mai Nguyen |
Title | Profile Highlight |
Filename | nguyenmai1-vid1_tr1.pdf |
Full text | Profile Highlight Us: What’s your name? Nguyen: Mai Nguyen Us: When were you in Vietnam? Nguyen: I escaped from there March 3, 1980. Us: Did you grow up there? Nguyen: Yes Us: What year were you born? Nguyen: 1957 Us: So you basically saw through the entire Vietnam War? Nguyen: Yeah Us: That must have been quite an experience. Nguyen: Very traumatic and so many painful things that I witnessed during my period in the war. Us: Were you in the North or South? Nguyen: South Us: Were your parents involved at all? Tell me how you grew up. Nguyen: I was born and grew up in the city. My parents grew up in the countryside. In 1954, they settled in the city. My siblings and I were all born and lived in Saigon. Us: What were your experiences with American soldiers? Nguyen: I was quite young. I did not have much direct contact with them but I saw them on the streets and in hotels. My older sister worked for PX – which was a kind of canteen for American soldiers to buy supplies like canned food. She was a receptionist. My cousin was a translator in the army. They talked to each other. To me, the Americans were a good symbol of helping us out. When I was a kid I would ask for chocolate and things like that. Overall, the American men were good to me. They were nice. They got jealous sometimes of the people in the area. At that time, the Americans were good because we were never invaded. We defended our part of the country. We never invaded or attacked them, so we viewed them as friends, to help us and to fight back. I did not get involved in political things so much while in high school. I supported their thoughts on freedom. Even during the war, my family had good appliances such as washer/dryer, refrigerator. I got tears in my eyes, so many years back I can remember, I was working with ICM – which was the organization in the camp to contact people for translation – I had four hours to get out of the camp, and we drove out to help people and give money and aid to their families outside of Bangkok. They kept checking to see if your eyes were infected. Us: Was it like pink eye? Yes. People got split up from their families frequently. I helped people split up their families. In just five years, after the Communists took over, there was so much development. We were so much ahead of them in 1975; everything was upgraded, we had so much more than Thai people had. We had freeways, luxury busses, and we rarely had to pay for things. I spoke English and Thai; we took the wrong busses, but we had the same destiny. The busses were for people who didn’t want to deal with traffic, and could relax with air conditioning and music. Everywhere I looked, our country in those years, if a live person knew how to walk, they would escape too. Us: If the communists came in 1975 why did you wait until 1980 to escape? Nguyen: It was not easy to get out. Why did I leave the country so late? Because of my grandma. She was in her later years. I took care of her while I was 14-18 years old. The 30th of April we lost our country. |
Archival file | Volume3/nguyenmai1-vid1_tr1.pdf |