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.