Memory of the War
Us: When you ran away North what did you experience, especially when you were on your own? Susan: I don’t know, I lived on the streets and I remember that and I just kinda hang out on the street with some other people.
Us: Some other runaways or? Susan: Yeah.
Us: Where there a lot, where there a lot of orphan children in the streets? Susan: Yup. Also some of them half American [unclear] half American too because they have at the end of the war was going on a lot of American GIs were there so they do have some children half American and half Vietnamese. And a lot of Vietnamese people don’t like them so they don’t take care of them so a lot of children are orphans for that. So they live on the streets.
Us: Did you have any direct experience with communists? Susan: Sometimes we sit there at the restaurant or something and all of a sudden you saw a lady walk by the next thing the whole place is explode and body parts all over the place.
Us: Did that happen often where there.. Susan: This happened often yes.
Us: Very often? Susan: It happened in the market, and you could go to market and the next thing you know everything explode. Or movie theater. It always happened like that all the time just like what you see right now in Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s just normal what we have over there.
Us: How were you feeling at this time? Susan: I guess you just get scared but then you get used to it because it’s just life and it’s just the way it is. I mean you can’t change anything it’s just the way it is. So you get scared but you learn how to accept it.
Us: Can you go into the Chinese side of your family? I know there has been a lot of conflict between Vietnam and China. Susan: Well I don’t know a lot about the history between Chinese and Vietnamese but I know that the Chinese were there like many thousand years ago and the Vietnamese people kind of blended with them. And when they, the French come over, it’s one thing about Ho Chi Min he, a lot of people think he’s a bad guy but he’s not in my opinion he’s not a bad guy. He only want to kick the [unclear] out of his country so he can unite it between the North and the South. And only thing that I don’t agree that I see American go over there in war with them and so many young American go there and they die for nothing because I don’t think they that war would have American serve in war.
Us: Mmhm. Susan: And so that is the thing that I feel sad when I see so many young Americans come to Vietnam and then they die for nothing and when you come back to the United States people call them a baby killer and women killer but they have no choice because you can’t trust them you cant, when you’re in Vietnam and you’re at war you can’t trust nobody. And when a kid come up to you and you give them a candy and they, they hang out with you and you have a good time with them and the next thing in five minutes they’re gunna kill you. So what choice do you have? You need to kill them or you be killed. And when they come back to the United States the people don’t understand and they call them baby killer and women killer, things like that. And they treat them really bad and that makes me sad because I, I was in Vietnam and I see what’s going on over there and the people here in America don’t see what’s going on over there so they only think the GIs are the ones that was the bad people but they’re not.
Us: Mmhm. Susan: And it’s, war is really bad because nobody can trust nobody. And its just, and then the communists of course they’re gunna teach kid have a gun and they teach to kill and because the way that they tell them okay we don’t want a foreigner here, we need to kick them out, we need to tell them to leave and they don’t leave and we don’t kill them they’re going to kill us so a lot of the young vietnamese kids don’t understand that. I never, I never have been pro to that situation but I see what happened over there.
Us: Mmhm. Susan: It’s really sad when it comes to war.