Minh Nguyen |
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GROWING UP IN SOUTH VIETNAM In this highlight video, Mr. Nguyen discusses life growing up in Vietnam and his views of the French and Americans when they were occupying his native country. He comments on the Communists’ claims that they were doing good for the country, and accuses the Communist leaders of being “liars.” Highlights Transcription Eric: If you could just start by telling us your name, and by telling us a little bit about yourself and where you grew up? Minh: My name is Minh Nguyen, I was born in Saigon, South Vietnam. Eric: What was it like growing up when both the US and the French were present in Vietnam? Minh: When I was born, that was when the French were beginning to withdraw and the US starting to come in, so I didn’t really live with both of them. Eric: What was it like after Dien Bien Phu and when the US started taking a more active role in the South? Minh: I was only a little kid when they were coming in. As a kid, we loved them – they were foreigners. They both gave kids candy and were always nice. As an adult, Vietnamese saw the Americans and the French the same – they were both white, both foreigners, they both came into the country. There wasn’t much of a difference – there was a problem with language, but there wasn’t much difference. Eric: What was life like in Vietnam after the fall of Saigon with the Communists in power, compared to growing up around Americans? Minh: 100% different, it was like night and day. Before the fall of Saigon, if you wanted to eat then you could eat, if you had the money; if you didn’t have the money, then you could find a job to get the money to eat. After the fall of Saigon, there was no money at all – no money for food, for clothes, for medicine. If you were sick…if you survived you were lucky and if not you just died. If you wanted to get money, you had to work with the Communists in the jungles and help clean up the after-effects of the war. It’s different now because the overseas Vietnamese send back money for their relatives still in Vietnam, so people nowadays aren’t as bad off as they were in ‘75. But from 1975-1985 they took all the rich people and took away all their money and possessions. Say one person has 10 dollars and one person has one dollar. They will bring the person with 10 dollars down to one dollar, and if you starve you starve, there’re no more social classes. The rich people that they took money from, they didn’t give it back to the poor. They just brought it back to Hanoi to give it to their soldiers, their officials and their government. They didn’t give it to the people at all. Eric: So they didn’t balance the classes by taking 10 dollars and the person who had one now had 5 and the person who had 10 now had 5, instead they lowered the standard of living to the lowest common denominator and the rest of the money went to the soldiers, officials, and government? Minh: It was a form of control. If you took the money from the rich and gave it to the poor and balanced it out, the Communists think they can’t control them; they won’t listen to the government or anything. But if you make everyone poor, then you can have some control over them, like: “If you don’t listen to me then I won’t give you food.” Eric: So if everyone’s poor then you have to rely on the government. Minh: Yes, that’s how Communists are. Avi: What did you think of the fact they acted that way when during the war they claimed they were trying to unify Vietnam and make life better for everyone? Minh: They were liars – that’s how I feel about what they said and what they did after. Gorbachev said, “If you’re young and you don’t go to the Communists you’re dumb. But if you’re 40 and you’re still with the Communists you have no brain at all”. Because he’s a liar. That’s how the Communists are. They’re just liars. I’m speaking from personal experience…they manipulated me and my family. They said if we worked for them they would give us food and that we didn’t need money, just food. But we still had to find ways to find food – if we got food, it wasn’t enough.
Object Description
Profile of | Minh Nguyen |
Title | America Is My Country Now |
Profile bio | Minh Nguyen was born in Saigon, South Vietnam in 1948, growing up during a momentous time for Vietnam – the French were leaving and the US was coming in to take their place. In 1966, Minh joined the Vietnamese navy, where he served as a medic until the end of the war. Serving in the navy, he helped fight the North Vietnamese in a battle in the province of Ca Mau from 1968-69. Despite being active in the war, Minh still found time to have a family life, marrying his wife Hiep in 1972. After the war, Minh spent three and a half years in a re-education camp where he was forced to do hard labor, including going into the jungles to collect dead bodies and clean up debris left from the US bombing campaign. In 1984, four years after being released from the re-education camp, Minh and his family came to the US after his brother, who was already in the US, found a sponsor for Minh. Minh, Hiep, and their three children now live in Moreno Valley, CA. Special thanks to Janet Nhan, who connected us to her uncle, Mr. Nguyen, for this interview, and for translating his responses. |
Profiler bio | Eric Norwine is a Junior from St. Charles, Missouri. He is currently studying Film and Communication at the University of Southern California. Avram Munoz is a Sophomore from San Antonio, Texas. He is currently studying Philosophy at the University of Southern California. |
Subject |
Vietnam Vietnam War French occupation re-education camp communist medic |
Profiled by | Norwine, Eric; Munoz, Avram |
Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Saigon; Ho Chi Minh City |
Geographic subject (country) | Vietnam; USA |
Coverage date | 1975 |
Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/minh-nguyen/ |
Type |
images video |
Format | 1 image; 5 video files; 5 transcripts |
Language | Vietnamese |
Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
Part of collection | An Other War Memorial -- Memories of the American War in Viet Nam |
Filename | nguyenminh |
Description
Profile of | Minh Nguyen |
Title | Growing up in South Vietnam |
Format | 1 transcript, 2p. |
Filename | nguyenminh-vid1_tr1.pdf |
Full text | GROWING UP IN SOUTH VIETNAM In this highlight video, Mr. Nguyen discusses life growing up in Vietnam and his views of the French and Americans when they were occupying his native country. He comments on the Communists’ claims that they were doing good for the country, and accuses the Communist leaders of being “liars.” Highlights Transcription Eric: If you could just start by telling us your name, and by telling us a little bit about yourself and where you grew up? Minh: My name is Minh Nguyen, I was born in Saigon, South Vietnam. Eric: What was it like growing up when both the US and the French were present in Vietnam? Minh: When I was born, that was when the French were beginning to withdraw and the US starting to come in, so I didn’t really live with both of them. Eric: What was it like after Dien Bien Phu and when the US started taking a more active role in the South? Minh: I was only a little kid when they were coming in. As a kid, we loved them – they were foreigners. They both gave kids candy and were always nice. As an adult, Vietnamese saw the Americans and the French the same – they were both white, both foreigners, they both came into the country. There wasn’t much of a difference – there was a problem with language, but there wasn’t much difference. Eric: What was life like in Vietnam after the fall of Saigon with the Communists in power, compared to growing up around Americans? Minh: 100% different, it was like night and day. Before the fall of Saigon, if you wanted to eat then you could eat, if you had the money; if you didn’t have the money, then you could find a job to get the money to eat. After the fall of Saigon, there was no money at all – no money for food, for clothes, for medicine. If you were sick…if you survived you were lucky and if not you just died. If you wanted to get money, you had to work with the Communists in the jungles and help clean up the after-effects of the war. It’s different now because the overseas Vietnamese send back money for their relatives still in Vietnam, so people nowadays aren’t as bad off as they were in ‘75. But from 1975-1985 they took all the rich people and took away all their money and possessions. Say one person has 10 dollars and one person has one dollar. They will bring the person with 10 dollars down to one dollar, and if you starve you starve, there’re no more social classes. The rich people that they took money from, they didn’t give it back to the poor. They just brought it back to Hanoi to give it to their soldiers, their officials and their government. They didn’t give it to the people at all. Eric: So they didn’t balance the classes by taking 10 dollars and the person who had one now had 5 and the person who had 10 now had 5, instead they lowered the standard of living to the lowest common denominator and the rest of the money went to the soldiers, officials, and government? Minh: It was a form of control. If you took the money from the rich and gave it to the poor and balanced it out, the Communists think they can’t control them; they won’t listen to the government or anything. But if you make everyone poor, then you can have some control over them, like: “If you don’t listen to me then I won’t give you food.” Eric: So if everyone’s poor then you have to rely on the government. Minh: Yes, that’s how Communists are. Avi: What did you think of the fact they acted that way when during the war they claimed they were trying to unify Vietnam and make life better for everyone? Minh: They were liars – that’s how I feel about what they said and what they did after. Gorbachev said, “If you’re young and you don’t go to the Communists you’re dumb. But if you’re 40 and you’re still with the Communists you have no brain at all”. Because he’s a liar. That’s how the Communists are. They’re just liars. I’m speaking from personal experience…they manipulated me and my family. They said if we worked for them they would give us food and that we didn’t need money, just food. But we still had to find ways to find food – if we got food, it wasn’t enough. |
Archival file | Volume6/nguyenminh-vid1_tr1.pdf |