Bùi Minh Thọ (Husband) and Nguyễn Thị Hương Giang (Wife) Reflect on the War and Childhood
Profilers: Lauren Bui, Vem Chatoyan, Dishant Sharma, Arie Siegel, and Walt Midyett
Profile Video Pt 1
Q: Can you describe your life and community after the war?
Bùi Minh Thọ: Our hometown is in Hue, Vietnam. This area is in central Vietnam. Compared to other cities and regions in Vietnam, the war was not as directly disruptive in Hue. However, we definitely were affected economically by the war.
Nguyễn Thị Hương Giang: I was not born yet during this time.
Q: Once you were old enough to understand the war, what was your experience hearing about people evacuating and hearing stories from family?
Bùi Minh Thọ: My family was not heavily affected by the war, but I know after the war ended many families had to move to re-education camps, so people in the south and people that supported the south had to go to re-education camps. Others had to flee to other countries in order to find better economic opportunities. I do have an older relative (the father of Lauren’s aunt) that was a war veteran and a pilot in the war, and he was drafted into a re-education camp after the war.
Nguyễn Thị Hương Giang: I was born in a city that is in the northern part of Vietnam. I was born in March of 1975, so two months before the war ended. After the war ended, my family moved to Hue which is where my fathers hometown was and it is also where me and Bui lived. The reason that my father met my mother is that my father was drafted to fight for the northern Vietnamese army, and when he was transferred with the military he met my mother in north Vietnam. This led to my mother raising me and my siblings in the north until we moved back to Hue after Liberation Day.
Q: Were you married in Vietnam, or in the United States?
Bùi Minh Thọ: We were married in Ho Chi Minh city.
Q: How did you meet during this time, and how was it with your families being from opposing sides of Vietnam?
Bùi Minh Thọ: We were too young during the war to really understand the war and its politics. We got together at an alumni party for our high school in Saigon. Since we were young at the time of the war, when we met we really did not care for the war as much.
Q: What do your parents think about the war and you two being together from different sides?
Bùi Minh Thọ: Our parents did not really care for the politics, and they just wanted us to be happy.
Q: What were your parents’ experiences in the war?
Bùi Minh Thọ: My mom did not really talk about the war that much. She did not really know that much about politics even though my father was a veteran. She was more of a businesswoman.
Nguyễn Thị Hương Giang: My father got drafted to fight for the north Vietnamese army. However, my mother would always tell me stories about my father and how he got moved all over the place during the war and that he was never home. After the war, my father was forced into early retirement because he did not have an education. After the military you have to do whatever you can to survive. After fighting in the war, my father would always fish and make money using the wet market selling fish. There is a Vietnamese term that describes people who are poor and have to go to the military, however these people are also separated from their life in poverty when they go to the military. The war in ways helped people separate themselves from their tough lives.
Profile Video Pt 2
Q: Since you were in an area that had split views on the war, did you perceive the war as a civil war and/or a war against America; how did you perceive the war?
Bùi Minh Thọ: I do not think that the war was really a civil war or a war against America. I think that Vietnam was really just a victim of other countries and powers coming into Vietnam and trying to tear it apart. I say this because there was the south that was supported by America, and the north was supported by larger communist powers like Russia. Vietnam is the victim of these two giants that are trying to seize more power for themselves. I do not think that it was an internal war or a war against America. Vietnam is a victim.
Nguyễn Thị Hương Giang: I can imagine that since my father was drafted to fight for the north, my family had the perception that it was a war against America.
Q: What was your view on America after its intervention in the war?
Bùi Minh Thọ: We do not really take a side against or for America. We do not really hold any strong grudges toward America. I just want to reaffirm that I view the war as a larger fight between America and the Soviet Union, where America was trying to prevent communist influence from the Soviet Union. These bigger countries were fighting for their own political beliefs. Once America realized they could no longer fight off communism in Vietnam, they had to leave. I do not hold any positive or negative opinions on America in the war.
Q: Do you feel that the Vietnamese people have healed from the war?
Bùi Minh Thọ: It has been 50 years since the war has ended. The past is done, so the Vietnamese people, right now, are focused more on their current state of living and how the government is running the country, than the war and the past.
Q: How did you and your family stay up to date during the war?
Bùi Minh Thọ: During the war, the only people who really had a clue about what was going on in the war were either reporters or historians that were studying it. Anyone who was in the war as a soldier or civilian was just worried about surviving day to day, and they hardly knew what was really happening in the war. If you are asking about now, then I would say that people who lived through the war just have their memories to share because they had no way to document it, and memories fade over the years so many people do not have precise information on the war.
Q: What is your most memorable experience from the war?
Bùi Minh Thọ: In 1975, when I was a little boy, it was Liberation Day and the South was withdrawing its troops out of Hue which is where I was living at the time. In the village I was living in at the time there was this popular market at the front of the village, and this was a place where the troops used to hide. After the war, in that store there was a lot of leftover food and clothes that many of the civilians would take from the store. I remember, I was there with my cousin and we were looting the market, and I remember coming across what I realize now was a bullet that was left behind. I remember hearing a story of a group of people who went to the store when I was not there, and they stepped on a bomb that was left behind and they died right away. This was very shocking to hear.
Q: Could you explain how you came to the US?
Nguyễn Thị Hương Giang: We got to the US by a Sibling Reunification Visa. My oldest brother applied for this when he was in the US to sponsor us and allow us to go to the US and reunite with family.
Q: Do you think it was difficult getting to the US, and were there any disadvantages you had as an immigrant?
Bùi Minh Thọ: No, not necessarily because we arrived in the US during COVID-19, so I think because of that we were treated pretty nicely compared to if we were in Vietnam during this time.
Nguyễn Thị Hương Giang: We had a lot of help from the government like grants and funds that helped with our unemployment situation in the first few months. Also, our daughters were able to go to school for free in the US. I believe that we came to the US at a good time and received a lot of support.
Q: Were you treated differently or looked at differently once you arrived in the US?
Bùi Minh Thọ: We were lucky enough to find and settle down in one of the largest Vietnamese hubs in San Jose. So, I do not think that there was any discrimination that we faced.
Q: Have you visited Vietnam after the war, if so, how has it changed since the war?
Bùi Minh Thọ: Yes I have been back, and I can say that they have a new economy and it is growing very fast. I have been back twice now and I can see that transportation has changed a lot. There are way more cars and subways that people use instead of motorbikes that were used in the past frequently.
Nguyễn Thị Hương Giang: I have been back once. I can say that especially after COVID 19, many small businesses had to file for bankruptcy. Many people had to be laid off or fired due to the poor state of the economy after the pandemic.