From Nha Trang to San Diego
Profilers: Ashley Nguyen, Anjani Bodar, Alex Miles, Luca Cordova Stuart
Family Background
0:00 Ok, my name is Hung Nguyen. I was born in 1968 in Nha Trang, Vietnam. My parents are Quot Nguyen and Hai Bui. They were— my dad was a government officer of South Vietnam before 1975, and my mom was a housewife. My dad’s name is Quot Nguyen, and my mom is Hai Bui. My dad was a government officer of South Vietnam government before 1975.
0:45 After the war ended, basically [my father] went through a rough time in Vietnam. He was captured and stayed in prison for a while. And then, they let him free. And then, they captured him again. He stayed in prison for a little while again. And then after he got out, he was not allowed to stay in [our] hometown. He had to go to the mountainside and do a lot of ground breaking [construction work] to create his own farm up there. A lot of hard work, hard labor basically.
1:33 And my mom, before the war, she was a housewife and doing some sort of a small business. But after the war, just as many other people from the South, we did not have the opportunity to contribute to the economic of the south side of the country. So my mom, when my dad was in prison, she basically she stayed at home, taking care of us. And when my dad went to the mountainside, she followed my dad to help out my dad with all the hard work on the mountainside, growing stuff, farming work. A lot of hard labor, basically.
2:25 Cause they [the government]— Well, the second time he went to prison, [it was] because they accused him of rebelling [against] the new regime. They said if he stayed in hometown, he could do that again. They worried that he may organize some sort of government overturn, and that was the reason why they didn’t let him stay in the hometown. They put him into the mountain and jungle side.
3:06 Well after the war, most people that involved in the South Vietnam government, they basically— I don’t know how to describe this, but they were really discriminated at the time, because they are labeled as a loser from the war, and they were really seriously discriminated against. They don’t have the opportunity to contribute to the economy or opportunity of their journey for education. That’s how it works.
3:57 Because even nowadays, people in the country, they still— a lot of them are still claim themselves as the winner. And this, people that used to work for the South Vietnam government, they label them as a loser because, I mean, they said that was a war that between the North and the South, and basically, the North was able to take over the whole country, so people who used to be on the South side government, they call them loser basically.
4:42 There’s no official in literature or document that that reflect that kind of perception, but it does exist in the daily life, because one term— one thing that [is] really common [what] they call the people from the South Vietnam who used to work for the South side government, they call it ngụy, that means people that used to work for the South government, they were seriously considered as a bad people and discriminated.
5:20 Well, I was born in 1968, so I think my dad, I believe my dad he worked for the South Vietnamese government before I was born, probably in the early 60s.
Life Before Compared to After 1975
0:00 Okay, so let me put things into two different phases. The first phase is my life before 1975. So, I was born in an ordinary citizen family, so called, back then. And our life was not, I mean, we were having fairly comfortable life back then before 1975. My dad, he was able to support the family very comfortable life with a small contribution from my mom’s small business. So we were living a pretty decent life back then.
0:46 But moving forward to the second phase of our life there, after 1975. So after 1975, from my recollection, it was rough and tough. My dad and my mom [were] not always at home with us. So we have four brothers. And basically my older brother is about couple years older than me, and I have two younger brothers. The youngest is about a couple years younger than me. So four of us, basically, we learned how to live independent life pretty early when my parents were not home.
1:31 Every now and then my mom and my dad, they came home and they gave us some sort of food, a little bit of food, money, so that we can actually sustain our life when they’re not home with us. My grandma was there to help us out. She was pretty old back then. She was, I think, in her late 60s back then. So all four of us, we live with our grandma, and we go to school in the morning and in the afternoon, we do our work at home, take care of the backyard garden, and survive ourselves, back then. We did not have enough food during [that] period of time. Rice is something [that was] really luxurious back then. Every meal we have one portion of rice and the other three portion, we mix it with either corn or a young banana, mix up even sweet potato. We mix with rice. Just one portion of rice, and the other three portion is whatever we can actually find in the backyard.
3:01 Just like many other family in the south, right, my dad worked for the South government as an officer, and a lot of people in my village or my town, worked just like that.
3:20 No, we just like the ordinary people, we just living on our— my dad’s salary, right? And small contribution from my mom’s business. So I don’t think we were rich, or anything wealthy.
3:40 Okay, so this is something that I still remember, after 1975 lives got to get really tough, right? We don’t have enough food, we don’t have enough money, we don’t have any– daily supply is really short. If you want to buy something, you have to get in line, say, for example, if you want to buy clothes, you have to get into a long line. Or you want to buy soap, you have to get into a long line. So everything you do, everything you need, you want to get it from the market, you have to get into a long line. Okay? And not only that, after 1975 the communist government, they actually do [currency] exchange, and that was a big time robbery act. When they do [currency] exchange, basically they take away all the South Vietnamese leftover, the leftover currency, and they exchange that with the North Vietnamese, the new regime currency. And the way they do is they limit every family to be able to exchange just for a fixed amount of money, very limited. See 100, 200 dong say, for example. And if you have more than that amount, it’s worthless. So basically, by doing that, they rob the people from the south downward.
5:20 I have three good memory about what happened before 1975. One of the things that really stick in my mind during 1975— before 1975 was, I think I was in the first grade. I went to school a year early, and I was in the first grade. And I think during my break from first grade, I heard really loud explosion, which is not far away from my school. And what happened was a car that carried people to and from the Cam Ranh Bay to work and going home, they were bombed by the communists on that day– particular day. And it was a horrible incision. I mean, I think my school was canceled. And on the way home, I actually walked home from school, which is not too far away from my school, okay? And on the way home, I actually witnessed the tragic that happened on that day. Body part was everywhere, and it was a horrible scene. That scene stuck in my mind for a long, long time. That was what I remember for the war before 1975.
7:19 Oh, yeah. So another— even though I did not witness this, but I was born just seven days before the Motown attack from the North, and from the story that told [to me] by my parents, a lot of people were killed on that attack in our town. And I was born seven days before that attack. So to avoid any sort of trouble with the North side force, my parents had to put me in the bathroom for seven days, seven consecutive days, so that if I cry, they try to muffle my cry by stay in the bathroom so that my loud cry doesn’t get outside of the house. And my cry could cause trouble to my parents that way. And from this story told [to me], from my parents and my grandma, after the attack, they looked outside, a lot of people were killed.
8:30 Another, another incident that I still remember now is, I think it was around February time frame, 1975. I was at home and all of a sudden I heard a really loud noise in the neighborhood. And it end up, the communist fired cannon, tried to stop the South force from going back to Saigon, and from that cannon shot, a girl in my village–she was killed instantly. And that was also, the girl was really, really young. She probably 12 years old or something. She was on her way to the rice mills, the rice mill, to get her rice mill at the place, and she was killed instantly. The crater of that cannon shot was still around back the last time when I saw that, when I went, I went by that place. It was really, really sad incident too.
Interviewer: How old were you when that happened?
Around 8.
War in the Media & Political Figures
0:00 Figures from either side after the war, basically all I heard was from the new government where they said, Oh American, this, American that, but we all, all people is, who know that, just like a propaganda from the current government, right? Because they said, Oh, America killed this. America killed that, but I think that’s war. People die because of war, but I don’t think the American Yeah, just to kill Vietnamese.
Interviewer: Were you taught in school about Ho Chi Minh
Oh yeah. That is something that really, really bothered me for a Long time, because I–they picture him as a father figure of the whole nation, but after I left the country and I came here I learned a lot more about Ho Chi Minh what he’s done to the country. I recognize that whatever they tried to picture him in school back then was all a lie.
1:35 American general back then, yeah, in school, I after 1975 right? So in the history lesson, they taught us a lot about all the propaganda about American Force in Vietnam. They even have a story about McNamara, the defense second secretary back then, right? They painted the picture of McNamara as a really bad guy, but again, I don’t think that’s whatever the story they try to make is really true.
2:30 Interviewer: Were you ever familiar with or did you ever see American soldiers growing up?
I see them on picture and movies, but I never had a real-life encounter.
Interviewer: Were Americans generally talked about within your community? Was it a positive depiction or a negative depiction?
So again, you have to go to different periods of time to see the real picture before 1975 my dad had some American friends, and I did not actually meet his friend in real life, but he told a story about his American friends, right? He told us that when my older brother was having really some sort of medical condition, his American friend actually helped him to go to get on helicopter to go from Nha Trang to Saigon to get the needed medication for my older brother. And that was pretty touching, because he was just there to help my dad without any condition, as any friend would do to their friends, right? And I still remember that story about that person. I think his name was. I remember my story. My dad told us that story about Mr. Garner and it was really cool.
Interviewer: So would you say Mr. Garner kind of took on a parental father-like role in taking care of your family?
He didn’t really do a lot of that. It just like they have friendship and he helped my dad as a friend. But other than that, there’s not much of other things going on.
Interviewer: Were you aware of any anti-war movements, both in Vietnam and in America growing up?
No.
Interviewer: Did you have a TV?
TV back then, was really luxurious. I did not have a TV in our home back then.
Interviewer: Did you have newspapers?
No.
Interviewer: Are there any books or films that you encountered growing up that stood out to you?
Well I did not live in the South Vietnam War for long. I only I was born in 1968, so when the war ended, I was only just about eight. I did not have a lot of experience with the South Vietnam.
5:35 Oh yeah, I read a lot of book after the war about Vietnam’s war and then the book that I read, most of them are propaganda about the communist government. There’s some book that I actually read, but It’s just it’s not really legal, but the North Viet– the communist government standard. Those books are really prohibited back then.
Interviewer: What were those books and how did you get them?
I just like from black market, friends, they cut up and exchange and we just hide it and read it just for fun.
6:31 When my parents was working in the mountain side they were brewing a plan to get the whole family out of the country. We tried so many times and lost a lot of money, fail many times and we couldn’t get out until later on, late 1980s.
Interviewer: Late 1980s. So just to create a clear timeline, when was your father released from prison for the last time?
He was released from the prison for the last time was around 1982.
Interviewer: 1982? And then he went to go work in the mountain side after that?
Right.
7:27 He came back home probably every three months or something. He every time he came back we found that hes really grumpy and hot-tempered because worklife in the mountain side actually make him change a lot.
7:55 It could be part of that too because in prison they actually treat people like not like human. They beat them up and investigate and they do all kind of mental torture to him to. They actually, they can. He told us that in the middle of night, one, two o’clock in the morning, they woke him up and took him to the investigation, see the investigator, and they threatened him, and they asked him all kind of weird question about his organization, and get that kind of thing. It’s just like they intended to break him down mentally. So I think he has some sort of mental breakdown after he got out of that too.
Interviewer: Can you tell us the story, the story about the day you found out you were officially leaving Vietnam?
Oh yeah, that was so cool on the day that we got the approval to go to the US, we all so excited and happy. We had a big party to celebrate with our friends and our family members. We know that it’s going to be a cornerstone for our family because we wanted to get out the country for so long and now we can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Leaving for America
0:00 Sure so all the data we got, the document that confirmed that we are allowed to emigrate to the US we we were so happy on that that was a big cornerstone for our family. We tried so hard. We tried to get out of the country for so long, so many times, and eventually, that was when we see the light at the end of the tunnel. We really believe that our lives are going to go to a better chapter when we get to the US.
0:43 Yes, my youngest brother, he got kidnapped on the day that we we left the country. So my family, my uncle, from my dad’s eyes and my mom’s side, they said you we should all go ahead and leave the country. They will stay behind and take care of that, take care of my younger brother and my they found my brother safe, and we were able to get him over to the US a few months after we came to the US. People that tried to who knows that our family is leaving for the country, for the US. They just want money. I was 21.
1:39 Yeah, sure. So my parents, they want us to leave the country just to guarantee us a future, because if we stayed in Vietnam, we have no opportunity, both economical and educational, as I mentioned earlier, we were discriminate against after the war, so we have no filter, we have no future, no opportunity, nothing if we stay back.
Interviewer: Did you go straight to America?
We stopped by Philippines for about 10 months. So we were there to just learn the language. They learn English, and they prepare ourselves for new life in the US. So there we learn English, and the English cultures, learn how to apply for jobs, interview skill and all that stuff during the time in the Philippines. Also, they also taken care of how assured you have any a lot of people was staying back in the Philippines for the long time because they have TB or any sort of serious disease.
Interviewer: What were your first impressions of America when you first got here, and where did you land?
Yeah, we came to the US in February 1990. My first impression of when we landed in San Diego was wow this is so much better than where we were. It was pretty impressive what we saw when we landed in San Diego and I may consider what we had in Vietnam to San Diego, it just they are very different.
4:09 Sure, so even though we have like what in the Philippines, they have like US cultural orientation. But I think learning in the Philippines is one thing, but in real life, things are a lot more different than the classes we learn in in the Philippines, right? That’s a lot of culture shock when we first came to US. Well, of course, even though we learn English in the Philippines, but when I came here, I could barely understand anything about English. And can we didn’t listen well. We didn’t speak well. So English barrier was one thing, and a lot of things that also different compared to the life we had in Vietnam, to transportation is way different how we actually go from one place to another place we are is way, way, way. We rely a lot of help from people around in the community, friends, relatives, to help us to go to different places, initially for a blind job or get school application or even go to doctor, everything. You have to rely on people around you at the beginning, and people here was really nice. In that perspective, they really help us a lot at the beginning.
6:08 Yes, family structure was, I think back in Vietnam, my parents was always the primary force and the family when they came here, the dynamic structure actually came because my parents were getting pretty old when they came here now, so they could not do much to be the primary force for the family. They could not drive, they could not speak English, they could not do a whole lot economically. So, a lot of things we have to take over in terms of responsibilities and so that actually affect the dynamics structure in the family that way.
7:02 Yes, so when he came here he was happy to see his children to have the opportunity to succeed also. He basically, he took a back seat in the family. So that’s kind of, in a way, it’s kind of a devotion for him, because he basically took the back seat. He’s no longer the so called the bread winner for the family. So that was a little bit of stress for him, because for so many years, he’s been the mentor of the whole family. And also, when he left the country, a lot of his left behind a lot of his friends. My grandma was still alive back in the country, his brothers, his relatives, a lot of things he left behind in Vietnam, so that also was emotionally a stress for him as well.
8:08 He was a lot more quiet himself, and he doesn’t want to participate in family discussion. Every now and then we have family out for food. He’s reluctant to join family out and that kind of things. And he is a lot more grumpy. Um, when we asked him, when we talked to him, he he’s, either he a lot of time he doesn’t want to talk to family member, or when he talks he’s, he’s, he answered things in a really, short and not a very friendly way.
9:05 Well, he wasn’t used, he wasn’t like that before.
Life in America & Family Outcomes
0:00 So I came to the US. I so a year later, I applied to go to community college in Paloma College in San Marcos, and then I spent about two years in community college, and then I transferred to UCSD, and studied there for another three and a half years at UCSD San Diego. So I graduated as a electrical engineer from UCSD. So I during my senior year at UCSD. Actually, I applied for internship at Qualcomm, and I worked as an intern at Qualcomm for a year, and then I when I graduated, I got a engineer position at Qualcomm. I worked at Qualcomm for 27 years. I recently moved to work for Apple in by the end of 2022 so I’ve been working for Apple for the last almost three years.
1:14 My older brother, he’s kind of have a similar path. He graduated from UCSD, from Paloma Community College. He graduated as a chemical engineer, and he couldn’t find a job as a chemical engineer, so he went back to San Diego State, and he graduated his electrical engineer degree as from San Diego State. And then he worked for Nokia for a long time. And then I think Microsoft bought out that group from Nokia, and then he joined to work for Microsoft for a few years, and then he got laid off Microsoft.
2:03 My other younger two brothers, they were not very lucky with the education path in the US. My younger brother, he didn’t complete his course degree in the US. He he was in the middle of it, and then he dropped out. He went and worked for as a machinist for a company in Kansas. And then he originally, he moved back to San Diego and worked for a company that making aircraft component for Boeing, and they still work together.
2:42 My younger, my youngest brother, he also did not complete his college degree. He went. He dropped out of college. He went to work for Qualcomm assembly, doing soldering at Qualcomm phone division, and then he got laid off. After that, he went on and he opened his own shop and worked there until now.
3:18 [My father left] the US. He took a backseat. He seemed to be losing his grasp on things around because after so many years, about 20 something years, live in the US, he he wanted to move back to Vietnam so that he can live close to my grandma. And when he moved back, basically, I think we kind of lose touch on him a little bit, because when we live far away, distance really create a lot of gaps even in relationship between father and children. Because the reason he said, he was getting old. And he has an analogy. He said, when the leaves fall down from the tree, it always fall back to the root. He said that means he was born in Vietnam, so he wanted to spend the rest of his life in Vietnam. Yeah, so that was the reason why he wanted to move back to Vietnam. He wanted to spend more time with my grandma. She passed away, probably about 10 years ago. And he said he wanted to move back there help to take care of his mom. Basically in the family, my dad was the oldest son. And he said that the oldest son responsibility is taking care of parents when they are old.
Final Thoughts & Reflections
0:00 Well one thing that really shaped my ideology about the communist government. I know that after 1975 one thing—it’s just like a common wisdom among our friends and people in the air—if you want to survive, don’t say anything against the government. Because that’s how you get in trouble. That’s how you get in prison, that’s how you get mistreated, that’s how you get discriminated. I always remember on that night, in the middle of the night [they arrested my father] the knock on our door. They searched the whole house for whatever, took away a lot of [valuables] that we have, simple things like souvenir, pictures. And they never return it. After that, our family just go, started to go down the hill quickly. So I know that even though communists government and they said, “Oh, they are for the people because of they take care of people, such and such. The government for people”, whatever. But we know that those are just lies and they’re not there to make people happy. They’re there just to make people who work for the government happy. That’s one thing I learned.
2:00 My perception for the country has not changed. Because every time I go back there to visit my parents, when they moved back, it’s still the same thing. It’s a country of corruption. It’s a country of liars. It’s a country of– it’s built on– that country is, right now, built on a sand. It has no foundation. If you want to build a country that started out with all the lies. Right now a lot of people, the gap between the rich and the poor, it’s getting magnified so badly. The rich people will get richer. Poor people getting poorer. So the perception of the of the communists that will make people life better is all fallacy because they said the revolution in Vietnam is just to get rid of the classes, right? But now they’re building super class, which is the red class of people. Those people are getting so much richer, and people who– the working class people, they’re getting so much poorer. They really struggle to survive. So I don’t know the revolution that the communists claim to get rid of the classes and they have to sacrifice more than 2 million people. It’s just a waste, right?
3:55 Sure, I really would like to share my final thoughts on this interview. I really appreciate the opportunity that I have to come to this country, because when I come to this country, I really have really incredible opportunity to get the good education, good career opportunities, and who knows, if I didn’t come to the US, I could have been a beggar somewhere in Vietnam.