50 years after fall of Saigon, MLT woman shares her experience as Vietnamese refugee

April 30 will mark the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. While American citizens and soldiers began the healing process of an unpopular war, the South Vietnamese who were allied with U.S. forces had two choices: flee or die.

Mountlake Terrace resident Tu-Ha Nguyen was one of those refugees, and she shared her experiences at the Mountlake Terrace Library last weekend.

Nguyen recounted her journey from Vietnam to the U.S. in “Departure, Survival, Success: Celebrating 50 Years of the Vietnamese Refugee Experience,” held at the library March 30. During the program, Dr. James Anderson, associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Smithsonian Journeys Expert, provided a concise history of Vietnam and its relations with neighboring countries and the French occupation, which would lead to American involvement.

To give the audience an idea of the conditions the refugees and U.S. military faced during the evacuation, the Mountlake Terrace audience viewed segments of Rory Kennedy’s documentary Last Days of Vietnam.

When the Republic of South Vietnam fell to the communist-backed Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (PRG), the Vietnamese allied with the U.S. were deemed enemies of the new government. Nguyen’s father worked with the U.S. Air Force, making her family a target.

Those who could escape were considered lucky if they could take anything with them; many left with only the clothes on their backs.

“Nobody chooses to be a refugee,” Nguyen said.

The audience took part in an exercise with Nguyen. They made a grid-like tic-tac-toe game, but this wasn’t something to pass the time; it was to determine who and what you could lose.

In the top row, write the names of the three most important people to you. In the space below, write the three most important places for you. Write things such as diplomas or degrees and family heirlooms in the last row.

While marking things off, Nguyen said these are all things you might never see again. She explained that she hadn’t seen her grandparents since she left Vietnam in 1975. Vietnamese doctors no longer held valid credentials and had to retake exams to practice medicine.

Today, many refugees in the U.S. are from Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Sudan and Myanmar. Although the countries and politics are different from Vietnam, Nguyen said, the refugees are the same: People fleeing war and violence who simply want to live their lives. Nguyen finds it troubling that “people are pulling up the ladder” and blocking refugees and immigration when they themselves are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants.

“We need to remind people that we all share the same airspace,” Nguyen said to MLTnews. “We all belong on the earth and share the same world.”