Finding the American Dream:

Escape from Vietnam

By: Natalia Nguyen

Advanced Composition, ETSU, Spring 2011

April 27, 2011

I’ve always been interested in hearing my father’s stories from life in Vietnam. Now, as an undergraduate student at East Tennessee State University, I finally talk with my father about the difficult subject of his escape from the Communist confines of his home country to gain his freedom in America.

A mother, a father, two aunts, and a grandmother sit together for an impromptu family portrait. The scent of the mother’s Bun Thang broth travels from the kitchen nearby, a warm lingering aroma that stirs deep memories through the scent of the familiar chicken and pork broth—a staple in the mother’s culinary designs. While her latest creation simmers on the stove, it becomes obvious that something is missing . . . and it is you.

Nang Nguyen is currently a general manager and operating partner of Fatz Café in Cheraw, South Carolina. He makes more than a sufficient living and has three children which he thoroughly spoils. His work ethic is tremendous, and he does any and everything necessary to provide for his family. Life is comfortable for him now as a successful restaurant manager, so his worries are small. 40 years ago though, Nang was not so fortunate. Having to battle for his freedom, Nang was forced from his home country of Vietnam. Leaving behind his mother, father, aunts, grandmother, and siblings, Nang blindly fled to America in hopes of finding the American Dream.

It is never easy to begin telling a story of such profound importance in a man’s life. My father was born on the 20^th of May in 1958 and raised in South Vietnam, an area of perpetual civil war. Beginning in the fall of 1955, Chiến tranh Việt Nam, the Vietnam War, was a bloody war in which North Vietnam fought for Communism while the South struggled to uphold Democratic beliefs. The war had a tremendous toll on the Vietnamese population, claiming over three million Vietnamese lives while wounding over 600,000 people. These staggering numbers still do not account for numerous Southern Vietnamese lives which were taken in the final conflicts of the war. The Fall of Saigon brought about the end of the Vietnam War on April 30^th of 1975. Despite this end, many Vietnamese people, including Nang, continued struggling for their lives long after.

War was an inescapable matter of everyday life for Nang, and in 6^th grade at the age of 10, my father began training for the army through his local school system in the Bình Dương province of Vietnam in 1968. As a mere child, instead of being trained in sports and games, Nang was trained in all areas of physical fitness which regular army practices would apply. These physical practices included extensive training in various martial arts, specifically in Judo. His body a living, breathing weapon, Nang was also trained to shoot a gun with deadly accuracy. At the age of 12 in 1970, as soon as his skills were believed to be proficient by his school, Nang was placed on guard at the Cam Le Bridge over the Song Cau Do River. Nang guarded this bridge twice a week, rotating shifts with other boys of his age, in order to prevent Communist attacks via bombs or other explosives. Forced into fighting for the greater cause, Nang lost his childhood to the ongoing Vietnam War. The conflict with the North went on and on; it was a seemingly never-ending battle.

In 1972, the Vietnamese started to recognize the exit of Americans from the war. It was at this time that Nang joined in with a special service branch in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). This branch of the army which was aided and advised by American forces later became known as the “Resistance.” Undercover, Nang was trained to collect information on the whereabouts of Communist supply lines. Upon retrieval of this information, he sent letters to the Americans in order to have the army overtake these sources. In dire situations, he himself was ordered to stealthily destroy these supply holds on his own. At this point in relating the story to me, my father begins to withhold details, telling me that, “Maybe one day I will tell you exactly what I did for my country. Right now though, you are still too young and as my daughter I don’t want you to know what I went through.” Perhaps the details of his work are too gruesome to reveal, or maybe he is afraid my opinion of him as my father will change. As of right now, I cannot tell. My father’s undercover work continued until the Fall of Saigon in 1975, when South Vietnam’s capital was overtaken by the North’s army, the People’s Army of Vietnam, and South Vietnam finally was forced to succumb to Northern forces.

With the North overtaking the South, Nang needed to go back into regular work in order to prevent capture by the Communists. This is when he moved to his father for aid. As a professor at the Vietnam Institute of Culture and Arts in Hanoi, Vietnam, Nang’s father was able to get Nang accepted into the college in the fall of 1976. Nang’s skills in sculpting helped ease his way into the school as well. Entry into the arts program was merely a cover for Nang though. He used this artistic training as a front for his professional training with the army, knowing that the Communists would severely punish him for his work with the Americans.

In 1978, word was revealed to Nang that the Communists had discovered his work with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. His situation in Vietnam became utterly surreal, and it was time for him to go on the run. Nang’s mother, Nhanh Nguyen, made the heart-breaking decision to pay for his escape from Vietnam. Without even saying goodbye, Nhanh sent Nang away, knowing that her tears would prevent him from leaving the dangerous grasps of the Communists. Escaping from a port in the Cà Mau province of Vietnam, Nang travelled with 70 other Vietnamese escapees on a boat to Thailand. All of these people had but one thing in common: the desire to escape Communism for their freedoms. Nang and the other escapees became what others would soon refer to as “thuyền nhân,” which literally translates to “boat people.”

After five and a half hours on the South China Sea, the boat’s engine sputtered to an untimely end. Trapped for a mere hour, Nang and the escapees were fortunate enough to have a mechanic on board who was able to repair the engine. This fix was a temporary relief for the Vietnamese though, and once again the engine failed them by noon the next day. With the sun’s heat relentlessly beating down on their backs in the midst of the sea, the escapees were stranded, with no food or water, wondering when and if relief would ever come for them.

As the sun began to set on the South China Sea, halfway to the Gulf of Thailand, Nang and the 69 other Vietnamese escapees were relieved to see a Thai fishing boat coming towards them on the horizon. Everyone believed they were rescued as the Thai people provided them with fresh water, but these hopes were soon dashed when the unexpected happened. The Thai people held up weapons, threatening Nang and the escapees to give them their valuables. Upon taking what they wanted, the Thai left, leaving the Vietnamese stranded once again. This time though, all of their hopes were truly dissipated.

Despite this first plundering of the boat, Nang had managed to hide a gold necklace which was the only keepsake he had of his mother’s. It was at this point that Nang swallowed the necklace, refusing to allow his only piece of home to leave him. His decision was a good one, for this was not the last time that Thai pirates would attack their boat. After over five more attacks by Thai pirates and experiencing the threat of a gun held straight to the head, Nang and the other Vietnamese decided to perform a Hail Mary to escape their hopeless situation, knowing that they could not survive much longer when they were gripping life by threads.

The following day, Thai pirates attempted to exploit Nang and the other escapees, not knowing what they were in for. Sneaking behind the captain of the Thai boat, Nang grabbed a hook and placed against his throat, threatening to rip it open if he did not surrender his gun. Dropping his gun, the Thai captain and his crew of pirates were overthrown by the Vietnamese. Threatened at gunpoint, the Thai were then forced to tie the broken down Vietnamese boat to theirs in order to haul it to safety.

After almost 6 days, the weakened Vietnamese saw land, and it was Nang who was the first to jump the boat and swim to shore. Dehydrated, malnourished, and sun burnt, Nang reached the shore, stood up, and fainted from exhaustion. Waking up at dawn the following day, Nang was on an uncharted, distant island, stranded and alone. Not knowing where he was, Nang searched for sustenance in order to free himself from the dizzy haze which he struggled with. Finding fruits and a small stream, Nang found the means to hold him over. He spent days on the island, and finally after 21 days, Nang spotted a helicopter flying overhead. Waving his hands desperately in the air, Nang did what he could at the edge of the island to be noticed. The helicopter disappeared, leaving Nang desperately building a fire to try and send signals to the seemingly lost rescue. To his surprise, the helicopter soon came circling back, and he climbed into the gray rescuer with renewed hopes.

My father does not remember how long that helicopter ride was, nor does he remember the people who flew the craft. Nang’s joy at being rescued covered all memories from that day. He was taken to a refugee camp in Songkhla, Thailand. Here, to his surprise, he met with his barely surviving fellow escapees from the boat. He soon found that these refugee camps, funded by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), were dirty and far from home. Though these camps were provided with funds from the United Nations to keep the refugees safe and provided with their basic needs, little of this money actually profited the refugees and instead went into the hands of the Thai people running the camps. The experience was much like being in limbo; the refugees had no idea who would take them in next or where they could go for their freedoms. Nang’s life was in the hands of fate, and he was forced to wait in seeming hopelessness, once again, for his release from the camp.

Fate came for Nang six months after his entry into the refugee camp. Due to his services for the ARVN in cooperation with the American Army, Nang was sponsored by the United States for a release from the camp. Americans delivered the necessary vaccinations to Nang in Thailand, and he was flown from Thailand to America. Late in 1978, Nang arrived in the United States on a Friday. With him, came his few meager possessions which included two pairs of pants, a pair of flip-flops, and two shirts. The Sunday following his arrival in the States, Nang began work as a dishwasher for a Vietnamese restaurant, called “Truc,” in East Hartford, Connecticut.

Upon his arrival in the United States, Nang knew no English whatsoever. It is to a small Episcopal church in downtown Hartford which Nang cannot remember the name of that he owes his knowledge of the English language to. Through the help of volunteers at a local church, Nang began to learn English little by little. Visiting this church in the morning, Nang took English as a second language classes with volunteering members of the community. At night, Nang washed dishes at the restaurant to make his small living. After one year of his school-by-day and work-by-night routine, Nang tested and was approved for his citizenship into the United States of America in 1979.

Soon following his citizenship, Nang applied for Hartford Community College. Accepted, he began to take basic core classes. His goal was to gain the necessary credits in order to apply for the University of Connecticut. By this time, he was now working at a new job in a Mexican restaurant called Poncho McGee. Here, he received better wages than at Truc, his previous job (Nang always complains that Vietnamese comparison to others). After completing his core classes at the community college, Nang was accepted into the University of Connecticut. In the spring of 1983 at the age of 25, Nang graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree as a Computer Sciences Major.

Going from one job to another, rising up in the ranks, Nang eventually went on to meet his future wife, Karen Payne, in Bristol, Tennessee. After receiving an offer to manage a Vietnamese restaurant, Ming Garden, in Altamonte Springs, Florida, the couple relocated to Florida where they soon married. A few months later, their first daughter was born on October 26, 1989. Inspired by the silver medal win of Natalia Laschenova in the gymnastics competition of the 1988 Summer Olympics as well as by her contribution to the Soviet Union’s gold medal team win, Nang and Karen named their daughter Natalia Hien Thuy Nguyen. Later in his life, Nang had two more kids with Karen, Victoria Yen Thuy and Bradley Nang Tuong Nguyen Junior. Nang is now enjoying his position as General Manager and Operating Partner of Fatz Café, and his days of fighting battles are now far behind him in the past.