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VIETNAM - 25TH ANNIVERSARY
Of sweat,
sacrifice and fears
Some who fled the communists
and found a home in Hawaii feel
a tie to the homeland, others
remain bitterFirst | Second of two parts
By Susan Kreifels
Star-BulletinPASTOR Thach Ngoc Huynh, a former officer in the South Vietnam army, spent seven years of hard labor in a communist prison after the war. He and his wife escaped Vietnam by boat in 1982, leaving their 14-year-old twin daughters with their grandmother. They've seen them once since, but never looked upon the faces of their grandchildren.
The long suffering of so many Vietnamese poses a dilemma for the pastor of Kaimuki Vietnamese Christian Church. He prays for all in Vietnam, but some members resent it. "They say pray for freedom in Vietnam. They talk only one way -- hate the communists."
A quarter of a century after the last U.S. helicopter lifted out of Saigon, bitterness toward the communist conquerors runs strong in Hawaii's estimated 10,000 Vietnamese. Those feelings, some here say, compare to the fervent anti-communist sentiment of Cuban Americans in Miami's Little Havana.
On the other hand, local Vietnamese who don't share those views so intensely sometimes feel the heat left over from the war can turn up on them.
Henry Nguyen, 32-year-old owner of American Travel Inc., arrived here 16 years ago. He's active in the community and democracy movement, but he also arranges travel for the growing number of overseas Vietnamese returning to visit and do business."A lot of people view me as a hard-core anti-communist doing business with communist sympathizers," he said. That opinion can hurt his business.
Vietnamese Americans are conducting a "Vietnam Holocaust" campaign to mark tomorrow's 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and draw attention to alleged human rights abuses in Vietnam. Tong Ma, general secretary of the Free Vietnam Organization in Hawaii, said the campaign blames the deaths of 5 million Vietnamese on the communists since their 1954 rise to power in North Vietnam.
Ma, 41, adamantly anti-communist, would never do business with Vietnam, let alone travel there, until the current government is out.
"The Cubans in Miami are like us, they hate the communists," Ma said. "I think about forgetting the past, but I don't think the people are willing to do that. We suffered from the war. Maybe the next generation will feel different."
Ma, a standout at his high school in 1975, wanted to "be famous." But the communists yanked away his family's home, their successful restaurant, and Ma's dreams.
Instead of walking government corridors as a hero of the people, he was sent to the rice paddies to toil as the enemy. "My family would have been in business doing very, very well" if the communists hadn't taken over.
When Ma escaped by boat in 1980 and came to Hawaii, he couldn't even afford a pair of shoes. Like many Vietnamese refugees, he worked three jobs, including dishwasher, and slept in a car between shifts. "I was just born again," said Ma, whose two sisters, six brothers and mother now all own businesses in America.
Even with their new life, however, the bitterness remains. Ma believes the vast majority of the 2 million overseas Vietnamese share his strong anti-communist stance. Those who don't speak up, he says, fear for their relatives still in Vietnam.
Easing up on animosity
Others oppose the communist government, but not so intensely.Thuy Hong Nguyen, 26, has protested human rights abuses in Vietnam -- her uncles were shot point blank by the communists. She escaped by boat with her family in 1975. When she visited relatives in 1996, she saw primitive living conditions and government corruption.
"I guess I would be anti-communist but not with the anger and hatred of our parents," said Nguyen, a banking officer. "I've heard the stories but I didn't see it."
When Nguyen founded the Honolulu Vietnamese Junior Chamber of Commerce, she ran up against resistance. Some people associated her group with the Vietnamese-American Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, which she said raised "ugly" protest when it hosted Vietnamese officials here last year to promote business."With all the anti-communist stuff going around, we're sometimes asked to take a stance," she said about her group. "Most times we choose not to. We just want to help the community."
In some, there's no forgiving
Henry Nguyen said some Vietnamese take their bitter feelings too far. "Sometimes they think all the people in Vietnam are communists. That's not realistic. People have relatives there who need support."Returning Vietnamese Americans also raise awareness of democratic principles, he believes. "There doesn't have to be an overthrow movement. We can do it peacefully over time. Business can pressure the government to change, and it creates jobs."
However, he respects and understands the strong feelings of people like Tam Ngo, 64, who grew up in North Vietnam, fled south after 1954, earned a law degree in Saigon, then became a military intelligence officer. Communists killed his wealthy father and many relatives. He ended up in a communist prison for 13 years while his family almost starved.
Nine years ago his family arrived here through U.S. government sponsorship, and he works as a Foodland clerk. He will never return under a government he hates, nor will he forgive. "They always tell lies," Ngo said.
Tomorrow holds little significance for Nhu Rivas, 37. A war baby, her mother applied to emigrate with Rivas in the 1980s after the U.S. government agreed to accept children with American wartime fathers.
'We have jobs, I feel happy'
But the Vietnamese government refused to let her go and prevented the midwife from working for five years. Finally she and her three children arrived in Hawaii in 1989. Rivas, now married, and her sister have worked at Denny's Restaurant since then."Sometimes I feel a little bit angry but I was too small to see the war. We have jobs, I feel happy, and I don't feel so anti-communist," said Rivas, who travels back regularly, sends money to relatives, and would live there if she could find a job. "If I had money I would help kids in Vietnam. I don't think about the communist government."
Vietnamese Americans born in the United States may not consider tomorrow like their parents do, either. But that changed for Hawaii-born Quang Huynh, a senior at Lutheran High School, when he saw firsthand the poor living conditions of his sisters in Vietnam. "A lot of Vietnamese who grew up in America could care less. Now I have a whole different perspective."
Then there's Thuc Le, 19, whose story echoes many Vietnamese who have come to America. His boat family made their way to Hawaii 14 years ago "empty-handed." His uncle and grandfather fixed discarded washing machines for resale, his parents sewed clothes, and they lived with Le's six younger brothers and sisters in government housing.
Le will graduate from Kaimuki High School in May with a 3.2 grade point average and then enroll in computer studies at Honolulu Community College. While he said some Vietnamese students at Kaimuki don't study hard enough, and estimated one in 10 get into trouble because of poor English, peer pressure and family problems, he's confident of finding a good job.
Le is still horrified by stories from the Vietnam War, but he doesn't care much about the politics of his homeland. "My life is in America now, and I love it here."
