U.S. Has Given Millions Their 2nd Chance at Life

April 30 is memorable for most Vietnamese inside or outside of Vietnam. This year’s anniversary of the fall of Saigon is also special for me as I reflect upon what I’ve gone through, from being a blacklisted kid in Vietnam, to a refugee, a high school and law school student, and now, an elected trustee on the Garden Grove Unified School District’s Board of Education.

As I saw the Communist tanks rolling through my neighborhood in April 1975, I thought, “Good, my brother will come home from the army! And my mom will let me go to the movies because there will be no more grenade explosions in the theaters!” I soon found out that life was more than movies. My brother, a young officer, did not come home for several years because he was detained in “re-education” camps.

Adjustment to life in the newly unified Vietnam meant growing up with the reality of seeing parents also interned in re-education camps. Those family members who remained outside faced discrimination or retribution by the victorious regime. Children from blacklisted families were destined to “volunteer” for labor duty in remote areas on irrigation or land-clearing projects. Or, they “volunteered” to join the Vietnamese army to fight the “brotherly socialist” war in Cambodia.

Academic success depended largely on a biographical statement that disclosed your religion, family background and political association. My friends agonized over whether to declare themselves as “Catholic.” Doing so would ruin their chance of gaining a higher education or getting a decent job. But to state “no religion” would be equivalent to St. Peter denying Jesus Christ on the night Christ was crucified.

I got another chance at life when I got on a boat and joined hundreds of thousands of others who were escaping Vietnam during the early 1980s.

My first taste of freedom came during that journey. When the captain announced that the boat had entered international waters, a young man stood up, shouted a profanity against Ho Chi Minh and challenged the Communist leader: “I’m going to wear my long hair like this and what can you do about it, huh?” I felt an instant urge to follow him, but was unable to say the words.

With the grace of God, I landed in Malaysia and was later admitted to the United States as a refugee.

Upon enrolling in high school and college, I was amazed that no one asked for my father’s name or his occupation -- except when I applied for financial aid. America not only welcomed me, but accepted me without regard for my background, politics or religious belief.

As a citizen, I can freely speak up against the government for interfering with our right to recognize whichever flag we choose. That right to choose is the essence of the greatness of this country. That greatness would vaporize when we’re not allowed to honor what truly identifies us: the suffering of our people, the thirst for freedom to return to our homeland and the hope for a better tomorrow. Nothing can better represent us than Vietnam’s traditional yellow flag with the three red stripes.

Today, the Vietnam War Memorial will be dedicated in Little Saigon to honor sacrifices made by Vietnamese and American soldiers who died together on battlefields, as well as Vietnamese soldiers who did not survive re-education camps. The monument will stand tall for generations to come as a vindication for their ultimate sacrifices, not only for why the war was fought, but also what happened in the aftermath.

I never stop wondering: What would Vietnam be like if tens of millions of young people living there had an equal opportunity for education? What if the regime today removed the Internet firewall control or restored the basic rights such as freedom of expression or freedom of religion? Vietnam’s effort to control the population at the expense of improving its people’s well-being has pushed the country to become one of the poorest in the world.

April 30 might mark a happy day for the Vietnamese people each year to come if the Vietnamese government had the courage to stop the train from going backward and clear the way for the people to get on with the future.

Lan Quoc Nguyen is a lawyer and a member of the Garden Grove Unified School District Board of Education.