Memories of fall of Saigon still haunt Vietnamese refugees [Part I]

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The Vietnam War sparked controversy in America. For years following the war, the specter of Vietnam influenced American public policy and opinion. But after almost 40 years and several long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Vietnam War is fading from the American consciousness.

However, for people who lived through and experienced the war in Vietnam, this anniversary is a time to remember what they have lost and gained. But for those who fled Vietnam, the memories still haunt them.

Alan Vo, Yau Dang and Susan Nguyen are three Vietnamese-Americans old enough to remember their first impressions of the United States.

"I loved America even when I was young, way before in 1975," Nguyen said.

But the three Vietnamese refugees didn't know they'd soon be learning about America first hand. As North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam on April 30, 1975, everything changed for them.

More than 500,000 Vietnamese refugees fled in boats and headed toward the South China Sea. Women and children faced rape and violence. Others were robbed of their possessions. Food went quickly -- so quickly, Vo says, that a few crew and passengers were forced to eat human flesh out of necessity.

"The first person that just died fresh, you would drink their blood from the head," Vo said.

Dang's parents lost everything -- communists took their belongings, their money, their business. That's when they decided to leave the country by boat.

"When they come over here, we had nothing," Dang said.

For many Vietnamese refugees, their first view of America was at a refugee camp. All around, people sobbed over a lost country.

Nguyen stayed in a camp, too. But she considers her first real day in America when she drove from her refugee camp in Pennysylvania to the home of her sponsors -- a minister's family in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

"The scenery was beautiful; the street was clean," Nguyen said. "We arrived at the sponsor's house with many welcomes from the minister's family and a few members of the church. I ate a typical American dinner that night -- steak, salad, mashed potatoes and apple pie for dessert."

But there was one thing Susan and her family really missed.

"I thought to myself, 'Oh my God, we want rice; we don't want meat... too much meat,'" Nguyen said. "But finally, she took me to the supermarket, so I asked her to bought a big bag of rice, and I asked her, 'Can I cook the rice?' She was shock that I cook like, the whole big pot. She said, 'Can you guys finish this in a month or something?' I said, 'No, we will finish in two days,' and we sure did."

Dang distinctly remembers his first taste of Coca Cola. In Vietnam, his relatives never let him drink it -- he could only look.

"And when we saw Coca Cola in the store, it was like, 'Oh my God, it's Coca Cola,'" Dang said. "It's not just the little bottle. This is Texas, so it's like, this big bottle, like... we were like, 'Oh my God, look how big this Coke is.'"

Over the decades, Dang, Vo and Nguyen have made a life for themselves.

For years, Dang's family has owned a restaurant in Westminster, the Orange County city known as Little Saigon. He'll never forget the tough times his family experienced in America -- but he says there's one good thing about their journey here.

"It got my family together," Dang said. "I mean, before, when we had money, my parents never really eat together. We always eat separately. And I wish... I don't wish we were poor, but it just seemed like my family worked better when we were struggling."

Vo owns an auto insurance company in Westminster. He says it's most important to be thankful for his parents -- the two people who worked hard to give him an education and a new life.

"Every parents that come to America pretty much sacrificed themselves... and they worked their fingers to the bones for their kids to provide whatever they can for educations," Vo said.

Nguyen visits Westminster often. She was worried when she first reached America. But now, she speaks for many Vietnamese-Americans when she says, things are different.

"We went through a lot of hardship and hard time, but I think back, we're very happy," Nguyen said. "Things turned out even much more than I expected. Our kids have grown and have a great future ahead. This is the land of opportunity. No doubt this is heaven on earth."

Check back tomorrow for the longer version of this piece.