One man's harrowing journey from Vietnam to Saskatoon after the fall of Saigon

CBC

31-05-2025

True freedom
Fifty years after the fall of Saigon, Dong Van Tran is grateful for the life he has in Canada. His journey here wasn't easy.CBC Graphics
Jeffery Tram May 31, 2025
Dong Van Tran opens Facebook Messenger on his phone every morning.
It's the only way he can speak to his family in Vietnam. He hasn't seen his mother since 2011, his only visit since he fled Vietnam on a boat nearly three decades ago. He tried to visit his homeland in 2013, but Vietnamese authorities turned him away at the airport because of his family's history.
It was the final confirmation of what he'd long suspected: he would never be allowed back.
Tran was born in 1964 in Quảng Ngãi, a city in central Vietnam. At the time, the Vietnam War was well underway.
The country was divided. Communism ruled the north, while the south followed a capitalist model. That divide had been formalized by the 1954 Geneva Accords, after the end of French colonialism and the First Indochina War.
Although the war officially ended on April 30, 1975, with the fall of Saigon and the reunification of the country under communist control, it was another night, about a month before, that Tran remembers most vividly.
Fifty years after the fall of Saigon, Dong Van Tran is grateful for the life he has in Canada. His journey to Saskatoon wasn't easy.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the war. All over Vietnam, people marked the reunification of a country after years of bloodshed and foreign occupation, and celebrated a country that has now become a rising economic power in southeast Asia.
Memories of Vietnam, 50 years after the war
With a median age of 33, according to the World Factbook, many Vietnamese people weren't yet born when the war was going on.
But the refugees who fled the nation and are now settled in countries like Canada, the United States, Australia and France — especially those who fled the south — still carry the trauma and memories of what was lost.
The fall
Tran was 11 years old when his family decided to flee their home as communist forces descended upon their hometown on March 24, 1975.
The family was split. Tran and his three siblings, all under 17 years of age, crammed onto a Honda 68 motorbike.
The plan was to get to the shorelines of Quảng Nam, get on a boat and escape to the southern city of Saigon.
The route took them directly into crossfire between the two sides.
'We had to lie down in the grass,' Tran said. 'South Vietnamese soldiers told us, 'Don't move.' We were hidden there.'
Time crept by, with Tran anxious about the fate of his siblings.
'I crawled out of the ditch and called my brother. 'Brother Hai, Brother Hai.' I felt relieved when he replied, 'Dong, where are you?''
As the fighting eased, he and his siblings tried to continue their escape, but a soldier stole their motorbike, forcing them to flee on foot alongside other people.
Tran said the images of that night have stayed with him ever since.
'I saw skulls, bodies, blood still dripping,' he said. 'Some people were hanging from a truck. Civilians, too. Many people died.'
By dawn, communist forces had taken control of the region and forced everyone back to their towns.
Saigon fell just over a month later.
No future
The end of the war marked a new beginning for Vietnam, but it brought hardship for Tran's family. His father had worked as a police chief under the South Vietnamese government and had ties to the CIA-backed Phoenix Program.
Tran was 12 years old when he and his family were targeted through the government's 'New Economic Zones' program, where people with connections to the old South Vietnamese government were sent to live in the jungle after the communist regime took over their homes.
'I couldn't study,' Tran said. 'One teacher in Grade 11 told the whole class my dad killed his father. He tried to kill me.'
Tran moved to live with his uncle in the city of Dalat to complete his education, but the difficulties continued. When he looked for employment, he was turned away every time.
Under the new government, he was required to show paperwork identifying him and his family. Over the years, Tran was forced to work numerous illegal jobs due to his father's ties. At one point, Tran was caught and was sent to a prison camp in the mountains, where he nearly died of malaria. Tran was able to escape when he was sent to a clinic to treat malaria.
That's when he realized he had no future in Vietnam.
He had to escape.
Losing hope
Tran made his way to the coastal city of Vũng Tàu, hoping to escape by boat. He had worked as a fisherman and knew he could captain a boat. In August 1989, at age 25, he visited his family for one last time, then boarded a boat with 65 others.
What followed was a harrowing 20-day journey at sea.
'For 11 days, no food, no water,' Tran said. 'Two young men fell into the sea and died during a storm. Two children died of thirst.'
Eventually, a Singaporean ship rescued the group near an oil station off the coast of the Philippines. Tran was taken to the Philippines First Asylum Camp in El Nido on Palawan island, where he applied for resettlement through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. His claim — like thousands of others — was denied.
Tran remained on Palawan Island until 1996, when the UNHCR closed its camps. He moved to Manila and took on various jobs to survive. Tran and the remaining Vietnamese refugees built a community in the Philippines, but as years passed, his dreams of moving to the west were dwindling.
'We were losing hope,' Tran said.
His chance finally came in 2008, when Canada launched the 'Freedom At Last' program to resettle the last 250 stateless Vietnamese refugees who had been stranded in the Philippines since the 1970s.
Tran said he'll never forget the moment he arrived in Canada.
'When I put my foot down in Vancouver, I felt true freedom,' he said.
He eventually settled in Saskatoon, where the small Vietnamese community welcomed him with open arms.
'About 20 people came to the airport,' he recalls. 'One of them was someone I knew from the refugee camp. She had already prepared dinner.'
Strong connections
Despite his difficult journey, Tran remains proud of his heritage.
'I always say that Vietnam is my first country, Philippines is my second country, and Canada is my third country.'
Since arriving, Tran has worked extensively within his community. He served as president of the Vietnamese-Canadian Federation, the same organization that helped bring him to Canada, as well as locally with the Saskatoon Vietnamese Association.
Vietnamese community in Alberta marks 50 years since fall of Saigon
Tran said he wants to rejuvenate Vietnamese heritage for those without direct history or a strong connection to the motherland.
As the Vietnamese community in Saskatchewan continues to grow, Tran hopes younger generations will continue to honour their heritage, remember the difficult journeys that brought their families here and live with gratitude for the privileges they have in their adopted nation.
'I am so happy to now be in a free country.'
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