Latest news with #ReunificationDay
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Family who fled Saigon went from being on welfare to three generations of medical professionals
Fifty years ago, at the age of 12, Huy Nguyen fled Saigon with his family as a refugee. Today, after a long road, the Nguyens boast three generations of medical professionals who say they are grateful for the chance to achieve their dream. When they first arrived in the U.S., they settled in Iowa and became the first Vietnamese American family in the Quad Cities, according to the Davenport Public Library. Nguyen's mother worked as a house cleaner. His father worked as a security guard and eventually got his high school diploma at age 45. He went on to pursue a bachelor's degree and became a chiropractor in 1981. By then, Huy Nguyen was already set on becoming a surgeon. Now, Nguyen's three children are working to become doctors as well. Two of Nguyen's children graduated from the same medical school as their father — Kansas City University. As refugees in the 70s, the family went through a difficult time and started out on welfare. Once a chiropractor, the older Nguyen decided he wanted to pay back all the help they got from the welfare system. 'What my dad did was, when he became a chiropractor, he and my mom, they went to the social security service. And my dad asked that — since when he was in school, we were on welfare … if he can put in payment and they could pay off the help,' Nguyen said. 'He was very proud that he received the help, but at the same time, he would pay that help back and contribute more to that.' Nguyen's family first stop as immigrants was California, where a church sponsored them to move to Davenport, Iowa. While there, Nguyen and his father established themselves in health care. Nguyen eventually had three children of his own — two resident physicians and a current medical school student, now ages 27, 26 and 18. Five decades after the fall of Saigon, which effectively ended the Vietnam War on April 30, 1975, the day is known as 'Reunification Day' in Vietnam. 'If you see the Afghanistan evacuations, it's very similar to Vietnam on that at the end of a war,' Nguyen told NBC News. 'There was a bombing on the airport, and we were lucky enough to get in the military airplane, and we were airlifted out of Saigon,' Nguyen said. 'My dad in Vietnam — he was lieutenant colonel in the South Vietnamese army, which fought along with the Americans, and so, last minute, he jumped on the plane and he left with us.' Nguyen said he assimilated to the American culture while living in Iowa — especially as there were no Vietnamese people, foods or languages around him. He fell in love with American football in fifth-grade and learned English by watching TV. Once the family settled in Iowa, Nguyen's father pursued his studies and later went to chiropractic school. While in school, he worked as a museum security guard to make ends meet. Nguyen's mother brought the kids back to California, where she worked cleaning houses. Nguyen would help her clean after school, he said. Once Nguyen's father graduated, he returned to the family in California and opened his own private practice. Nguyen eventually got his bachelor's degree at the same university as his father, St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. Nguyen's older sister became a chiropractor and then a lawyer; Nguyen became a surgeon; two of Nguyen's brothers became surgeons and another became a lawyer. Nguyen opened up his own private practice in San Jose, California in 1997 — one of the largest Vietnamese American communities in the U.S. In 2008, Nguyen became the first surgeon in the U.S. to perform a single-incision laparoscopic colon resection. Four years later, Nguyen became the first in the California Bay Area to remove a gallbladder using single-site robotic surgery, with his brother Nang assisting the surgery. 'If you think about the American dream, we are it,' Nguyen said. 'If it wasn't for the people that helped us, and also the American government helping us through the welfare system, we would not be where we're at right now. Of course, working hard and everything else comes with it, too.' This article was originally published on
NBC News
12-05-2025
- Health
- NBC News
Family who fled Saigon went from being on welfare to three generations of medical professionals
Fifty years ago, at the age of 12, Huy Nguyen fled Saigon with his family as a refugee. Today, after a long road, the Nguyens boast three generations of medical professionals who say they are grateful for the chance to achieve their dream. When they first arrived in the U.S., they settled in Iowa and became the first Vietnamese American family in the Quad Cities, according to the Davenport Public Library. Nguyen's mother worked as a house cleaner. His father worked as a security guard and eventually got his high school diploma at age 45. He went on to pursue a bachelor's degree and became a chiropractor in 1981. By then, Huy Nguyen was already set on becoming a surgeon. Now, Nguyen's three children are working to become doctors as well. Two of Nguyen's children graduated from the same medical school as their father — Kansas City University. As refugees in the 70s, the family went through a difficult time and started out on welfare. Once a chiropractor, the older Nguyen decided he wanted to pay back all the help they got from the welfare system. 'What my dad did was, when he became a chiropractor, he and my mom, they went to the social security service. And my dad asked that — since when he was in school, we were on welfare … if he can put in payment and they could pay off the help,' Nguyen said. 'He was very proud that he received the help, but at the same time, he would pay that help back and contribute more to that.' Nguyen's family first stop as immigrants was California, where a church sponsored them to move to Davenport, Iowa. While there, Nguyen and his father established themselves in health care. Nguyen eventually had three children of his own — two resident physicians and a current medical school student, now ages 27, 26 and 18. Five decades after the fall of Saigon, which effectively ended the Vietnam War on April 30, 1975, the day is known as 'Reunification Day' in Vietnam. 'If you see the Afghanistan evacuations, it's very similar to Vietnam on that at the end of a war,' Nguyen told NBC News. 'There was a bombing on the airport, and we were lucky enough to get in the military airplane, and we were airlifted out of Saigon,' Nguyen said. 'My dad in Vietnam — he was lieutenant colonel in the South Vietnamese army, which fought along with the Americans, and so, last minute, he jumped on the plane and he left with us.' Nguyen said he assimilated to the American culture while living in Iowa — especially as there were no Vietnamese people, foods or languages around him. He fell in love with American football in fifth-grade and learned English by watching TV. Once the family settled in Iowa, Nguyen's father pursued his studies and later went to chiropractic school. While in school, he worked as a museum security guard to make ends meet. Nguyen's mother brought the kids back to California, where she worked cleaning houses. Nguyen would help her clean after school, he said. Once Nguyen's father graduated, he returned to the family in California and opened his own private practice. Nguyen eventually got his bachelor's degree at the same university as his father, St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. Nguyen's older sister became a chiropractor and then a lawyer; Nguyen became a surgeon; two of Nguyen's brothers became surgeons and another became a lawyer. Nguyen opened up his own private practice in San Jose, California in 1997 — one of the largest Vietnamese American communities in the U.S. In 2008, Nguyen became the first surgeon in the U.S. to perform a single-incision laparoscopic colon resection. Four years later, Nguyen became the first in the California Bay Area to remove a gallbladder using single-site robotic surgery, with his brother Nang assisting the surgery. 'If you think about the American dream, we are it,' Nguyen said. 'If it wasn't for the people that helped us, and also the American government helping us through the welfare system, we would not be where we're at right now. Of course, working hard and everything else comes with it, too.'
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Vietnamese Americans gather at Georgia senior center to mark 50th anniversary of fall of Saigon
Von Tran speaks at a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder Dozens of Vietnamese Americans gathered at a senior center in Norcross Wednesday to mark the 50th anniversary of what Von Tran called a dark day in history. 'It's a day of suffering, of separations of family, of death, of thousands and hundreds of thousands killed and forced into reeducation camps and imprisoned, Holocaust-style, if you can imagine that,' said Tran, CEO of First Senior Center of Georgia, which hosted the event. 'Some were imprisoned for five years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, trying to brainwash them into communist ideology.' In Vietnam, April 30, 1975, is celebrated as Reunification Day, when North Vietnamese troops captured Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, uniting the nation under socialist rule. But to members of the Vietnamese diaspora who fled South Vietnam after its fall, April 30 is marked as the Fall of Saigon, a day to lament the end of South Vietnam and to remember the people who died fighting for the nation. Tran is part of that diaspora. She left Vietnam in 1983 at 9 years old, packed on a fishing boat with more than 60 others, including her parents and five siblings. Tran said her family often relied on charity to make sure everyone was fed during her early days in the U.S. 'I went to the food pantry at the church every Sunday, six of us, to get six chickens so my mother would be able to cook for us, because my father in 1985 was only making $3.54 an hour,' she said. 'He couldn't feed seven mouths. I jokingly say all the time, that I've been converted so many times at church pantries, from Catholic to Lutheran to Methodist to, you name it, just for a chicken.' Thanks to those charity chickens and a lot of hard work, Tran found success in the business world and now runs her own food pantry out of the senior center, delivering literal tons of food to thousands of households every week, with a special focus on seniors. In addition to the food bank and recreational facilities, the center has areas for arts and crafts as well as medical services, including acupuncture. While the ceremony honoring the fall of Saigon took place, a few old timers sat in the back and played board games like xiangqi, or Chinese chess. Many of the people who fled Vietnam around the fall of Saigon are getting older, and the center helps with tasks like translation, transportation and signing up for government assistance programs. 'A lot of them are low-income, so we cater to those who don't have the means to – whether because of a language barrier or transportation limitations – take them to doctor appointments, schedule a doctor appointment for them, apply for all the different social services, food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, and translation, interpretation. We also give them coffins. We bury them, give them a cemetery plot. We cremate them. These are all free services.' Many of the people who came out Wednesday were members of South Vietnam's military, including some who wore their old uniforms. They saluted the flag of South Vietnam and delivered speeches and sang songs in Vietnamese. Members carrying battery-powered candles walked to the front of the center's common area and placed them on a large map of Vietnam. Tom Nguyen, a retired mechanical engineer, served six years in the South Vietnamese Navy, but he came to the ceremony in a suit and tie instead of his fatigues. 'I'm glad the war is over,' he said. 'I'm glad that the future is growing better over there and over here, because I was there to see many people killed. There's no reason for that. I hate war. I hate war. It just destroys things and communities and the economy.' Nguyen has lived in the U.S. since 1975 and Georgia since 1978. Every now and then when he speaks, a little bit of a southern drawl rises up from beneath his Vietnamese accent. If you ask him about it, he'll smile and pull down the collar of his shirt. 'Can't you see my neck is red?' he says with a laugh. Nguyen may not be American by birth, but he's a red-blooded patriot. He said he wants the next generation of Vietnamese Georgians to honor their roots but also appreciate their new country. 'We're trying to tell them today is a better life for you, especially you here in America, you have a better future, you have a long life, and you have education, you can perform, and you can achieve as you wish, because here is opportunity for everybody, America is number one, I put it that way,' he said. Hanh Kim Dang, a realtor and past president of Vietnamese Community of Georgia, said she's also thinking about the next generation. She got out of Vietnam April 26, 1975, just days before the fall of Saigon. She says she counts herself lucky that she and her sister were able to fly out of Vietnam because her aunt worked for the U.S. government. Many others made a perilous trip by boat or on foot. Dang, who was 20, had studied some English in school, but she was far from fluent. 'It was very rough,' she said. 'I was in the third year of law school, then I went back here and started all over again. I tried to go to high school because that's where I thought I could learn English and use it more to get better. But they said, no, your age, you have to go to community college.' Dang turned that community college education into a degree in information and computer science from Georgia Tech. After a 19-year career, she entered the business world and now owns several nail salons and food courts. Dang's three children are all in their thirties now. They're all conversational in Vietnamese, if not fluent. 'When they were growing up, I hired nannies who were Vietnamese, and I told them, please use Vietnamese language at home, so they pick it up, so they can save it, but it's more like daily conversation, not writing, not literature,' she said. 'They have some understanding of why we're here, but understanding deeply the reason why we sacrificed, we left everything behind, it's hard for them because they're born here,' she added. 'They adopted the culture, language, everything here, but they do understand, they see what the people have been through through photos, videos, movies.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Bloomberg
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Vietnam Is Still Caught in a Tug of War Between Superpowers
As dawn broke over Ho Chi Minh City, fighter jets screamed through the sky and helicopters buzzed over the heads of cheering spectators. To the beat of drums and rousing strains of revolutionary songs, 13,000 military personnel marched through the streets as Vietnam's Communist leaders looked out from a raised dais in front of Independence Palace. The Reunification Day parade on Wednesday was an emotional display of national pride, 50 years after North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon — as the city was then called — ending a conflict that devastated the country and killed an estimated 3 million Vietnamese and more than 58,000 American troops.
ITV News
30-04-2025
- Politics
- ITV News
A parade of pride and peace: Vietnam marks 50th 'Reunification Day' with grand display
When we walked out of our hotel at four in the morning to make our way to the main stage of Vietnam's Reunification Day parade, we found the streets full of people who had slept out overnight to make sure they would get the best view of the procession. I have never seen that level of enthusiasm and dedication for a national day event. A majority of them were also wearing red or had the country's flag painted on their face or a traditional Vietnamese cone hat. When it began, just after 6.30am local time, the Grand parade, as it was billed in the local press, was packed with patriotism and Vietnamese character. A troop of traditional drummers kicked off the affair, followed by a series of male and female singing duos. But the most popular and impressive part of the show was the military parade. Many of the military units which fought to secure victory on April 30 1975, took centre stage, putting on a practised performance for the crowds, drawing huge applause for their goosestep march. This was the biggest event Vietnam has staged for its Reunification Day. It was a ceremonial show of strength, when the main message from the Communist government was to uphold peace. The Communist Party General Secretary Tô Lâm made a speech, in which he said his party, the people and the army vowed to make Vietnam a country of peace, unity, prosperity and development. It was only in the early nineties that Vietnam opened up to the world, and it has become an emerging manufacturing powerhouse, with one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. The country has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the manufacturing shift away from China, but at the same time has been one of the biggest sources of Chinese investment. People packed the streets in Ho Chi Minh to celebrate the anniversary. The scenes of celebration we saw in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday were a far cry from the chaotic evacuation that had defined the day North Vietnamese troops declared victory and the Fall of Saigon, as the city was formerly known. Our journalists were among those forced to flee on helicopters from the American embassy, a humiliating retreat for the US and a failure to halt the Communist forces. According to retired Viet Cong Lieutenant Colonel Nien, the US Army was bound to fail, trying to come between the Vietnamese people. He was awarded several medals for his role in the war and shared his memories of Liberation Day, as he calls April 30. He described fierce fighting taking place right up until the morning of the 30th. He said that when his troop entered Saigon, they headed straight to the government headquarters of South Vietnam. He was a signaller at the time, so it was his job to pass on the news of victory to his comrades. It is one of his best memories, it was a wonderful day, he said. He also shared a message of peace, saying the cost of war is too high, and is paid by the most vulnerable. He wanted the events of April 30 to spread a message of peace at a time when the world still suffers so much conflict. On the streets, we met veterans, families and groups of young people from all over Vietnam who wanted to be a part of their country's special day. Pride and peace were the two words I heard the most from them all. It was an occasion not just to remember the end of the war, it was a display of the resilience and unity that followed. Vietnam is trying to look forward, not back, to a brighter and more peaceful future.
