Last 2025 Thanksgiving, Nguyen’s family came together to spend the holiday at the big Airbnb house in Lake Tahoe.
We started the project to interview Nguyen’s father about how the family came to the US.
The question was quite simple: how did we come to the US?”
The answer would be quite simple: “through the ODP program.”
Since we asked the father in detail, unexpected things emerged.
The family left the Vietnam on Air France on 04 /08/1983.
This was a story I was told.
The flight went to Bangkok. The whole family and others stayed in the refugee camp to process and then flew to Seattle. After Seattle, they flew down to LA. The family continues to live in LA to the present day.
Nguyen’s mother recalled the time in Bangkok at the refugee camp with a laugh. They were served white rice at each meal. Nguyen‘s mother had not seen such a good quality of white rice like that for a long time. So she saved the leftover rice for the next meal. She was surprised that the next meal, they continued to serve them the same good rice. Since that day on, she realized that she did not have to save the old rice anymore.
Nguyen’s father recalled his relieved feeling when the Air France flew over Sai Gon last time. After 8 years living in hell in Vietnam, this time they left Vietnam on the airplane. He felt like in paradise sitting on the plane with his family. He said, “ We did not have to escape like in the past. We got served grapes on the board. We went out of Vietnam legally.”
We asked how Nguyen’s father decided to leave Vietnam. And how did he get the paper done?
His story led us back to 1967. He got introduced or recruited by his friend to work with the Americans during this time as an informant. He said the program he got recruited for was called “chuong trinh Binh Dinh”.
Based on Google, it called Pacification in the Vietnam War was a US-South Vietnamese strategy aimed at securing rural areas and winning "hearts and minds" to bolster the South Vietnamese government (GVN) against the Viet Cong (VC). Per Nguyen’s father, he worked for the program from 1967 to 1971.
The program received money and resources from the US to improve life of villagers in rural areas as well as to protect people from the Viet Cong influence.
Nguyen’s father told me that he got the intel to move out of Hue before the Tet Offensive operation. He moved to Sai Gon during that time.
Nguyen’s mother was in Hue and witness Vietcong come over the city to kill people that they believed were informants, like Nguyen’s father.
In 1971, Nguyen’s father got married and changed his job to work at the bank Nam Do Ngan hang.
Then he got a visa to go to Australia to study. I was not very sure that he was studying for.
Google AI overview offered me valuable information that in 1974, there was the very first, and a few students were rewarded for studying abroad in Australia.
Nguyen’s mother told me students had to take an exam to qualify for the scholarship. During the written exam, Nguyen’s father copied the material of the person next to him. Nguyen’s father passed the required exam and got a scholarship. The student who let him copy did not get the scholarship. When mentioned, Nguyen’s father did not say anything. He quietly shook his head when his wife said it to me.
The trip to Australia was cut short because of the Fall of Sai Gon. Nguyen’s father came back to stay with the family.
During 6 months in Australia, Nguyen’s father met an English Professor named Marian Webb. She taught English.
Nguyen’s father said that the most important person in his life, as well as for the whole family because she would verify that Nguyen’s father worked for the US.
On the day Sai Gon Fall 04/30/1975, Nguyen’s parents carried little Nguyen to the US embassy with the hope of escaping the country. With the paper verifying that Nguyen’s father worked for the US, he was allowed to get inside. However, Nguyen’s mother and Nguyen were lost outside the gate. Nguyen’s father came back to find his wife and son. They could not get back in and ended up going back home. Nguyen’s mother was 4 months pregnant with a second child.
In 1980, after at least three attempts to escape without success, Nguyen’s parents focused on geting visa and the sponsor throught ODP program to legally get out of Vietnam. The OPD program started in 1979 as the Orderly Departure Program that allowed Vietnamese people who used to work for the US before 1975 and had relatives in the US to leave the country legally.
All of the paperwork proved that Nguyen’s father worked for the US since 1976-1971 was destroyed with fear that the new regimes would know and either arrest or kill Nguyen’s father.
Nguyen’s father wrote a letter to Professor Marian Web asking her to verify that he used to work for the US. He mailed the letter to the address in Australia. Professor Marian Webb already moved away. The post office kindy forward the letter to the UK, where Professor Web lived at that time.
She wrote a formal letter to Nguyen’s father for verification.
Since Nguyen’s uncle Tue, ( I will call him as Cau Tue from nw on) stayed in the US as an international student in 1973. After 1975, he asked to stay back in the US.
Nguyen’s family wrote a letter asking Cau Tue to verify as a family member to speed up the process so the whole family could go to the US sooner.
Per Nguyen’s father, “ Uncle Tue delayed sending the sponsor paper back. Cau Tue would wait for two years to agree to sponsor Nguyen’s family over.
Nguyen’s father tends to get angry when recalling this story to me repeatedly.
“ If he sent his verification letter soon, the whole family would have come to the US in 1981, not 1983.”
Nguyen’s mother shared,” Cau Tue was afraid that he had to take care of the whole family of 6. What if I died, then he would have the burden of taking care of my four children.”
The day of the interview to get the US visa was in May 1981.
Since the US embassy was closed after 1975, they set up the temporary bungalow as their office in Thu Duc.
The US officer who interviewed the family was named Thomas. He spoke influentially in Vietnamese. After 5 minutes of questioning, he approved the visa. They knew that Nguyen’s father was an informant.
Nguyen remembered the first time seeing a flush toilet when Mr. Thomas came out of the restroom. Nguyen was waiting in the waiting room. Little Nguyen's eyes lit up with curiosity, seeing how clean the rest room was.
After they got the US visa, they could not go rightaway because Cau Tue did not sign the paper until 1983.
At that time, Cau Tue got a job in Alaska and made good money. But he was single and gambling his money away. He did not have family, and he was sad. His friend advised him to come back to LA.
Nguyen recalled, “ My mother wrote a letter to Cau Tue threatening to commit suicide if Cau Tue continued to deny signing the paperwork to support the family. The paperwork was meant to be a formality. Cau Tue would never be financially responsible for us because we got the help from the government, and my mother got to work right away .”
“ He did not help with airplane tickets either. The family borrowed $ 5000 from the ODP programs. After arriving in the US, they paid back $20 each month for the next 10 years.”
Nguyen‘s mother told me that when the neighborhood got the news that Nguyen’s family would leave the country for the US, the whole neighborhood was thrilled. They cheered them up. They came over to bring good food for the family to celebrate.
Both Nguyen’s parents always shared a good story about how the whole family went to the US.
When asked how the family got the Vietnamese government to approve the exit visa to get out of Vietnam, Nguyen‘s father said that they got the exit visa through the exchange program between the UN and Vietnam. The UN asked to let people who need to leave, and in exchange, they would give funding to rebuild the country after the war.
During the 80s, it was very difficult to get the exist visa since Vietnam government / they would not allow its citizens to get out of the country that easily.
One of Nguyen's sisters asked why. Why let people leave when you cannot take care of your own people?
Google AI gave the answer as in 1983, obtaining an exit visa from Vietnam was extremely difficult due to the communist government's strict control over movement, financial extortion, political control, tagerting minority and professionals, and the fear of defection.
Nguyen’s version of how to get the exit visa:
The family went to the US under the ODP program. The family was qualified as Nguyen’s father had a history of working for the US before 1975, and Cau Tue was a relative who signed the sponsorship. Without him, the family could not go.
The third important person who helped to get an exit visa was On Van, Nguyen’s maternal Great-Uncle.
Nguyen‘s material grand father ( On Ngoai) had a younger brother, On Van, who came to the North during the time Vietnam was divided into two at the 17th parallel.
On Van ( like my own parents and a lot of people from the South) was sent to the North, and as a result, they had become Communists.
When On Van was in the North, he married a Northener and had two children. Gradually, he moved up his rank to become an important figure in the North. I knew he was important because he sent his daughter, Di Ha, to East Germany to study very early in 1972.
The same situation that happened to my Uncle Hai. Uncle Hai was my father’s brother -in-law. When he was in Ha Noi, he arranged for my mother to marry my father ( I shared this story in several entries in Vietnamese ).
Like On Van, Uncle Hai sent his oldest son to Russia to study before 1975. Uncle Hai died in 1974. My mother always said that if Uncle Hai were still alive, we would not be that poor.
I thought, yes, Uncle Hai would live in a big house with a tall gate like On Van’s house after 1975.
I shared the story to prove that even though Vietnam was split into different ideologies, every family would share the same story. Eventually, family would help family, no matter what the differences were.
On Van was powerful. He was Dai Ta (equivalent to Connel in the US military), who was in charge of the intelligence police. I was told that he was one of the people to round up South officers from the old regime to send them to re-educational camps.
Because he was a family member of Nguyen’s mother, no one dared to touch Nguyen’s mother's family after 1975. Or they just leave them alone so they would not get trouble later with the high-ranking police “ the Connel”.
On Van used his powerful position to help his family and relatives, according to Nguyen’s mother’s recall.
Nguyen’s oldest aunt, Di Hong’s husband, Bac Cong, who used to work with the Americans as an interpreter, was supposed to be sent to 3 years in the re-educational camp.
Because of On Van’s intervention, Bac Cong went for less than a year in the camp.
Nguyen said that his mother always had a verification letter from On Van to prove, " this is my niece," in her pocket. This letter was more important than her ID. I guess. Just in case whatever happened, she would use the letter to bail her out of trouble.
Per Nguyen, On Van helped the family to obtain an exit visa.
That fact did not settle down with Nguyen’s father's story.
Nguyen‘s father was upset and explained to me in the 80’s On Van was in the North, and he did not have any authority to help with the exit visa from the South.
The fourth son of Nguyen’s family was born 1 week before the whole family‘s departure to the US.
Nguyen’s grandmother and di Hong asked Nguyen’s mother to leave the baby in Vietnam. Nguyen‘s mother said no. She said,” The whole family will go together. If we were forced to stay back, the whole family would stay. I would not leave my baby here without his mother.”
Thanks to On Van, the baby was added to Nguyen’s mother‘s passport after three weeks.
Nguyen’s youngest brother left Vietnam when he was 1 month old.
After the whole family settled down in Pacoima, LA, Cau Tue went back to LA and stayed with the family until he got married and moved out.
Nguyen and Cau Tue were close.
However, Cau Tue and Nguyen’s father did not like each other. As Nguyen‘s father always reminded everyone, cau Tue delayed the sponsorship for two years and let the family stay back for an extra 2 years.
Cau Tue always said what others said about Nguyen’s father,” he is useless. His life is perfect. He did not have to do anything.”
Cau Tue passed away in 2024. He was survived by his wife and two adult children. His son was 9 months older than my son. After Cau Tue passed, his son joined the military after he got a master's in chemistry at UC LA.
Like I said in my previous entry, Nguyen’s mother's sacrifice was silent, unspeakable, invisible, painful, and resilient until the day she passed away in 2005.
She was always behind the scenes. She always gave credit to her husband.
She would never talk about herself and how she helped.
We now know that she did more than I could share here to facilitate so the whole family could leave.
Her sacrifice was profoundly important that would reserve another entry to share.
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