Vietnam: A Television History; Interview with Muoi Van Nguyen, 1983

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Transcript

Life in a Thai refugee camp

Vietnam. Nguyen Muoi/rm. SR #20. Tape 2, Side 1.

Speed.

Rolling, mark it.

Slate 65 (clapper)

Interviewer:

Ah, what was life like in the refugee camp in Thailand where you were

filmed by Drew?

Muoi Van Nguyen:

I was in Thailand for almost a year and the life is there depend on

people. If you are rich, you get money with you that you can live a

little bit more comfortable than others.

Interviewer:

Sorry.

Speed. Rolling. Slate 66 (clapper).

Muoi Van Nguyen:

I was the camp in the, refugee's camp in Thailand for almost a year and

life...

[Bird crying out in background.]

Muoi Van Nguyen:

...there is better if you have money. That's means that if you have

money you can buy the things you can live with. And besides you, we

are, you receive food twice a week from the United Nations and a lot of

rice, enough rice to feed the whole family.

Interviewer:

We should cut.

We should. Okay, cut.

Speed.

Rolling. Mark it.

Slate 67 (clapper)

Muoi Van Nguyen:

There in the refugee camp would receive food from the United Nations

twice a week; uh fresh vegetables, meat, fish, some time chicken and we

receive a lot of rice too. Talking about security in the camp because

sometimes we have a little problem with the villagers who live nearby.

And sometime they went in the camp to steal things from us and some of

them get drunk and try to pursue the women and to try to do bad things

like rapings, something like that. So that we...

Interviewer:

Sorry, cut.

Speed.

Rolling.

Slate 68 (clapper)

Muoi Van Nguyen:

Talking...

Interviewer:

Hold it, step out...

Muoi Van Nguyen:

Uh, talking about security in the camp. We still get some trouble from

the villagers who live nearby and sometimes from the police who took

the guard around camp too.

Sometimes during the night some of the villagers try to invade the camp

to rob, to steal or to pursuit after the women to do the bad things

like, such as like rapings and things like that and therefore, we try

to organize a small defensive force. Was the young people in the camp

just go around the camp.

If some strangers come into the camp we just try to make as much noise

as possible in order to let people awake of the invasion and in order

to let the police who guard the camp know about it so they cannot say

that they don't know anything.

And it's very useful and it keeps the villagers out of our camp. And

later on the authorities put a fence around the camp. But the fence

does nothing, it doesn't mean anything because it just goes by the

fence anyway.

Muoi Van Nguyen's experience of work and culture in the U.S.

Interviewer:

After you found a sponsor and you were told that you were going to be

able to come to America, how did you feel and what happened then after

you got that news?

Muoi Van Nguyen:

I got the news sometime in August that I, my family was accepted to go

to the states. We were very happy because I think that I can manage to

be there, to give my children opportunity to grow and in December, '78,

four months later I got the news that I got a sponsor, so I know I am

ready to go. I am...something will happen, but I think that it's a good

thing, not a bad thing anymore.

Interviewer:

What did you think America would be like before you came and what

surprised you most when you arrived?

Muoi Van Nguyen:

Really it doesn't surprise me too much when I arrived in this country

because I was here once in 1974 for four months military training in

Richmond, Virginia. So it's, the life in America is like a machine. It

goes by like the clock. At this time you do this, at that time you do

that and so forth so I am not surprised at all.

But my wife and my children are very surprised. When they first see the

snow when they get off the plane and that the first surprise and for

a...it's a very hard shock for them to see some things cold and

sticking in your skin, something like that, and besides, after a while,

they get a little problem or communication.

My children at school and my wife going to buy groceries. Something

like. But I always be, I always behind her to help here with so she get

along quite well.

Interviewer:

Have you encountered any discrimination or hostility from Americans

since you came here?

Muoi Van Nguyen:

Since I came here for my family, I didn't see any hostilities, any

discrimination so far.

Interviewer:

Uh, what kind of work have you found to do in this country and how do

you feel about it compared to your career as an army officer in

Vietnam.

Muoi Van Nguyen:

As an army officer in Vietnam and I was specialized in petroleum, but

in my area as a [incomprehensible] petroleum installation, I know it

and I know that I have to drop it and find some job to do in order to

survive and the first job I took was a labor job in the small factory

in my town. Two weeks, uh three weeks after I arrive in this country.

The second job I took six months later was a case worker for the

Catholic Social Services in Lancaster. And the third job and what was

my actual job is right now is in the laboratory of the Hamilton

Technology, Inc.

Vietnam's future in relation to political division

Interviewer:

Under what circumstances if any would you go back to Vietnam?

Muoi Van Nguyen:

It's my hope that my, the regime in my country will change. That's mean

that my country is not communist anymore. It is in my heart that that

day will happen so that I can return to my country because our people,

the Asiatic in general are and the Vietnamese we were very tied to

where we were born. We're very, we say to ourself all the time, we want

us to be buried where we were born.

Interviewer:

Do you see any prospects at all for any kind of reconciliation between

anti-communist Vietnamese and the regime?

Muoi Van Nguyen:

I don't follow too much, too close, too clolesly about what happened in

my country. I just know something happened through the television,

through the Vietnamese magazines...

Interviewer:

Okay, hold on just a minute, we have to change magazines.

Pix 35.

Speed.

Rolling.

Slate 69 (clapper)

Muoi Van Nguyen:

I don't know exactly what happened in my country right now between the

communist regime and what they call the resistance because it's very

hard to know what happened behind the communist countries, but I do

know something happened through the television, through the Vietnamese

press that there is, there are some persons who fought against the

Communists in order to install another regime. That's all that I know

about it.

Interviewer:

Do you believe this is something going on know or something that

happened in the recent past or what?

Muoi Van Nguyen:

I, in the recent past I saw one series...one television show lately

about last year, and recently I read there in the Vietnamese magazine

talking about it. About fight back to get the freedom for our country.

Interviewer:

What do you feel about that? Do you think that that's the only possible

way to go, that there has to be another war in Vietnam?

Muoi Van Nguyen:

I think that it should be...it will be another war because I think that

to talk with communism you have to be at least on the same level. On

different point of views, I mean, strong, you have to be strong enough

in order to talk to them and to talk to them if you are not strong, you

will fail always.

Cut.

Speed.

Rolling.

Slate 70 (clapper)

Muoi Van Nguyen:

And the last thing I'd like to add in this interview is that I am here

today as a person, as an individual. I mean by that that I don't

represent any organization of the Vietnamese or Indochinese communities

in this country. Thank you.

Interviewer:

Ok. Cut.

Transcript

Transcript

Series: Vietnam: A Television History

Raw Footage: Interview with Muoi Van Nguyen, 1983

Contributing Organization: WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)

AAPB ID: cpb-aacip/15-4q7qn5zr1n

If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip/15-4q7qn5zr1n).

Description

Credits: Publisher: WGBH Educational Foundation
Writer: Muoi Van Nguyen

AAPB Contributor Holdings: WGBH
Identifier: 6ac5d976e58f7cbea0b1637d1b8933d2a0af8d79 (ArtesiaDAM UOI_ID)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Duration: 00:12:12

Citations: Chicago: “Vietnam: A Television History; Interview with Muoi Van Nguyen, 1983,” 1983-07-20, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed October 6, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-4q7qn5zr1n.; MLA: “Vietnam: A Television History; Interview with Muoi Van Nguyen, 1983.” 1983-07-20. WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. October 6, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-4q7qn5zr1n>.; APA: Vietnam: A Television History; Interview with Muoi Van Nguyen, 1983. Boston, MA: WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-4q7qn5zr1n