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Title
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Oral History Interview with Hải Nguyễn
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Description
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An oral history with Mr. Hải Nguyễn, born in 1956 in Saigon in the then-known Republic of Vietnam. He was a child for the early stages of the Viet Nam War, and he was twelve years old during the Tet Offensive (1968), his first encounter with real war. As a teenager, the war most impacted him in terms of his education and his family activities, such as celebrations such as Tet. Celebrations were often interrupted and carried a somber atmosphere. Wartime activities including curfews, checkpoints, and shelter-in-place measures, all of which created limitations on school attendance and other educational activities. After attending and graduating in 1972 from Lasalle Taberd School, a Catholic school, he narrowly escaped the draft by pursuing his overseas education in Paris in 1974. He kept in contact with his family, getting news about Vietnam from letters from his family and newspaper kiosks in Paris. After losing contact with his family in the postwar chaos, he was later contacted by the U.S. Embassy and notified that his family was in Downey, California. He managed to reunite with his family in 1975 and has remained in California since.
Keywords: Lasalle Taberd School, District 3, Saigon (1968), education, Tet holiday, Tet Offensive (1968), Paris, civilian life, foreign exchange student
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Decade of Birth/BirthDate
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1956
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interviewee
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Hải Nguyễn
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interviewer
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Andrew Kyle Finney
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Kevin Liu
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Date Created
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17 November 2021
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Duration
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01:44:42
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Language
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English
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Type
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Oral history
