00:00:09.605 --> 00:00:20.533
(music)

00:00:20.533 --> 00:00:24.037
- [Narrator] The so-called
Indochina War did come to an end,

00:00:24.037 --> 00:00:28.082
which left Vietnam divided
between a Communist North

00:00:28.082 --> 00:00:29.834
and an Anti-Communist South.

00:00:31.878 --> 00:00:35.423
The military forces of the
Communist North, the Việt Cộng,

00:00:35.423 --> 00:00:38.634
began to infiltrate the South
in ever increasing numbers.

00:00:38.634 --> 00:00:40.345
(guns shooting)

00:00:40.345 --> 00:00:41.637
- [Narrator] On the first two nights

00:00:41.637 --> 00:00:43.973
of the Tet Lunar New Year's,

00:00:43.973 --> 00:00:46.768
the Việt Cộng, violating
the truce agreed on

00:00:46.768 --> 00:00:50.063
for that holiday, struck
across the entire length

00:00:50.063 --> 00:00:51.189
of South Vietnam.

00:00:57.862 --> 00:01:01.324
(person speaks in Vietnamese)

00:01:01.324 --> 00:01:03.743
(gun shoots)

00:01:07.789 --> 00:01:09.874
- [Narrator] Within 24
hours, Eddie Adams' snapshot

00:01:09.874 --> 00:01:11.667
of a Việt Cộng guerrilla being executed

00:01:11.667 --> 00:01:13.711
made front pages around the world.

00:01:16.172 --> 00:01:19.592
- The first time I saw the photo,

00:01:20.802 --> 00:01:22.387
I was in 11th grade,

00:01:23.388 --> 00:01:25.264
I was horrified, I guess.

00:01:25.264 --> 00:01:26.391
That's my dad.

00:01:38.945 --> 00:01:40.196
- The first time I was shown

00:01:40.196 --> 00:01:45.034
that picture was in Time
Magazine by one of my uncle.

00:01:45.952 --> 00:01:47.912
That's the Viet Cong that killed your family.

00:01:50.706 --> 00:01:53.876
- [Narrator] The picture of
the execution so shocked people

00:01:53.876 --> 00:01:56.045
that people who hadn't
thought about the war

00:01:57.004 --> 00:01:59.173
suddenly got such a jolt.

00:01:59.173 --> 00:02:03.010
(crowd chanting indistinctly)

00:02:05.138 --> 00:02:06.389
- [Narrator] An unsettling image

00:02:06.389 --> 00:02:09.892
that won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize.

00:02:09.892 --> 00:02:12.562
- Pictures don't tell the whole story.

00:02:12.562 --> 00:02:13.438
You look at a photograph,

00:02:13.438 --> 00:02:15.148
you’re looking at one five-hundredth of a second

00:02:15.148 --> 00:02:17.024
or one two-hundred-and-fiftieth of a second,

00:02:18.192 --> 00:02:19.193
and it’s a moment

00:02:19.444 --> 00:02:21.362
you don’t see all sides of it.

00:02:34.709 --> 00:02:37.211
(somber music)

00:02:43.176 --> 00:02:45.178
(no audio)

00:02:47.346 --> 00:02:49.015
(birds chirping)
(engine rumbling)

00:02:59.025 --> 00:03:00.193
- [June] Okay.

00:03:02.445 --> 00:03:04.113
Bon appetit.

00:03:04.113 --> 00:03:05.823
- It's a small bowl of pho.

00:03:05.823 --> 00:03:08.784
- [Loc] It's nice to have
a dinner together, right?

00:03:10.286 --> 00:03:11.162
- [June] Oh, definitely.

00:03:11.162 --> 00:03:14.248
- Yes. We haven't eaten
together in a long time.

00:03:14.248 --> 00:03:16.250
I miss coming home to your food.

00:03:16.250 --> 00:03:17.293
- Yes.

00:03:17.293 --> 00:03:20.796
Yeah, I remember when
I went to grad school,

00:03:26.177 --> 00:03:27.428
- [Christine] Just American food?

00:03:27.428 --> 00:03:28.262
- Uh-huh.

00:03:29.138 --> 00:03:30.640
Uh, bratwurst.

00:03:30.640 --> 00:03:31.807
(all laughing)

00:03:31.807 --> 00:03:34.018
I share a lot about my childhood

00:03:34.018 --> 00:03:37.355
because I think my
childhood was so idyllic.

00:03:38.397 --> 00:03:40.274
I loved living in Vietnam.

00:03:40.274 --> 00:03:42.527
- I would love to visit Vietnam

00:03:42.527 --> 00:03:44.237
to see where you both grew up.

00:03:44.237 --> 00:03:48.699
- It's hard because Vietnam
now is so different.

00:03:48.699 --> 00:03:51.160
The Vietnam, where I grew
up, it's just a memory.

00:03:54.997 --> 00:03:57.166
- People from Vietnam
used to tell us stories

00:03:57.166 --> 00:03:58.751
about our grandparents.

00:03:58.751 --> 00:04:02.338
- They want to make sure that we know

00:04:02.338 --> 00:04:06.592
what happened during the years of war.

00:04:06.592 --> 00:04:10.179
- You know, our family has
always chosen the path of, like,

00:04:11.430 --> 00:04:14.475
just keeping silent on the subject.

00:04:14.475 --> 00:04:18.896
But now there's a new
generation, two new generations

00:04:18.896 --> 00:04:22.775
that come up who knew nothing
about the Vietnam War.

00:04:22.775 --> 00:04:25.570
- I can't imagine moving my whole life.

00:04:27.363 --> 00:04:30.866
So I'm very grateful
that you've given us all

00:04:30.866 --> 00:04:32.702
the opportunities that we have today.

00:04:38.583 --> 00:04:42.295
- This is our family when
the kids were very young.

00:04:42.295 --> 00:04:46.215
For Vietnamese families,
extremely important.

00:04:46.215 --> 00:04:50.011
But for us it's even more so.

00:04:51.262 --> 00:04:56.017
We as a family form a perimeter, a fence

00:04:56.017 --> 00:04:57.602
to protect ourselves.

00:04:57.602 --> 00:04:59.103
Here are my kids.

00:04:59.103 --> 00:05:01.606
I took this picture, (laughs)

00:05:01.606 --> 00:05:05.359
and I think they are the
sweetest and cutest things.

00:05:06.611 --> 00:05:12.366
When we came over, the
experience of being a refugee,

00:05:12.366 --> 00:05:17.371
being different, and then
with the experience of my dad.

00:05:17.997 --> 00:05:19.290
This is my dad.

00:05:20.124 --> 00:05:22.877
Having to deal with the publicity.

00:05:24.462 --> 00:05:27.673
My dad, I think of him every day.

00:05:30.551 --> 00:05:31.385
Every day.

00:05:38.017 --> 00:05:40.478
(music)

00:05:52.823 --> 00:05:56.911
- [Huấn] It is a combination
of New Year, Thanksgiving,

00:05:56.911 --> 00:05:59.163
Christmas roll into one.

00:06:15.221 --> 00:06:17.473
(music)

00:06:19.058 --> 00:06:22.978
- You get to have an
outfit made just for Tet.

00:06:22.978 --> 00:06:26.774
- Children receive a lot
of lì xì, red envelope

00:06:26.774 --> 00:06:30.194
with new money for good
luck and good health.

00:06:31.153 --> 00:06:32.738
It's a time of renewal,

00:06:34.156 --> 00:06:37.576
- But Tet 1968 was not like that.

00:06:39.245 --> 00:06:44.250
- Every year around Tet,
I start dreaming again

00:06:47.712 --> 00:06:49.088
(Huấn snivels)

00:06:49.088 --> 00:06:50.297
of this nightmare.

00:06:55.344 --> 00:06:58.681
(distant waves crashing)

00:06:58.681 --> 00:07:03.227
We have this tradition
during Tet on New Year's day,

00:07:03.227 --> 00:07:05.354
whoever it is, the
first to enter the house

00:07:05.354 --> 00:07:07.189
will bring the luck into the house.

00:07:08.941 --> 00:07:12.319
Usually, they would choose a person

00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:14.321
that will bring good luck, good fortune,

00:07:14.321 --> 00:07:16.907
good health to the family.

00:07:16.907 --> 00:07:18.284
They called it xông đất,

00:07:19.869 --> 00:07:22.455
first to enter the portal of the family.

00:07:24.206 --> 00:07:27.585
On New Year's day of 1968,

00:07:27.585 --> 00:07:30.337
I heard the firecracker outside.

00:07:30.337 --> 00:07:31.464
I was curious.

00:07:32.590 --> 00:07:34.925
I just opened the door, walked out,

00:07:34.925 --> 00:07:39.930
enjoying the views, and
then came back in again

00:07:41.098 --> 00:07:45.186
and I was the first one
to xông đất that year.

00:07:46.896 --> 00:07:49.106
My father saw that

00:07:49.106 --> 00:07:52.193
and basically just slapped me in the face.

00:07:53.027 --> 00:07:55.237
I was nine years old at that time,

00:07:56.280 --> 00:07:58.491
and to this day I still regret it.

00:08:00.868 --> 00:08:05.873
I still think that I brought...

00:08:07.833 --> 00:08:09.001
I still think that I'm the one

00:08:09.001 --> 00:08:10.753
who brought bad luck to the family.

00:08:12.129 --> 00:08:13.881
(music)

00:08:24.433 --> 00:08:27.186
(guns shooting)

00:08:30.397 --> 00:08:32.191
- [Narrator] Suddenly and without warning,

00:08:32.191 --> 00:08:34.819
the violence of war shattered
the peaceful celebration

00:08:34.819 --> 00:08:36.195
of the Lunar New Year.

00:08:36.195 --> 00:08:38.489
- [Narrator] The Việt Cộng
simultaneously attacked

00:08:38.489 --> 00:08:41.617
just about every major city
and town in South Vietnam.

00:08:41.617 --> 00:08:44.578
- [Narrator] The battle
now was for Saigon itself.

00:08:44.578 --> 00:08:46.539
- [Narrator] As many
as 12 North Vietnamese

00:08:46.539 --> 00:08:49.166
and Việt Cộng battalions
had taken the city.

00:08:49.166 --> 00:08:52.002
(children crying)

00:08:55.506 --> 00:08:58.592
- We were all awakened by our father

00:08:58.592 --> 00:09:01.428
and told us to get into a bunker.

00:09:02.680 --> 00:09:06.225
I was praying to God, "Please save us."

00:09:10.145 --> 00:09:11.313
But that didn't happen.

00:09:14.149 --> 00:09:16.694
I see some bright lights.

00:09:16.694 --> 00:09:21.532
The next thing is I found
myself on the floor bleeding.

00:09:22.616 --> 00:09:24.743
I was shot in the head.

00:09:24.743 --> 00:09:27.955
It pierced through my skull here

00:09:27.955 --> 00:09:31.208
and my brother,

00:09:31.208 --> 00:09:34.837
I can still see his belly was cut open

00:09:42.428 --> 00:09:48.601
and he was breathing hard.

00:09:48.601 --> 00:09:50.352
Some of his last breath.

00:09:51.061 --> 00:09:52.813
(music)

00:09:54.189 --> 00:09:57.776
And I hid between the sandbags.

00:09:57.776 --> 00:10:01.655
In the meantime, Việt Cộng,
they went through the house.

00:10:01.655 --> 00:10:06.577
They took out the beers
and they were eating,

00:10:06.577 --> 00:10:11.457
while my mom was laying there dying.

00:10:12.082 --> 00:10:13.709
(music)

00:10:13.709 --> 00:10:16.337
I listened to my mom crying out in pain

00:10:18.964 --> 00:10:23.010
for almost, seems like eternity.

00:10:24.929 --> 00:10:26.847
She suffered a lot.

00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:34.396
I can't erase that out of my memory.

00:10:39.318 --> 00:10:44.657
(typewriter clattering)
(drums playing)

00:10:49.161 --> 00:10:54.500
(typewriter clattering)
(drums playing)

00:11:12.851 --> 00:11:15.104
(somber music)

00:11:16.814 --> 00:11:19.358
- [Narrator] Việt Cộng
snipers and suicide commandos

00:11:19.358 --> 00:11:22.444
were holed up inside the embassy compound

00:11:22.444 --> 00:11:24.989
and firing from surrounding building.

00:11:24.989 --> 00:11:28.075
(guns shooting)

00:11:28.075 --> 00:11:29.785
- [Narrator] Now the Việt
Cộng have carried the war

00:11:29.785 --> 00:11:32.997
into the cities, and there
seems to be no place to hide

00:11:32.997 --> 00:11:34.581
from the bombs and the bullets.

00:11:36.125 --> 00:11:37.251
- [Narrator] Almost predictably,

00:11:37.251 --> 00:11:38.877
the South Vietnamese reacted

00:11:38.877 --> 00:11:41.547
to the surprise attack
by arresting anyone

00:11:41.547 --> 00:11:43.966
who couldn't prove his
loyalty to the government.

00:11:45.259 --> 00:11:46.969
- [Huấn] The first time I saw the photo

00:11:46.969 --> 00:11:50.681
of my family was in Time Magazine.

00:11:50.681 --> 00:11:52.141
- [Narrator] Government
troops were ordered

00:11:52.141 --> 00:11:55.144
to get as much revenge as they could.

00:11:55.144 --> 00:11:56.812
(guns shooting)

00:11:56.812 --> 00:11:58.731
- [Huấn] It was shown to me by my uncle.

00:11:58.731 --> 00:12:00.232
He showed me also the picture

00:12:00.232 --> 00:12:03.485
executing one of the Việt Cộng.

00:12:03.485 --> 00:12:05.946
- [Narrator] Government troops
had captured the commander

00:12:05.946 --> 00:12:08.657
of the Việt Cộng Commando unit.

00:12:08.657 --> 00:12:11.744
- He told me that that was
the Viet Cong that killed my family

00:12:12.619 --> 00:12:14.830
and I was thinking in my
mind is, how does he know

00:12:14.830 --> 00:12:16.915
that that's the guy who killed my family?

00:12:18.625 --> 00:12:20.085
(gun bangs)

00:12:20.085 --> 00:12:22.337
(somber music)

00:12:28.635 --> 00:12:30.888
(somber music)

00:13:47.714 --> 00:13:50.551
In Washington today,
an echo of the Vietnam War,

00:13:50.551 --> 00:13:53.429
the U.S. government wants to deport a refugee

00:13:53.429 --> 00:13:55.430
General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan,

00:13:55.430 --> 00:13:58.433
once chief of the National
Police of South Vietnam.

00:13:58.433 --> 00:14:00.018
He is remembered for having shot

00:14:00.018 --> 00:14:02.354
and killed a man in the streets of Saigon.

00:14:02.354 --> 00:14:03.730
The immigration service calls

00:14:03.730 --> 00:14:06.066
that moral turpitude and wants him out.

00:14:06.066 --> 00:14:07.109
- [Reporter] Today, the former general

00:14:07.109 --> 00:14:09.361
runs a small restaurant
in Burke, Virginia,

00:14:09.361 --> 00:14:11.196
just outside of Washington,

00:14:11.196 --> 00:14:13.323
and now the government
wants to deport him.

00:14:18.537 --> 00:14:22.249
- You know, I probably
had the same reaction

00:14:22.249 --> 00:14:25.085
that any normal person would have,

00:14:26.378 --> 00:14:27.629
which is horror.

00:14:34.595 --> 00:14:37.264
But then, you know, I know my dad.

00:14:44.855 --> 00:14:48.483
He's somebody who's
extremely generous and kind,

00:14:48.483 --> 00:14:51.487
somebody who put their family first

00:14:51.487 --> 00:14:53.572
and put their country first.

00:14:53.572 --> 00:14:55.199
When I think of my dad, I think

00:14:55.199 --> 00:14:59.745
of all the pictures showing
his love for his grandchildren

00:14:59.745 --> 00:15:02.414
and here he is holding my son.

00:15:03.916 --> 00:15:07.002
When I first heard about
it, it was everywhere.

00:15:07.002 --> 00:15:10.547
It was in the news. It
was discussed in school.

00:15:11.548 --> 00:15:15.677
The kids in the class
had that horrified look,

00:15:17.638 --> 00:15:21.600
that "What kind of a person is your dad?"

00:15:28.190 --> 00:15:33.195
- It's beautiful. Walking
through this is really zen.

00:15:34.655 --> 00:15:36.573
As a child, that's probably one

00:15:36.573 --> 00:15:39.451
of my happiest time in Vietnam.

00:15:40.410 --> 00:15:42.663
Trees all around you,

00:15:42.663 --> 00:15:45.457
make you forget about
all the life trouble.

00:15:47.125 --> 00:15:49.836
I used to just lie down like this,

00:15:49.836 --> 00:15:53.173
looking up and looking
in the cloud floating by

00:15:53.173 --> 00:15:55.842
and just imagine that I'm one of the cloud

00:15:55.842 --> 00:15:59.972
and just daydreaming all day long.

00:15:59.972 --> 00:16:01.056
I feel connected.

00:16:04.184 --> 00:16:06.895
I feel like I'm part of the surrounding

00:16:06.895 --> 00:16:09.147
that just make me happy.

00:16:15.362 --> 00:16:17.322
Yeah, being here like
this is just bring back

00:16:17.322 --> 00:16:19.741
a lot of the good memory that I had.

00:16:23.537 --> 00:16:25.330
(music)

00:16:25.998 --> 00:16:30.794
I try to recall the good
time with my mom, my dad,

00:16:30.794 --> 00:16:32.587
my family in Vietnam.

00:16:32.587 --> 00:16:36.842
It's just override with all
of these painful memories.

00:16:38.093 --> 00:16:41.263
The happier time seemed to fade faster.

00:16:42.472 --> 00:16:46.768
I don't remember what my
brother and sisters like,

00:16:46.768 --> 00:16:51.606
what my dad or my mom
smelled like, their voice.

00:16:52.983 --> 00:16:56.445
To think about them in a peaceful way,

00:16:56.445 --> 00:16:57.946
it's just almost impossible.

00:16:59.072 --> 00:17:01.783
What I recall was what happened to them.

00:17:02.826 --> 00:17:04.828
It's just like, just happened yesterday.

00:17:05.704 --> 00:17:06.788
It never goes away.

00:17:08.415 --> 00:17:11.043
(traffic humming)

00:17:11.043 --> 00:17:13.879
I wrote this when I went back to Vietnam.

00:17:14.838 --> 00:17:18.008
The taxi weave its way from the airport

00:17:18.008 --> 00:17:20.385
threading through the
tangled maze of the city.

00:17:22.387 --> 00:17:26.641
A park came into view, striking
a chord of familiarity.

00:17:26.641 --> 00:17:29.353
I leaned forward and asked the cab driver,

00:17:29.353 --> 00:17:32.856
"Isn't that the former
Mạc Đĩnh Chi cemetery?"

00:17:40.113 --> 00:17:41.907
The memory came rushing back.

00:17:47.079 --> 00:17:50.957
I recognized that that
park was the old cemetery

00:17:52.167 --> 00:17:54.086
where my family was buried.

00:17:55.504 --> 00:18:00.467
I barely remember what happened that day.

00:18:04.679 --> 00:18:06.515
I was like a zombie.

00:18:08.100 --> 00:18:10.268
I don't even feel pain at that point.

00:18:12.104 --> 00:18:13.480
I'm just lost.

00:18:18.360 --> 00:18:22.280
My guilt is I'm the one who caused it all,

00:18:22.280 --> 00:18:24.783
'cause I bring bad luck to the family.

00:18:26.493 --> 00:18:28.412
I still regret it to this day.

00:18:30.956 --> 00:18:32.791
Guilt that I survive.

00:18:35.335 --> 00:18:37.629
I feel like God is punishing me.

00:18:40.215 --> 00:18:41.925
I wish that I could be with them.

00:18:44.052 --> 00:18:45.303
I wish that all the time.

00:18:46.763 --> 00:18:49.516
(birds chirping)

00:18:57.107 --> 00:18:59.860
(engine humming)

00:19:09.744 --> 00:19:13.331
- My parents' restaurant was
right here with this door.

00:19:13.331 --> 00:19:14.791
There was no door here.

00:19:14.791 --> 00:19:17.836
That was the front and
that's the mall entrance.

00:19:19.171 --> 00:19:24.176
My parents were working seven
days a week for several years.

00:19:24.259 --> 00:19:28.054
You know, there were all these
extracurricular activities

00:19:28.054 --> 00:19:31.016
through high school
that I didn't belong to,

00:19:31.016 --> 00:19:33.894
because I had to go home
and work at a restaurant.

00:19:34.936 --> 00:19:37.189
That became our lives.

00:19:39.691 --> 00:19:43.153
Life was difficult enough
trying to make a living

00:19:43.153 --> 00:19:46.823
without having to deal
with this extra stress

00:19:46.823 --> 00:19:49.784
of the deportation hearings.

00:19:52.787 --> 00:19:57.209
I was angry that this
is happening to my dad

00:19:57.209 --> 00:19:58.668
and to our family.

00:20:00.962 --> 00:20:04.299
To send him back would be
to essentially send him

00:20:05.509 --> 00:20:06.510
to be killed.

00:20:09.763 --> 00:20:13.141
I remember seeing graffiti
a lot in the restrooms,

00:20:14.309 --> 00:20:15.769
four letter words,

00:20:16.770 --> 00:20:21.316
and my dad described as a war criminal.

00:20:22.317 --> 00:20:26.696
It made me make a resolve to work hard,

00:20:26.696 --> 00:20:28.406
to not have to deal with all that.

00:20:29.783 --> 00:20:34.746
I got accepted to UVA, but my dad got sick

00:20:34.746 --> 00:20:37.958
and I told him maybe I
should stay and help.

00:20:39.209 --> 00:20:41.378
My dad said, "No way."

00:20:43.588 --> 00:20:44.965
We were refugees

00:20:44.965 --> 00:20:47.884
and he knew that the only way

00:20:47.884 --> 00:20:50.971
that we could dig ourselves
out of this poverty

00:20:50.971 --> 00:20:55.350
that we were in is for us kids

00:20:55.350 --> 00:20:57.018
to get an education.

00:20:59.437 --> 00:21:03.858
I felt very relieved when
President Carter decided

00:21:03.858 --> 00:21:07.988
that the whole deportation
issue should be dropped.

00:21:09.864 --> 00:21:14.244
When I went to college I could
leave all of that behind,

00:21:16.746 --> 00:21:20.959
escaping being the
daughter of General Loan

00:21:23.295 --> 00:21:25.005
and be my own person.

00:22:57.806 --> 00:23:00.350
- This is always a quest for me,

00:23:01.226 --> 00:23:04.145
trying to piece together my life,

00:23:05.313 --> 00:23:08.566
my life of them, how it was.

00:23:10.568 --> 00:23:14.072
I feel there's no justice in the world.

00:23:16.241 --> 00:23:20.036
Sure, the execution is
very, very traumatic,

00:23:20.036 --> 00:23:23.998
but this is just one
single act of atrocity.

00:23:23.998 --> 00:23:26.501
It captured your attention,

00:23:26.501 --> 00:23:28.795
but the true casualties of war here

00:23:28.795 --> 00:23:31.506
are the women and the children.

00:23:32.424 --> 00:23:36.261
At least 15,000 civilian deaths
happened during that time.

00:23:38.513 --> 00:23:40.974
The picture of that Eddie Adams took,

00:23:40.974 --> 00:23:42.475
changed the course of the war.

00:23:42.475 --> 00:23:44.352
It changed the perception of the war.

00:23:45.437 --> 00:23:48.022
- [Narrator] Radicals shouted
support for the Vietnam.

00:23:49.315 --> 00:23:51.901
- But if you compare the two, right, one

00:23:51.901 --> 00:23:54.446
between the two combatant on the field,

00:23:54.446 --> 00:23:58.616
despite Việt Cộng wearing
civilian clothing,

00:23:58.616 --> 00:24:02.746
and the photo of my whole
family that was massacred,

00:24:04.164 --> 00:24:06.458
which one is more atrocious?

00:24:08.960 --> 00:24:11.713
And why is it that that's
not the frontline picture?

00:24:15.675 --> 00:24:19.137
I think that the public
opinion will be different then.

00:25:04.140 --> 00:25:05.767
- The picture is a picture,

00:25:05.767 --> 00:25:08.895
but it doesn't tell the entire story.

00:25:08.895 --> 00:25:13.107
The picture doesn't show what
happened before the photo.

00:25:14.275 --> 00:25:18.071
The picture doesn't show
that this guy has been going

00:25:18.071 --> 00:25:22.992
through town ordering, people
killed, killing people.

00:25:24.494 --> 00:25:27.705
Until you are a soldier,

00:25:27.705 --> 00:25:30.875
you cannot understand

00:25:30.875 --> 00:25:33.545
how they react to things.

00:25:33.545 --> 00:25:36.714
I can imagine my dad standing
right there seeing it,

00:25:38.675 --> 00:25:41.052
just how it would've affected him.

00:25:42.178 --> 00:25:46.349
You do not have their
experiences with war.

00:25:48.393 --> 00:25:49.894
- I don't know what I would do.

00:25:50.770 --> 00:25:55.358
I hope that I would be able
to have that discipline

00:25:55.358 --> 00:25:56.860
to not shoot the guy.

00:26:15.587 --> 00:26:19.090
- If you tell me,
identify him as the person

00:26:19.090 --> 00:26:20.341
that killed my family,

00:26:21.718 --> 00:26:25.179
I will say that I cannot
testify to that fact.

00:26:26.681 --> 00:26:28.683
I can't see his face.

00:26:30.435 --> 00:26:32.520
I'm speaking from a nine
years old perspective.

00:26:32.520 --> 00:26:33.813
I don't remember.

00:26:35.315 --> 00:26:36.566
- Even though I look at the picture

00:26:36.566 --> 00:26:38.484
and I see the horror in it,

00:26:41.154 --> 00:26:43.615
I don't see my dad as the
person in the picture,

00:26:43.615 --> 00:26:46.409
I see him as an entire person

00:26:46.409 --> 00:26:49.078
with all the experience I had with him.

00:26:54.125 --> 00:26:59.130
So I don't question

00:27:00.089 --> 00:27:01.090
what he did.

00:27:13.978 --> 00:27:16.940
- I have so much connection to this place.

00:27:16.940 --> 00:27:19.442
It's a place of reflection.

00:27:19.442 --> 00:27:24.072
Speak to me from a
connection to the old country,

00:27:24.072 --> 00:27:28.660
from a perspective of my new adopted home.

00:27:35.124 --> 00:27:37.669
I was lucky enough to be able to come here

00:27:37.669 --> 00:27:41.214
to America as refugee.

00:27:41.214 --> 00:27:43.466
That doesn't happen all
the time to everyone.

00:27:46.594 --> 00:27:49.514
We became part of this American fabric

00:27:49.514 --> 00:27:51.516
that we are building today.

00:27:53.726 --> 00:27:56.854
Joining the Navy is because
I want to repay that debt.

00:27:59.732 --> 00:28:03.236
I always wanted to
continue my father's legacy

00:28:04.445 --> 00:28:09.033
to do the thing that my
family would be proud of me.

00:28:09.033 --> 00:28:11.995
It is a great honor to attain the rank of Admiral,

00:28:11.995 --> 00:28:16.582
and I’m tremendously humbled to become the
first Vietnamese American

00:28:16.582 --> 00:28:20.086
to wear the flags insignia of
the United States Navy. 

00:28:27.135 --> 00:28:28.469
The refugees, we all go

00:28:28.469 --> 00:28:29.721
through the same steps.

00:28:30.805 --> 00:28:32.181
We all come over here.

00:28:32.181 --> 00:28:36.394
We all have to deal with all
the trauma that we experience,

00:28:37.645 --> 00:28:40.023
leaving our homeland,

00:28:41.315 --> 00:28:43.276
figuring out how to fit in,

00:28:44.986 --> 00:28:46.779
whether you ever fit in.

00:28:49.741 --> 00:28:51.242
What does it mean to be Vietnamese

00:28:51.242 --> 00:28:54.871
after 50 years not visiting Vietnam?

00:28:59.834 --> 00:29:02.754
Once you become very sure of yourself,

00:29:04.338 --> 00:29:08.885
you found yourself, you can have peace

00:29:08.885 --> 00:29:13.890
and be able to say, "Even
though I am an American,

00:29:16.476 --> 00:29:18.061
I'm a Vietnamese at heart.

00:29:20.480 --> 00:29:22.065
(music)

00:29:24.567 --> 00:29:29.572
- When the Vietnamese diaspora,
they lost the war, they came here.

00:29:30.448 --> 00:29:34.243
They never had a chance to have closure.

00:29:55.139 --> 00:30:00.103
- You still see the trauma
of war on both sides,

00:30:02.271 --> 00:30:06.192
and so how do we 
move forward togther?

00:30:33.511 --> 00:30:37.431
- Before I was very adamant
about not going back to Vietnam,

00:30:38.474 --> 00:30:43.479
because I felt that I
would be dishonoring my dad

00:30:49.068 --> 00:30:52.989
against communism and
protecting his country.

00:30:57.827 --> 00:31:00.955
But now, I've made peace with the fact

00:31:00.955 --> 00:31:04.709
that Vietnam is no longer the
Vietnam that I grew up in.

00:31:05.960 --> 00:31:09.005
My kids want to see Vietnam,

00:31:09.005 --> 00:31:12.717
where their parents came from.

00:31:12.717 --> 00:31:16.262
They've grown up with
the Vietnamese culture.

00:31:16.262 --> 00:31:19.765
They want to know their roots,

00:31:19.765 --> 00:31:21.809
and I think that

00:31:24.103 --> 00:31:26.731
I should not prevent that from happening.

00:31:32.653 --> 00:31:36.365
- Why I survive? Why me?

00:31:36.365 --> 00:31:38.201
That question always gnawed at me.

00:31:41.329 --> 00:31:45.416
I want that nine years
old little boy to move on

00:31:45.416 --> 00:31:47.668
and achieve greater things.

00:31:57.053 --> 00:31:58.346
(music)

00:31:59.764 --> 00:32:01.766
When I first came to the US,

00:32:01.766 --> 00:32:04.769
that's the first time I experienced peace

00:32:04.769 --> 00:32:06.979
and I'm wishing for
peace around the world.

00:32:10.024 --> 00:32:13.486
The Vietnamese will say
"Đất Lành Chim Đậu",

00:32:13.486 --> 00:32:18.115
it means that where you
have a blessed place,

00:32:18.115 --> 00:32:22.161
birds will stay there,

00:32:22.161 --> 00:32:24.497
will be there.

00:32:24.497 --> 00:32:27.208
(birds chirping)

00:32:35.675 --> 00:32:40.137
(music)

00:32:42.265 --> 00:32:46.727
(music)

00:32:51.023 --> 00:32:55.903
(birds chirping)

00:33:10.042 --> 00:33:14.505
(music)

00:33:21.595 --> 00:33:26.058
(music)

00:33:34.525 --> 00:33:38.988
(music)

00:33:49.373 --> 00:33:53.836
(music)

00:34:04.388 --> 00:34:08.851
(music)

00:34:18.194 --> 00:34:22.656
(music)

00:34:24.116 --> 00:34:28.996
(birds chirping)