Escape from Vietnam

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, April 30th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Finding family.

Fifty years ago, communist forces of the Northern Vietnamese Army captured the South Vietnamese capital. The fall of Saigon effectively ended the war.

MAST: In the weeks leading up to it, thousands of South Vietnamese citizens evacuated.

Eleven-year-old Hung Le was one of them. Now, he’s 61, and says the experience shaped his life and faith. WORLD reporter Jenny Rough brings us his story.

JENNY ROUGH: Hung Le loved to play “America” as a boy. He imagined his entire family in a big house. And piles of snow, something he’d only seen in pictures.

HUNG LE: We knew about America because of the American soldiers who lived around us and near us. They were our heroes. I loved them.

Le and his seven siblings grew up Catholic outside Saigon during the Vietnam War. Each family member had a war bag, a suitcase of important papers, photos, and other necessities.

LE: If the war ever reached us, we would take the bag and run. To where, I don’t know.

As the North Vietnamese Army drew closer, Vietnamese citizens scrambled to evacuate.

ITV SOUND: [Explosion and artillery]

AP: Hundreds scrambled in panic onto any boats they could reach, not caring how they got aboard or what they left behind.

Le’s cousin had been given plane tickets to America for his family. His son had died at birth and the death had never been declared, so he had an extra.

Le’s parents sold all they could to buy that ticket.

LE: Mom didn’t say ‘we are going.’ In my games, in my imagination, it was all of us going together. She said ‘you are going.’ My first response was no, I’m not going.

Le was 11 the day his parents sent him off on the back of a motorcycle—without them.

LE: He handed me my little suitcase and I hopped on his motorcycle. And I turned around, and I saw my dad weeping.

At a refugee camp two weeks later, Le saw a notice.

LE: Saigon has fallen.

NBC NEWS: The city of Saigon was renamed today.

CBS EVENING NEWS: by the Viet Cong Ho Chi Minh City… Communist tanks.

NBC NEWS: broke through the gate of the President’s Palace in Saigon.

LE [cont]: And at that moment I remember thinking ‘Oh, no.’ I felt really alone. … There was now a wall between me and my family.

Eventually, Le moved to Washington state. He knew three English words: “yes,” “no,” and “bus.” Life in America wasn’t as he’d imagined. Living with his cousin was harsh.

LE: He was very abusive. ... I would have bruises all over. … He basically said, if you say anything, he said, I can report you because you're here illegally and you will be deported.

Le kept silent. He knew he had a job to do.

LE: I had to rescue my family. And so imagine this 11, 12, 13-year-old having this weight. … I really believed that somehow I was earning some goodness points. … That God would somehow redeem this pain by bringing my family over.

When a neighbor discovered the abuse, she took him in as a foster son.

LE: And they were this incredibly loving family. It’s like literally going from hell to heaven.

Life stabilized. He got a pet goldfish. Learned to ride a bike. His foster family helped straighten out his paperwork and legalize his immigration. They also tracked down his family in Vietnam. Family letters were confiscated, so Le had to write to his sister as a friend.

LE: and I found out my dad had been captured and put in a re-education camp.

If Le’s dad wanted to be released, he had to join the Communist party and denounce his faith. He refused and remained in the camp.

Meanwhile, Le’s sister planned to sneak out of the country by boat. He was terrified. And his worst nightmare came true. Pirates seized the boat.

LE: They stole everything. They harmed the women and they–they took all the water—they took all the supplies … And she went several days without water.

She begged and begged for a drink. Finally, someone gave her water. But the water had come from the engine. The acid ate through her stomach lining, and she died.

LE: I remember just crumpling. Going to my room and just screaming. … I sobbed all night. I was in so much pain that night, just physical pain. I remember touching my hair and it hurt. Everything in me just hurt.

Le woke up angry at everyone, especially God.

LE: I had this notion about God that, you know, if you were good, you were rewarded, if you were bad, you were punished. And so, what did I do that was so bad that you will kill my sister over it?

He lost his taste for food, for school — for everything. Oddly, Le’s atheist friend encouraged him to rethink his faith. He’d been going to a Presbyterian church with his foster family. That night, Le uttered an honest prayer.

LE: I felt like God was okay with me questioning him and he was okay with me saying, I’m really mad at you. And that I didn’t have to earn his love.

It was the beginning of a new relationship. Less transactional and more relational.

He bought a Bible at a garage sale for a dollar and read it cover-to-cover. His favorite passage was John 20, where Mary wept outside Jesus’ tomb then heard him call her name. Le was baptized his freshman year in college.

Eventually, he moved to New York to work as a consultant.

LE: Whenever someone gives me a lead, I follow it… And I would tell my story to anyone who would listen.

That included a congressman who told Le one of two things had to happen: either an act of the government or a miracle of God.

In 1989, the U.S. implemented a change to the Orderly Departure Program, a resettlement plan for people from Vietnam. It added a special category for those who had been detained in a re-education camp for three or more years. Like his dad.

LE: His stubborn faith kept him in jail for six years. … So you see, it was a miracle of God.

—and an act of government. Both. In 1990, now married to his wife, Corinne, the Les moved to California. The following year, Le drove to LAX to finally reunite with his parents and siblings arriving from Vietnam. The international terminal was jammed. He waded through the sea of noisy crowds, searching. And then suddenly: He heard his mother’s voice call his name: Hung.

LE: It’s God’s perfect timing. I’m just grateful. I’m so grateful.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Rough.

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