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Army Values

a minimal amount of rice and other crops. oldest brother, was able to find someone organizing a secret From FREEDOM, page 2
“They would have their patrols come down to each trip to escape Vietnam.
gerous journey of my life in the pursuit of freedom, our boat
house in the village and inspect what food and crops each Four attempts at escape landed to the coast of Malaysia and we were admitted into the
household had, based on their headcounts,” wrote Nguyen. It took four attempts before the three Nguyen boys es- refugee camp in Pulau Bidong, Malaysia,” Nguyen said in his
“I think this is the principal failure in communism. After caped. After paying an organizer, they timed their escape after speech. “After spending seven months in the refugee camp in
the villagers knew that they couldn’t keep enough rice and Christmas 1979, when the Pacific Ocean would be calmer for Malaysia, my two older brothers and I arrived to Washington
other crops to feed them and their family for the entire year the next three months. DC in July 1980.”
anyway, people started not to make so much crops, because Thanh was then working in Saigon, so the boys and their
they realized that the more they labored to grow crops, the mother planned carefully to meet each other in a small coastal Nguyen’s older sister, who had married a U.S. Army officer
more they would have to sell their crop at a dirt cheap price village in southern Vietnam, without letting the locals know in 1973, was living in Arlington, Va. She took them in for a
to the communist government.” they knew each other. With so many strangers coming to the few years, until they were able to go off on their own, finding
village for the same reason, suspicions were raised, and the first jobs and completing their education with scholarships, grants,
Revolt against the regime three attempts at escape on Dec. 27 were called off. and part-time jobs on and off campus.
The next year, in 1978, Nguyen’s father learned from a Their organizer kept trying. Early on the morning of Dec.
fellow farmer that former South Vietnamese soldiers were or- 28, the brothers were told to join about 40 other people on By 1992, Nguyen, his two brothers and sister were able to
ganizing a guerilla force and recruiting volunteers for a major two ferries to an island off the coast. Once there, they quickly sponsor their parents and three other sisters to leave Vietnam
uprising with help from the United States. dispersed in small groups of twos and threes. and live in the United States. In 2003, his father passed away at
D-day never came. A week before the planned uprising, At 6:50 pm that evening, they were all told to board a tiny the age of 87. In 2010, his mother passed away at the age of 87.
communist soldiers in jeeps went to houses where the secret boat that would transfer them to a bigger boat.
members lived and arrested them. About a week later, com- In his speech on May 13, Nguyen glossed over his earlier The price of freedom
munist channels broadcasted news that the regime had arrested account of their harrowing story at sea, on a boat with a bro- Nguyen closed his speech here by saying:
thousands of members of para-military organizations, mostly ken engine, being robbed by Thai and Malaysian pirates, and “I’d like to take this opportunity to thank America for her
from central to southern Vietnam. Most of those arrested were having their rickety boat towed closer to a Malaysian island open arms and her generosity. I salute you all, our men and
20 to 50-year-old men. by a passing cargo ship. women who serve in the U.S. armed forces. I want you to
Nguyen believes his father wasn’t arrested because the au- “The fourth attempt was a success and we were able to walk away from this event today with the same lessons that I
thorities believed that as a 61-year old, his father was too old board our boat that night. After six days and seven nights on learned – that when we lose our country, we lose everything.
and weak to be a militant. a tiny wooden boat in what turned out to be the most dan- We lose our family, our future, our livelihood, our dignity and
The family bided their time. After five years, Thanh, the our very basic right as citizen. Remember, the power of your
mind will let you survive your adversities, as long as you have
the will to use it and fight against your adversities.”

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