Abstract

An oral history with Mrs. Diệu Trang Võ (or Lise Vo) born in Saigon in 1957.  Mrs. Diệu Trang Võ lived in the Republic of Vietnam until 1977 before leaving as a boat person, first landing in Malaysia and then receiving sponsorship to the US. The interview covers many aspects of her civilian life during the war and early communist occupation. She discussed her and her family’s experience of the buddhist crisis of 1963, including the viewing of a self-immolation in August 1963. She discussed her view of American soldiers, her experience sheltering in the battle of Đà Lạt and the fall of Saigon. She also discussed the occupation, living with communist soldiers and her escape from Vietnam. Mrs.Diệu Trang now lives in Orange County, CA.

Buddhism in Civilian Life

"I remember I was crying because I was thinking, it is so hard for somebody to have to go through that. It's uh, you know, I saw like somebody, a alive person in a torch, and it was really hard..."

Buddhism is important to our narrator’s history. Growing up in a devout family she observed the turmoils that took place in the “movement of asking for other religions to be accepted in the country” as she put it. These events included the jailing of her father who signed a letter for peace with the north, her mother’s sister, and her mother’s cousins jailed for being part of the movement. This cousin was 16 at the time.  Diệu Trang saw the movement for religious freedom saying: "it's really a big movement for the young people at the time who are not Christian. Yeah, they really have to fight in order to be free to worship Buddhism. "

These accounts match with the wide-scale rights abuses that occurred under the Ngô Đình Diệm Regime especially in 1963 against the Buddhist movement.  This particular season of unrest started with the May 9th incident, where 8 people were killed in Huế by government forces protesting a ban on religious flags. The outrage sparked nationwide protest building on a history of Diệm’s government bias towards the catholic minority and against the Buddhist majority. These protests would continue for months and face brutal government repression. She witnessed many of these demonstrations from her mother's phamarchy across from the parliament building in Saigon. She remembered how the police used tear gas to suppress these demonstrations. She also remembered seeing a self immolation in late August of 1963, she remembered crying having to see someone go through such pain.

Our narrator’s story gives us a glimpse of these wider events and how the aftermath affects people on a personal level. Beyond the violence of the arrest themselves is the disruption arrest causes on a family. Our narrators retell visiting her family in prison and learning what it meant to be in jail, how her mother cared for her father and other relatives going in and out of jail while still pregnant. 

South Vietnam's most powerful Buddhist leader Thic Tri Quang (L) arose out of three years of obscurity 3/31 to demand the ouster of President Thieu. Quang led a demonstration of monks, clerics and laymen from the An Quang Pagoda under banners demanding that Thieu resign. Quang was partially responsible for the overthrow of the late Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem in Nov., 1963.   Source:  Chapman University Digital Commons. 

Boat People     

"Dad won't let me go because I'm the only girl and knowing that, you know, boys are easier because they can take care of themselves. So girls isn't that easy. So Dad didn't want to let me go. But just the night before the boat left, my mom said to my dad, my mom said, You know what? I would rather let her die looking for freedom than let her stay here and die because of all the oppression that we're going through." 

In 1977, two years after the fall of Saigon, South Viet Nam was occupied by the North Vietnamese army, our narrator's family began to contemplate a plan to leave Viet Nam due to the immense oppression they faced. In fact, after the defeat of the Republic of Viet Nam, North Vietnamese soldiers occupied Lise's grandfather's house in Saigon. She recounts that about 175 soldiers lived in the house along with her extended family. What she witnessed from the winners of the war sparked sympathy for them. She remembers that they survived on small amounts of rice and muddy salt and have never seen modern innovations like garden hoses and air conditioners. Lise, as a young woman, saw past all of the political stances and rivalry, and saw the troops as humans who despite being winners of the conflict, did not have any more than her and her family had.

Due to the North Vietnamese' occupation of their house, planning an escape out of Viet Nam became extremely difficult. In 1977, her brother was drafted into the war and the family feared that he would never return if he joined. Therefore, her mother began to build a boat with nearby neighbors in order to help her brother escape. As the quote above states, she was never meant to follow in her brother's footsteps as this option was deemed too dangerous for a girl to embark on. This demonstrates an innate stereotype about women that they are fragile, unable to take care of themselves, and must submit to the patriarch of their family. Only through a strong persuasion from her mother was she offered a chance at freedom that was easily offered to her brother. As Lise's story suggests, women are not only capable of taking care of themselves, as she successfully immigrated to the United States and makes a new life for herself. They are also able to provide for their family, as her mother volunteered to take on jobs that would raise the family's social standing in the midst of a wartime environment.

Her journey as a boat person illustrates the fear, desperation, and struggles that it takes to reach safety and refuge and vivid this journey is in the eyes of a young woman far away from home.