Long Duong's experience in Vietnamese re-education camps

VIETNAM
Long Duong/lr
SR #22
Tape 3, Side 1
This Is WGBH Television, Vietnam, Number 13, we're on Sound Roll 22 and the head of picture roll 38, thousand hertz reference tone follows.
Electronic tone of long duration.
Speak.
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Sound 80.

Interviewer:

Let's talk about just before the end there, when you were still in Da Nang, what was happening, and what did you do about it?

Long Duong:

Uh, at that time, I um, I flew a helicopter at Da Nang Airbase in the First Air Division and when, um, when Da Nang fell, I, I flew, you know, to Saigon and stay at Tan Son Nhut Airbase.

Interviewer:

And, uh, in a few more days not too long after that, Saigon did fall as well. Why did you and your family decide to stay?

Long Duong:

Uh, we had so many reason, uh, one is, um...

Interviewer:

Uh, "There were many reasons why we decided to stay."

Long Duong:

Right, because uh, we...

Interviewer:

Full. Say a full sentence.

Long Duong:

Uh, we, we decided to stay because uh we thought that, y'know, after uh, the war is finish, uh, we can uh, we uh, could come back, no, with the normal, more life like all the people, so we decide to stay.

Interviewer:

And then, in a couple of weeks, something happened to you. Describe what happened.

Long Duong:

In a couple more weeks, the first, uh they call all of the enlisted men and the service men came to study for three days about the political, and after that, nothing happened to them. After that, about four or five days, they call all of the South Vietnamese officer, the rank from major to general, um, came to Sai—concentrate to study for one month.

And when, you know, uh when all of the, uh, all of the high rank officer, you know, came into the camp, they call um, the rank from warrant officer to captain. When...

Interviewer:

Hold it. Hold it. We've got a barking dog.

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Interviewer:

Okay. So let's start again with uh, how they first called the enlisted men.

Long Duong:

Right. The first, they call, uh, all of the enlisted men and uh, service men, went to study, uh, about political for three days. And after that, nothing happened to them. About five more days, they call all of the high rank officer from major to general, uh, went to see them for, uh, re-, re-, re-education.

And they told all of them they should bring, uh, the money and all things, you know, to study for one month. I didn't remember, you know, how much is that, you know, but, you know, they, um, told us to bring money, something like food; you know, and utility, everything.

And after, you know, the high rank officer, you know, they came into the camp, they call, uh, them, the, the officers has a rank from warrant to captain, went to study for seven days, and we should bring, you know, money, food, and the same thing to study for seven days.

Interviewer:

And what happened?

Long Duong:

Um, first uh, they uh, show us, uh, the place, uh, go to see them. Uh, I went to them, one school, ah, something like a high school, near Saigon, and at midnight, uh, they push all of us, you know, in the "molotova," this mean the convoy, and bring us to uh, into the camp.

Interviewer:

Cut.

Interviewer:

Speed.

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Interviewer:

Okay. Start again with when you went off to the camp yourself.

Long Duong:

Um, at that time they call me to go to see them, you know, in one high school near Saigon, uh, and a lot of the, um, former South Vietnamese officer, you know, they came here like me. Then, at midnight, uh, they push us in, in the convoy, that um, and bring us, uh, into the education camp.

Interviewer:

And uh, what sort of, what was the routine in the education camps at first?

Long Duong:

The first, that is the own base of from the US and the South Vietnamese force. You know, um, and when uh, they push us in there, right, they turn, they um, they make all thing around, you know, and thus look like, you know, something like a camera, the jail, something like that.

Interviewer:

And, what did you do during the day? And the evening?

Long Duong:

Uh, the, the, the first week, uh, we didn't do anything. We just, you know, built up, you know, something for sleeping, and you know for living. But at the second, second week, uh, they, oh, they told us, go to pick up the mines in around the base, something like that, [incomprehensible] something like that.

Interviewer:

And when did they start the oh, political lessons, and what were they like?

Long Duong:

Uh, like, like all the camp, uh, they have a ten, ten lessons. This mean, you know, they uh, introduce uh, themselves, you know, what is the Communist doing for our country?; and who is the US?; and the main idea of the US came to Vietnam, and how, how, how could we do, you know, to become a good citizen in a new, um, in the new general. Something like that.

Interviewer:

And how did you feel about that?

Long Duong:

The first, we trust them, um, we thought that, you know, maybe, you know, after, you know, uh, few lesson, we can come back, you know, to our family and live with a normal life, right? So all of us, you know, we tried to study and, and try to trust them.

Interviewer:

And then what happened?

Long Duong:

And after that, oh, about um, we have, uh, we had some question with them. Um, wha—why, why did, uh, you say that, you know, we study in seven days and right now, it’s one month.

[Thunder crashing in background.]

Interviewer:

Sorry.

Interviewer:

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Long Duong:

Uh, we had some question to ask them, why did, you know, you say that, you say that we study in, uh, seven days and we will come back, you know, uh, that, you will give us the free, you know, to come back to our family.

And, oh, they, oh, they say that because of the situations very bad now, and, and we serve, uh, for the long time with the US and the South Vietnamese government, right? So right now, you know, the government, they needs, you know, some more time to, uh, reeducate all of you. They say something like that.

Interviewer:

When did you realize that you were going to stay a long time? And how, how did you come to that realization?

Long Duong:

Hmm. After that, about three, four, or five years, uh, five months, sorry. Um...

Interviewer:

Let's start again.

Interviewer:

Yeah, why don't you just say that again?

Long Duong:

After that, about four months, uh, we had some people try to escape, you know, from uh, the camp, uh, and you know, say something, you know, against with them, and they kill them right away. You know, that's that's mean, you know, they pull, pull them out...

Interviewer:

Got a battery warning.

Interviewer:

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Long Duong:

After about four or five months, uh, some of us, uh, they tried to escape out of the camp and say something against, uh, the Communists, and they kill us right away. Even at night, we couldn't go to the bathroom at all, right? Because they brought them machin', machine gun right in the door, right? If, you know, we, oh, even if we went to the bathroom, right? No way to go.

If we went out of the door, they uh, shoot us right away. At the time, right, I, um, I couldn't believe them anymore because I saw that, right? They um, they didn't think us like our people, right? They uh, only and they, oh, and by themselves, right? They tried to kill us, right? So, you know, I didn't trust them at all.

Interviewer:

How many camps were you in all together?

Long Duong:

I, I been, uh, about more than twenty camps from South and North Vietnam.

Interviewer:

And over how long a period of time and when did they move you from the South to the North?

Long Duong:

Around one year from the South, when, uh, a lot of our pe— our people, we tried to escape out the camp, and they, um, pick up and they say like, you know, most of the, um, officers have a high rank, from captain uh, most of them are the pilot, and security officers, something like that, and the special force, and they, um, they brought us uh, to the North Vietnam.

Interviewer:

And what was it like there? Was it different? And in what way?

Long Duong:

Um, the camp from the North is, uh...

Interviewer:

Just ran out...

Relocation to the North

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Interviewer:

Long, I'd like you, if you will please, to describe the trip from the camp in the South to the camp in the North.

Long Duong:

At midnight, uh, they called, uh, our name and they check, you know, all you know, the heavy thing, and they throw it away, and they push us in the convoy, and they bring us go to the new part. You know, that’s, um, it's a big river, and they, uh, at midnight, they push us, you know, in them, in the small ship, a name like oh, Sung Hoo.

That's oh, the business ship before of the South Vietnamese government. That ship is very small, and we thought that only, you know, about a few hundred people, but the ship, you know, they wait until four o'clock in the morning, and every hour they push in more people, you know, now, in the ship.

And at least we, we have no place to sit down, only standing. And I didn't realize, you know, how many people on, over there, right? But, you know, for myself, where I, I couldn't breathed, even am young and I was strong. You know, and uh, in the morning, the ship start going, uh, uh, in the east direction out to the ocean.

At first, we thought that you know, they, uh, mmm, brought out to the Phu Quoc island. That mean the "place before." We, um, we put, uh, the Comm, the Communists prisoner in there. But, you know, after the sec, second day, uh, we thought that was wrong, and at that time, right? Because oh, you know, that's terrible condition, right? We couldn't breath even eating or didn't do anything, right?

Some old people, you know, and was, uh, would die, and they threw them in the ocean. I didn't remember how many people die, right? But that was very terrible in three days and three nights to North Vietnam by the trip of that ship.

Interviewer:

What happened to you in the camp? There was, uh, you were tortured. Why were, how were you tortured and why were you tortured?

Long Duong:

Hmm, the reason, the, the main reason, uh, after two or three years, we um, we be, we became, uh, starving. You know, because every day, right? They gave us only a little bit, about, um, a quarter of kilo potato, or even, you know, one corn like this, right? For all day long, right?

So all of us, we know, we start, um, starving, and we should survive by ourselves, right? So sometime when we ate everything, sometime we ate frog or even lizard. Everything's movement, we tried to catch it and eat it because ah we was very hungry and sometime we stolen something to eat. Everything. And if oh, they uh, they saw, saw that, you know, then we were beaten up.

Interviewer:

Is that what happened to you?

Long Duong:

Ah, a couple times.

Departure from the camps and flight from Vietnam

Interviewer:

How did you ever get out of there?

Long Duong:

Um, in, in the end of 1980, ah, I um, I was very sickness. I had, oh, uh, something like cholera. And the doctor, he said that only two more weeks, you know, I uh, I uh, I will dead, right? So, you know, maybe that's the main reason and they release me at that time with uh, other fifty old people to Saigon.

Interviewer:

And how did you finally leave Vietnam? And when?

Long Duong:

Uh, I left, uh, Vietnam from April, 1981. By boat. To Malaysia.

Interviewer:

And then how long did it take for you to come to America?

Long Duong:

Um, I, uh, I was lucky because most of the refugee people, they been in the camp, uh, at least from one to two years. For myself, uh, I had, uh, one of my brother, ah he, uh, was a refugee before and he had a heart attack and, so, by that reason, um, they let me, you know, came to United States soon.

And all the other reason, you know, because I came to the United State before from 1969 for helicopter training so, you know, maybe that's easy for me. So I been in the, in the refugee camp around one month and half, that's all.

Interviewer:

Cut.

Description of life at the camps

Interviewer:

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Long Duong:

Um, I could remember one time when I, um, I tried to catch one frog, you know, for eating...

Interviewer:

Oh, I'm sorry. I couldn't get the exposure. Would you just start again?

Interviewer:

Sorry.

Interviewer:

Okay. Yeah, one...

Long Duong:

One, one time I, uh, I ss, start to catch, catch, uh, you know, one frog for eating, and you know, one of the, you know, um, police, you know, Communist police, he saw that and he, um, first, he tried to, to yell me. Um, after that, you know, um, I say, you know, something, you know, bad, you know, with him, something like, you know, because your people let, you know, let uh, us, uh, starving, right so, you know, I should eat everything.

Um, and after that, you know, um, he hit me, you know, with the weapon, you know, right on my head, you know, but I, um, I didn't excuse anything, right, so he start to, to push me in the little room. Like I said before, right, they make, you know, five hole in the piece of wood...

Interviewer:

You wanna change the focal lens? Just, don't say "Like I said before," just describe what they had...

Long Duong:

Right. Okay. Um, they, um, they um, they push into very small room and they make, um, they make something like a locker by one piece of wood with a five hole, one hole for the neck, two hole for hands, and two hole for feets, and they, um, push all of my body in there and they lock it up and they, uh, left me like that for one week.

After that, right, for two days, I, I couldn't stand up, right? Because, um, all of my body, you know, just like a roll, something like that for one week. But after that, you know, for five or one week, I came back to normal.

Interviewer:

Cut.