San Diegan Says Pact Freeing Brother Is Overdue, Welcome

The recent accord between the United States and Vietnam that will allow as many as 100,000 former Vietnamese political prisoners to emigrate to the United States is a step toward correcting a 15-year-old mistake, said a San Diego resident whose brother has been allowed to join him.

“It’s bad enough the way the Americans ran that war, and it’s even worse the way they evacuated. There was no plan,” said Giao Nguyen, no relation to Tuoi, who hopes to see his brother, Tung, between today and Tuesday.

Although many people were evacuated by the United States, many more whose lives were in danger were left behind, said Giao, whose brother spent 11 years in Vietnamese re-education camps since 1975 in both the northern and southern parts of the country.

The accord was signed in Hanoi last July, 14 years after the fall of Saigon.

“Everybody wanted to get out (after the fall),” Giao said. “But you’ve got to have money to buy a place on the plane or on the boat, or you have to know the people who own the boat.”

But Giao also commended the Americans for having an evacuation plan at all, pointing out that the Soviets did not evacuate anyone when it left Afghanistan.

Most of the freed Vietnamese political prisoners arriving in the United States this weekend are former officers of the South Vietnamese military.

Tung served as an officer in the South Vietnam military security organization, and his duties included interrogating prisoners and gathering intelligence on enemy activities, which is why he was incarcerated for so long, Giao said.

Giao does not know where Tung, his eldest brother, is at the moment, but “all the information I got indicated that he will be in the first group that is released,” said Giao, a professor of business at National University.

Although Tung was released four years ago from the camps, he, his wife and their five children were not allowed to leave the country until now, Giao said. Since then, Tung and his family have operated a coffee shop in Saigon.

As Giao and his family boarded a U.S. military helicopter to leave the country in the spring of 1975, he and Tung discussed what arrangements they could make to get him out. That was the last time the two saw each other.

What is frustrating to Giao is not knowing why the Vietnamese government has released some while others remain imprisoned.

“Talking to those who escaped here lately, nobody understands (the government’s) policy on when and how or on what criteria they would be released,” Giao said, pointing out that some higher-ranking South Vietnamese military officials have been released while others remain in prison.

Giao believes that the recently released prisoners are being used as political pawns.

“The Vietnam government has control over the whole thing. They’re using it just like the bodies of the (U.S.) GI’s. It’s not so much that they care about the suffering of these prisoners. . . . To them, these prisoners are nothing,” said Giao, 42. “They do it because they want to get the Americans to terminate the trade embargo and get diplomatic relations with the United States, so they must do what the U.S. says, such as return bodies.”

But he doesn’t mind.

“We get something, the Vietnamese government gets something, and the U.S. feels better about their moral obligation. Had it not been for the American government, there’s no way these people would get released.”