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Today is February 9th, 2020. We're here at Dr. Dy Nguyen's home, interviewing him for the Houston Asian American Archive.

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My name is Priscilla Li. My name is Gordan Liu. Ok. So the first question is when and where were you born? I was born in North Vietnam in a small province called Hai

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Duong about 50 kilometers from Ha Noi. And I was born in 1941. How would you describe the household you grew up in? Can you say it again? How would you describe the household you grew up in?

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Um, I was born in a village but not in the city, so I was a country boy until I was ten before we came over to live in the city.

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So, during a - when I - from the age age of one to six, I think it was peaceful, but, from the six until the age of ten or so, this

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is the war between the French and the Vietnamese and we had to move from one village to another to avoid the the fighting, and sometimes we had to live along the river on the

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boat. And so uh, there was- from the- the um- until the age of six, I had a very peaceful childhood in a countryside and it's- it's very nice.

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How many - Did you have any siblings? I had at that time- totally totally- I'm the oldest in a family of ten. But during that time there

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were only four of us. What responsibilities did you have as the oldest sibling? Hm? What responsibilities did you have as the oldest sibling? Um, at that

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time, even I'm the oldest one, but I'm still very young, so not much responsibility, but later on, being the eldest son in a family of ten, at one time, all my

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brother and sister lived with me and they are under my care for everything. But my- my- my parents sometimes they were busy, so that's why they

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would all- almost all my brother and sister to live with us. That would be me and my wife. What did your parents do for their jobs?

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Um, my mother was just a house- housewife. She just doesn't work. But when both of them

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were in the countryside, they were land owners, like farmers. But they don't do farming; they hire people to do farming for them, so they had an easy life in the countryside, but, as the war

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progressed, we had to leave the countryside to move to the city, then my father had to work as a teacher. And then later on he worked with the-

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he worked with the s- the government. And my mother she- she was too busy with all of us, so she had to stay home as homemaker. So do you know how many places you moved to?

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You said you moved from village to village. Um, I don't recall much but we had to move from one village to another. At one time we had to live- and most of the time we had to live in

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Catholic villages because Catholic villages are- were relatively safe in term of uh- any problem with- with the French soldiers because uh-

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they tend to respect the village that are 100% Catholic. So at times, we lived in- we're not Catholic, but we lived in Catholic villages during

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the war in, in, in Vietnam- in North Vietnam- the war- I mean the war between the Viet Minh the Vietnamese Communists- and the French. We call it First Vietnam War. Were you expected to practice Catholic religion or you

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just lived in the villages? No we- none of us- none of us was Catholic at that time. But do you have- do you practice any other religion?

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Um, my parents they Buddhist. But my wife is Catholic. My children are Catholic.

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I'm not yet or anything yet. So. Okay, and then you said you moved to the city. What city was that? Uh, it's the city of Hai Duong.

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H-a-i D-u-o-n-g, 50 kilometers from uh Ha Noi. Hai Duong at that time is safe because it is the- one of the provinces controlled by the

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Nationalists- Nationalists Vietnamese government allied with the French. And they are allied with the French to fight the Vietnamese communists, which is the other side of the war. So we

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joined the, the- my father left the Vietminh side and he joined the Nationalist side of the Vietnamese government and we worked for the Vietnamese government.

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Do you know why he- why- why he switched? There were a lot of people that were switching um, I have no idea exactly why but, one of the reason is he didn't like the communism.

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He didn't like the way they control the people. So, that's why he left their front and joined the Nationalist front. So can you describe your school in Vietnam?

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Like any subjects that interested you in school? Well, you're talking about a time when I was young in Vietnam- in- in North Vietnam. Yeah I was uh, in primary school, so, because the war, most

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of time, we had homeschooling. My parents hired a teacher and teach a few of us at our- at our home. How would you describe the values that your parents raised you with?

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Hm? The values that your parents raised you with? How would you describe them? I don't quite understand. Um. So can

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you use the other wording? What did your parents want you guys to um- What did they want you guys to prioritize in- what did they teach you guys how to be the best people

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you guys could be? Well, like I said, during the war when I was young, and when I was at the village, I had homeschooling by home teacher.

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So, mainly- I think they pushed- stressing on how to read- how to do calculations more than anything else. But as soon as I was in the city, I attend public

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schools, and public schools in Vietnam at that time was pretty good. Everything was in Vietnamese. It's not in French anymore.

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How old were you when you moved to the city? I was ten when I moved to the city. And it was in 1951 or something when I became a city

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boy. And I lived in city of Hai Duong for about two years and then I moved to Hanoi, which is the capital city- which was capital city of the North at that time. I lived in Hanoi and attend the

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high school in Hanoi for about one year before we moved to the South because of the separation of Vietnam into two countries at that time: North and South Vietnam.

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Um, how would you describe that move, like, during those years, um— Um, in 1954 there was a ceasefire agreement between the Vietminh, Vietnamese

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Communist, and the French. And Vietnam was divided into two countries, North and South. North belonged to the Communist and Vietnam become a Communist North Vietnam and

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the South is, is a Nationalist Vietnam, called Republic of South Vietnam. So at that time, people were given 300 days to decide the area they would like

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to settle down. So that means that people from either side, they have 300 days, either to stay in where they are, or move

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to the regime of their choice. So I think almost 1 million North Vietnamese decided to move South, just not to be

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with the Communist North. And our family were, was among those people moving to the South. So we move to the South and settle in the South and to become

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citizen of the South Vietnamese government. South Vietnam, Republic of Vietnam. Um, and you said your father worked for the South Nationalist— Uh, my father worked with the government at the time,

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so we didn’t have any problem when we moved South as a whole family because his, he worked with the government. Whether it’s North or South, it’s still the same salary and everything, but

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anyway the settlement of our family in the South was very smooth. And I think mainly due to the efforts of the South Vietnamese President at the time, President Ngo Dinh Diem.

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So he did very good, very good job in settling 1 million north Vietnamese refugees in the South, and within a very short time, we are settled in the South, well integrated into the life of the-

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in the South. And naturally we speak the same language so we are still speaking Vietnamese. So uh, even the accent a little bit a little bit different from North Vietnamese accent and South Vietnamese accent, but

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I think the settlement at that time for our family was very easy, very smooth. Just like you move from Washington, DC to Austin, Texas here.

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So did you continue high school in South Vietnam? Oh yes, yes. At that time, I was in high school and my old school in Hanoi also moved with me to the South, so I attended the same school, same

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teachers, everything in the South. So, the whole school moved South, everybody, students, teachers. Oh, okay.

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And I don’t know if you mentioned, but what city in the South did you move to? Uh, the city in the South we lived in is Saigon, which is the capital city of South Vietnam at that time.

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And then how did— can you describe your journey, or what happened after high school after graduating high school? I graduated from high school in 1959. At that time, I was 18.

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I joined the military medical school, to become a military doctor. The reason I joined the military school, was I didn’t have to pay tuition for that, and furthermore I received

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stipends from the military to continue my studies until I became a doctor. I had to serve the army to pay back for my years

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at the medical school. But this was a military school, so I had to train military every summer- every summer, instead of having a summer time for me, I have to go to-

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for two months of training in in one of the South Vietnamese training schools. So it’s fun to be in the military training at different schools, one

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school each year. So it’s a good experience. I enjoy, get good experience also. How long was military school?

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Hm? How long was military school? How long? How long- mhm, how many years? Oh, you’re talking about military- military medical school? Yes, yeah.

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Um, the military medical school is the same as civilian medical school, and in Vietnam, it was six years. Right now, I don’t know if they changed it, but six years instead of four years in

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the US. But we only have one year pre-med. But here, the pre-med years are usually four, before you go to medical school. Medical school is only four years, but in Vietnam, we

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have one year pre-med, and then we- if we pass the exam entrance exam, we go to the school, medical school. Medical school at that time is six years. How many people were in your class like training to be a physician with you?

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Hm? How many people were in your class who were training as well? Um, the class size was very small at that time. I believe my class size about 30, yeah, but this is military school.

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The civilian school is about 150, or 200. I think around that number, or usually less. So can you describe after you- so what year did you graduate from military?

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I graduated in 1966 from the military school and became a military doctor. So at that time, they sent me to serve in the military

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units in the second tactical zone. You know at that time South Vietnam was divided into four tactical zones, and each zone was controlled by different

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administrators and generals. So I served the South Vietnamese army in the second zone which includes the coastal

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cities in the middle of Vietnam and also the highland areas in Vietnam. And how would you describe- what kind of duties you had as a military doctor? Can you say that again? What kind of responsibilities did you have?

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Oh, I served four provinces in the second tactical zone. The first province was Khanh Hoa, the second one was Ninh Thuan, the third one was Lam Dong, and the last one was Tuyen Duc.

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All of them are next to one another. Two were in the highlands, two were in the coastal area. Um, I was a commander of a clearance company. So in term of medical supply- medical support

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for the Vietnamese military at that time, we had about four levels of support, for medical support. The first level was done b the battalion surgeon, the so called medical doctor was

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assigned to mainly each fighting battalion. And he was the head of a team of medics and first aid people and his job was mainly

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to take care of wounded, right at the field. And the second level of support was done by clearance company which is like my company.

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So we were second in the line receiving wounded soldiers from the front line. We did the triage to send them back to the front, or to treat them if we could not evacuate

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them. First job was to do the triage, to stabilize them then send back to the military hospital, which was about- usually in nearby, two hour by air ambulance from the area of operation.

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And that’s a second level. The third level we had a field hospitals. Almost each province had a field military hospital, and in which definitive treatment

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could be done in a very short time. And the last support was what you called a military general hospital, and there were two of them, one in Saigon and one at the Northern part of South

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Vietnam, which is the city of Da Nang. So we had one general hospital in the South and one general military hospital up in the north. And and for the field hospitals, there were about 20 or

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something, or 25, I don’t know exactly. Almost each province, almost we had one field military hospital to take care of the wounded within that province. So the medical support for

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the fighting people, fighting soldiers in South Vietnam during the war I think was really, really, good. Very well set up and very well manned. I have to say that due to our

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monopoly or superiority in the air, ie we controlled the air space, the transportation of the wounded, from one point to another was usually carried out by helicopters,

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and mainly US military helicopters. Very efficiently, very fast. To the point that the majority of our wounded soldiers were treated definitively at a military

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hospital within an hour from the time that they were wounded in the battlefield. Which is very, very good. And it helped a lot in

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reducing the mortality I mean the in hospital mortality of the wounded soldiers. It’s much lower in the Vietnam War than in the Korean War. I think the hospital mortality of the wounded soldiers

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in the Vietnam War was 1 or 2%, but in Korean War, it was around 5 or 6%. So that improvement was due to how fast they were

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transported from the battlefield to the hospitals. And so, during the war, I was at the second line of medical support. The first line, I said was the battalion aid station, and

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second line was clearance company like mine. Yes, I was commander of the clearance company working in those four provinces. Uh, mine was the second line of

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support. And the third line was a field hospitals, and the fourth was the general hospital. What kind of lessons did you learn in your times as a military doctor? Can- What kind of lessons did you-

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Um, I think I gained a lot of experience in doing all kind of surgery on them. I was well trained to be, to be a military surgeon ie to take care of the

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war injuries mainly. So since I had to do surgery on so many of them, and I had to learn by myself, through books.

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I gained a lot of experience doing surgery on them. And I’m very happy that I had a chance to use my knowledge and my skill to help them survive

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their injuries. And I always thank them for what they were doing. Because they were at the front line and because of them, I was safe in the back,

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in the rear to help them survive their injuries. I’m very thankful to all of them. Every time, I did my best to help them survive. But the worst

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scenario was to take care of the dead. Because it was very sad job to deal with the, with the family of the dead soldiers.

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They came from all over the country to receive the bodies of their loved ones. So it was one of the saddest part of my

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responsibilities, which was dealing with the dead bodies. At times, there were so many of them. We kept them because, it took days for their loved ones to come from other, from far away to receive

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them. How did you change as a person through your time in the military? Hm? How did you grow or change as a person through your time in the military? How do I grow as a person?

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Uh, when I graduated from the military school as a military doctor, I was 26. And I served for about 6 years during the war in Vietnam as a commander of

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a company. I had under me about 30 or 40 people, including doctors, pharmacists, and, and nurses,

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and other technicians. So, I have to say it sometimes was not easy, to deal with them, to be the one who makes decision for all these things.

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And, but, life was much easier in the military because we work by the military discipline. So you give order, and it’s their job to obey the

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order. So giving orders had to be done at the right time. As far as the patient's care was concerned, I think it was straightforward, because

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we had learned how to do things in school. So when you received a large amount of patients at the same time, you had to make a choice to treat which one, or not to treat.

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So you had to separate them into different categories, yeah salvageable or not salvage- salvageable. The ones that need to be evacuated immediately, or the ones that need surgery immediately.

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You had to make the choice very quickly, and within very short time you had to put a label on them to indicate your choice. Okay, we identified the ones that would not need anything from us, and the ones that would need

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immediate care, otherwise they would die very shortly. Either they lose their life, or they lose their limbs. So these were our first priority for us to take care of, either send them to the hospital,

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and if we were not able to get the air evacuation we had to do surgery on them immediately. At times, we had to do surgery 24 hours straight, because we not all the

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time we could get them evacuated to the back, to the hospitals. But we military doctors were busy, at times.

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There were days where we did not have anything. Or very light casualties. But at big battles, you had 50 or more wounded easily.

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And like I said, along with them, we receive dead soldiers to take care of until their family could come to take them back for burial in their, in their native place, their

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cities. Can you describe your view of the United States’ intervention in the Vietnam War? Can you say it again? Can you describe what you thought of the Vietnam War?

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Well, the view, my view on the Vietnam War varies from the time I was there, and now when I’m older and I see all the things. Okay, when I was there, I was very glad

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to have the US military, as our ally. And because of US intervention there, we never thought we would lose the

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war. South Vietnam was a very small country, but we want to be on our own. We don’t want to be part of the big united Vietnam, which was a Communist country.

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So we want to be a free South Vietnam. I was so glad to have the US military to help us to maintain our independence.

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And at that time, I never thought that we going to lose the war, because we have an ally, which is the leader of the free world, and with American military power, which is tremendous.

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And so I I was so complacent, like many of us. And we think we never would lose the war. We may lose one city, but we would get it back.

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Later on, we never think that the American will leave Vietnam and leave us to fight, on our own. So we were so complacent, we relied too

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much on the US support, and we forgot that we had to be self sufficient. And maybe it was one of the reason,

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one of the weaknesses of the South Vietnamese, in general at that time. That’s my thinking about the US intervention.

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At that time, we received everything from the US. My hospitals, my equipment, my everything was very well supplied by the US. So

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my view was that we were so glad to get help from the US, to fight the Communist North, which like to unify the two Vietnam

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under the Communist regime. We like to be on our own, like West Germany, like South Korea. We don’t want to be incorporated into

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North Vietnam, under the Communist control. From your time in the military, how would you describe- how did you come to the US? Uh, can you say that again? Um, how did you come to the US from Vietnam?

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Oh, in ‘72, there was Paris agreement and there was ceasefire between the US and the North Vietnamese. And at that time, we were thinking that there was peace.

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I was discharged from the military to join the teaching staff in Saigon medical school. And I became a surgeon at the

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teaching hospital in Saigon for about two years. And in October 74, I was sent to the United States for a surgical fellowship, one year fellowship. So it was supposed to be a very short time,

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for my training, extra training in surgery in the United States, for just one year fellowship. So that’s why I was in the US in October of 1974.

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Um and where in the US did you do your fellowship? Hm? Where in the US were you at for your fellowship? Um, I was sent to- first I was sent to Washington, DC for orientation. As a foreign medical-

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foreign student, not medical only, we are very well treated by the US government. We were well received by everybody at the Department of

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State. We were introduced to American life, American history, American government system, and we were invited to the Kennedy

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Center and the museum, everything. So I spent two week as a foreign student in Washington DC, and then I was sent to the place where I did the fellowship.

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The first place I was in- in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and it was in the middle of winter at that time. It was too cold for people like me

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coming from a tropical climate to a very severe winter time in Pennsylvania. So within a month or so, I asked to be moved to the South, and they

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approved my request. I was sent to San Antonio and I loved the weather there during the winter time, in San Antonio which is very, very, very

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easy for me. It is not a severe winter. So I stay in San Antonio until, until April ‘75, when the

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South Vietnamese government ceased to exist. In April 1975, South Vietnam was defeated and North Vietnamese came to take over and there was

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unification between North and the South to become The Socialist Republic and Vietnam. So suddenly, I became a stateless citizen.

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So by that time, I was given a choice to become a refugee in the United States or to register to go back through the United Nations

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Refugee program. So there was only two choices, and my choice was to stay in the US as a refugee. And I was granted refugee status in May 1975.

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Can you talk more about- or so your family was in Vietnam at that time? Your family was still in Vietnam? My family was still in Vietnam when I was in US to

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do my fellowship. But before the end of Vietnam War -Vietnam War ended when Communist soldiers took over Saigon in

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April the 30th. My family left South Vietnam, left Saigon three days before that, so on the 27th of April my wife and my three small children were at The Subic

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Bay. And later on they joined me in the US, as refugees as well. And you said Sweet Bay? Hm? Subic Bay.

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Subic Bay. It’s, it’s a US Navy base in the Philippines. Oh okay. Subic Bay. S-U-B-I-C. Okay. Okay, thank you.

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And then, how did you meet your wife? Huh? How did you meet your wife? Well, we lived in same neighborhood and her brother was classmate of mine at high school.

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That’s why I met her when we are very young. So, I think we know each other for years before we got married.

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What year did you marry? It was in 1967. I was 25 at that time. Just graduated from medical school.

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And then going back to your time- beginning years in the United States. Um, what kind of barriers did you experience? Um,

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I studied medicine in French language with French teachers. So I was very familiar with French language. But during the war, because sometimes I had to

00:42:33.600 - 00:42:46.960

work with military, American military doctors, so I learned how to speak English a little bit. But before coming to

00:42:46.960 - 00:43:03.050

the US for my fellowship, I attended for one whole year the English classes as a second language. And I thought my English was very good at that time,

00:43:03.720 - 00:43:22.590

until I met the doctor who came to greet me in Honolulu. I found out that my English was terrible, was not enough for anything. But the biggest surprise was when I had to work in hospital in

00:43:22.590 - 00:43:39.000

Pittsburgh as a doctor. And the majority of my patients were elderly patients who have never met a foreigner, even foreign doctors, and naturally because they were

00:43:39.000 - 00:43:57.680

old, they--most of them were toothless, they have no teeth. They speak very differently. Very difficult for me to communicate, so it was, it was a very difficult time for me to function

00:43:58.320 - 00:44:13.830

as intern during the first three months in US, because of English barrier. And it took me a lot of effort to get used to the new language. And I

00:44:14.010 - 00:44:35.130

think I was okay only after three of four months at work. But, even now I’ve been here over 40 years and I’m still not very comfortable with English. I feel much more comfortable with my

00:44:35.130 - 00:44:50.780

native language, which is Vietnamese. So, now I understand English better, I speak a little better. But it’s still my second language as you know. But the first three months as a doctor

00:44:52.520 - 00:45:12.700

in the US hospital was a terrible time for me mainly because of the English language barrier. Um, the most difficult things for me to grasp that time is for me to listen to people talking about

00:45:13.100 - 00:45:27.770

numbers and names, especially when I received reports from the nurses through the telephone line. I had a very difficult time

00:45:29.500 - 00:45:41.550

understanding and grasping the names and the numbers they reported. Every time they reported, we had to go with the name of the patient.

00:45:42.670 - 00:46:00.330

And you had to go with the numbers of the lab work, lab data they received. And those things are very difficult to catch when your, when the listening is not that good yet. Um, as far as the reading was concerned,

00:46:01.060 - 00:46:12.420

I had no problem. As far as the writing was concerned, I had no problem. Listening and understanding the conversational English is, is very

00:46:12.420 - 00:46:22.340

difficult, was very difficult for me at that time. How about medical terms, um- Um, we have no problem with that. Because of the American textbooks we used.

00:46:22.340 - 00:46:39.310

I was very fluent in English as far as reading and writing is concerned. The problem is conversation. Were there other

00:46:39.380 - 00:46:57.160

Vietnamese physicians you worked with? There were a few of us doing the fellowship at that time. But not many, like now, because really by- at the time when I was

00:46:57.160 - 00:47:12.480

in US, there were very, very few Vietnamese. Them- most of them were in the military doing their training in the US. And you said you were in Honolulu?

00:47:13.550 - 00:47:27.760

I was in Honolulu as a stop over. Oh okay. Yeah I was at the airport only, and I was greeted by an American doctor. And he was there

00:47:27.760 - 00:47:44.350

to welcome me as a newcomer to the United States. Because you remember I came as a student, was so very well treated. They sent people to greet me at the airport in

00:47:44.830 - 00:47:53.870

Honolulu, just for the three hours of a stop over. And then they received us nicely. We were very well received when

00:47:53.870 - 00:48:06.520

we arrived to Washington, DC. So you, if you come here as a fellow, yes, they will treat you that way. But you come as a refugee, it’s different.

00:48:06.940 - 00:48:23.190

I don't know whether people coming to the United States to the US now to study, they are- they will be received, treated the same way like I were. But it was like a first class

00:48:25.180 - 00:48:45.960

exposure. They treated us, foreign students very well during the two weeks in Washington, DC. What did you think about American culture in your first couple years here? Um… it’s difficult for me,

00:48:46.290 - 00:48:59.290

but I think we are pretty much well adapted. Because Vietnam, as you know, Vietnam was under the French domination for 100 years.

00:48:59.880 - 00:49:15.390

So we are very much accustomed to European or Western customs, even European, Western clothing, languages,

00:49:15.390 - 00:49:34.870

everything. So it was not difficult for me if I was to get myself familiarized with the US customs. And what was the year that you went to San Antonio to complete your fellowship year? I was only there for eight months.

00:49:34.870 - 00:49:52.040

In April 1975, the South Vietnam government ceased to exist, so I became a refugee at that time. So my status was changed from a foreign citizen with

00:49:52.130 - 00:50:09.880

the Vietnamese citizenship to status of refugee of the United States. So as soon as I became a refugee, I have to think about long

00:50:09.880 - 00:50:19.960

term life in the US. Before, before I was here for only one year for my fellowship. And now April 1975, I finished eight months already.

00:50:20.410 - 00:50:36.720

In four more months I would be back to Vietnam and teach at Saigon Medical School. So the very good, very bright future was waiting for me in Vietnam.

00:50:37.490 - 00:50:54.180

But everything collapsed in, on April 30th, 1975. Because I could not return. I became a refugee in the US.

00:50:57.740 - 00:51:09.450

And then, can you describe what happened after you finished your fellowship in San Antonio? No I did not finish my fellowship. I had done four months. But since there was change in

00:51:09.450 - 00:51:29.300

status, from citizenship of South Vietnam to refugee status, so I had to decide whether to stay, to finish my fellowship and then looking for a job,

00:51:30.150 - 00:51:48.450

or to go to another training to become another kind of doctor. So, at that time, I did a fellowship in surgery. That means to become a surgeon. But to become a certified surgeon in the US, it

00:51:49.880 - 00:52:03.080

takes 5 years of training. So I- since I was pretty old, since I was not in the mood for very long term training, so I switched to anesthesiology and I

00:52:03.080 - 00:52:18.000

joined the residency program at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. And, the program for anesthesiologists at that time, for people like me with prior experience in surgery,

00:52:18.290 - 00:52:34.500

was only 24 months. And I finished my residency at Baylor College of Medicine in 24 months to become a certified anesthesiologist. So I switched the speciality

00:52:35.770 - 00:52:53.470

from surgery to anesthesiology because of the change in situation. And during that time, had your family had come over from-?

00:52:53.600 - 00:53:06.490

Yes my family were with me at that time. My wife and my two children lived with us during that time, because they came from Vietnam during the last few days before the end.

00:53:07.020 - 00:53:24.990

And they joined me here in Houston. And then what did you do after you finished- Um, after finishing my residency, I joined- I worked a very short time with the US

00:53:24.990 - 00:53:43.150

government. You call it US Public Health Department in Louisiana, New Orleans, as an anesthesiologist in a public health hospital at that time. But after eight months, I moved back to

00:53:43.150 - 00:54:00.630

Houston and joined the teaching hospital of the UT system, it’s called MD Anderson Cancer Center Hospital, which is the biggest cancer center in the South. And I joined in, as an instructor

00:54:01.280 - 00:54:18.470

in anesthesiology and then I stayed there for 26 years until I retired in 2003. I worked with University of Texas System during the 26 years.

00:54:22.890 - 00:54:38.110

How would you describe your time as a teaching professor there? Um, we worked hard, sometimes for 10 hours a day. But we worked with students, we

00:54:38.110 - 00:54:54.380

worked with residents, we worked with medical students, we worked with anesthesia students, we worked with nurse students every-. Um, I think the only

00:54:54.380 - 00:55:10.940

thing I remember is pretty busy, because long hours and also long drive coming from Sugar Land to work in the medical center. Working in anesthesiology means you have to wake up very early

00:55:12.770 - 00:55:28.460

to be ready for the surgeon when they cut around 7 o’clock. And so, when I left the house, it’s no sunlight, I don’t see any

00:55:28.460 - 00:55:47.620

sun. When I go home, it’s already dark. But, overall, I think I- I had a good time, working at MD Anderson Cancer Center. And my hospital keeps on getting

00:55:47.620 - 00:55:59.360

bigger and bigger during my time. So from a very small one when I joined, it becomes a huge medical center. Now, it’s very big,

00:56:01.530 - 00:56:15.250

and it’s one of the best cancer center in the US. I think one of the two best. One up North Sloan Kettering, and MD Anderson is

00:56:16.110 - 00:56:33.860

second- is the best in the South. Um, how would you compare practicing- or being a physician in Vietnam, and being a physician in the US? Um, naturally,

00:56:34.680 - 00:56:51.620

facilities are better, equipment better, but for us, responsibility as physician working in Vietnam or working in the US, working on Vietnamese patients, or working on US

00:56:51.620 - 00:57:06.830

patients, we have the same responsibility. So I didn’t see much change. Whether my patients are Vietnamese, or American, we have to do

00:57:06.830 - 00:57:23.250

the best to take good care of them. And I don’t see much change in at that point. As far as facilities, equipment are concerned, naturally we have the best, best equipment, best facilities, best support

00:57:24.350 - 00:57:43.220

in here, no doubt. And then can you describe your involvement with the US Army Reserve? Um, I graduate from the Vietnamese military school, so I love

00:57:44.930 - 00:58:00.090

military life. I like to go to different military hospitals. I love to work with soldiers, the people in the military. That’s why I joined the US Army Reserve, in which I had two

00:58:00.090 - 00:58:17.170

weeks training at different US facilities in the United States. And I also I could attend a lot of courses

00:58:18.180 - 00:58:32.630

provided to military doctors in the US Army. So that’s why I joined US Reserve. So one way, I worked here as a civilian doctor.

00:58:33.690 - 00:58:51.960

But during weekend, I had military training at the US Army Reserve here in Houston. And two months out of every year, I was somewhere working with the military, in a military hospital.

00:58:53.080 - 00:59:10.180

So that’s why I joined, and that’s why I liked military life. And you did that for eight years? I was with the reserve for eight years.

00:59:12.390 - 00:59:27.330

Um, and then it says you were- did active duty in the operation- Yeah, I was activated because of the Gulf War, during Desert Storm. During Desert Storm,

00:59:27.720 - 00:59:43.420

they sent all the active duty military doctors to the Middle East, and, and then- so they used reservist doctors to take care of all the military facilities in the US.

00:59:44.540 - 01:00:00.300

So I was activated for one year and stayed mainly at Fort Hood and Fort Sill. During that time we were ready to go when the war became intense in the Middle East, in Kuwait

01:00:00.720 - 01:00:14.040

at that time. And that means at anytime they could ship us out within very short notice, because we were ready to go. They predicted that

01:00:14.040 - 01:00:29.290

it would be very long fighting, but it turned out for only three days. The war, the ground war in Kuwait lasted only three days. Therefore, almost none of the

01:00:29.290 - 01:00:44.520

reservist doctors was sent to the Middle East. The people that were there were all active duty physicians. So I spent one year working as an active duty physician at Fort Hood and Fort Sill,

01:00:45.790 - 01:01:09.170

in a situation where we were in 100% readiness to be shipped out at any time. But it didn’t happen. Um, could you- um, and moving on I guess your family life, what kind

01:01:09.440 - 01:01:24.400

of Vietnamese traditions and cultures did you like, practice? Can you say it again? Um, what kind of Vietnamese traditions, celebrations, do you practice? Oh, what kind of Vietnamese cultures we are practicing?

01:01:25.640 - 01:01:37.320

Well after living almost, I think, four decades the US, but I was still very much Vietnamese. Um, my children

01:01:37.320 - 01:01:51.120

they’re more and more Americanized, but I’m not yet. I speak English OK, but I speak Vietnamese much better. I write English OK, but I write Vietnamese much better.

01:01:51.820 - 01:02:06.200

So um, I think I’m American citizen in terms of where I live, where my allegiance is. But, culturally, I’m very

01:02:06.200 - 01:02:24.010

much Vietnamese. What kind of languages do you speak to your children and like in your house? My children? Um, I have four children. Uh, my daughter was

01:02:24.010 - 01:02:38.650

born in 19--she’s 30 years now, 1982 or something. And she was the only one that I had time to teach Vietnamese to.

01:02:40.300 - 01:02:57.910

So she’s the only one among my four children that can read and write and speak Vietnamese, as a Vietnamese. Other children of mine, they are much more fluent in English than Vietnamese but

01:02:58.150 - 01:03:11.530

they can still understand the spoken Vietnamese, but none of them could write or read. So my daughter is the only one in the family that- who can read and write Vietnamese and speak with almost no accent.

01:03:17.200 - 01:03:38.500

And then what would you consider are your major accomplishments in life? In what- In your life, what are your major accomplishments? Well, thinking back I think I was lucky because I didn’t have to participate as a fighting

01:03:38.500 - 01:03:57.520

soldier in the war in Vietnam. I was very sad that we belong to the losing side of the war. So as a loser, I feel like we are

01:03:57.520 - 01:04:12.520

lucky because we got the help of the people of the United States and the government of the United States. They helped us to become refugee and helped us to settle down

01:04:12.520 - 01:04:30.450

in this country. Um, as far as my major accomplishment in my life I don’t think I have anything, I feel very lucky to have a chance to help my fellow

01:04:30.780 - 01:04:47.930

soldiers fighting the North Vietnamese during the war. And I I like I said, I used my skill and my knowledge to help them survive their

01:04:48.540 - 01:05:07.650

worst experience in their lives, I mean their injury during the war. I was so grateful that they were the front line for me to be able to help them in the

01:05:07.650 - 01:05:27.130

rear, to help them survive the injuries. I always feel lucky and I’m very thankful to all of them. And, that’s one of the good things. I always feel good to have a chance to help them

01:05:27.280 - 01:05:45.290

survive. Have you gotten the opportunity to visit Vietnam? I visited Vietnam four times, after my retirement in 2003.

01:05:46.580 - 01:06:00.000

Um, as a Vietnamese I always like to visit Vietnam. It’s just a very beautiful country.

01:06:02.120 - 01:06:16.570

But I feel like it’s not my country anymore because the people that are in power are, were my enemy at one time. They are little

01:06:17.530 - 01:06:32.320

friendly to us right now. Because I’m being treated as an American citizen. So if I live there now I don’t know whether, how well I will be treated.

01:06:33.510 - 01:06:49.760

Because they are winners and we are losers. So at one time, they treated us South Vietnamese so badly, they put all of us in a prison for a year some of us 30 years in the prison after the war.

01:06:50.770 - 01:07:08.210

And many of South Vietnamese died during the imprisonment. So I’m not sure even know if I go back to live there as a Vietnamese under the regime, I don't know how I will be treated.

01:07:09.600 - 01:07:32.230

Because if you're a loser, you are under their control. They’re winners. And losers will lose everything, and winners will take all. Going- since you’ve been in retirement since 2003, what kind of

01:07:32.690 - 01:07:46.690

activities have you been involved with? Um, I taught Vietnamese language at time for 6 years. I- mainly now I’m teaching Tai Chi

01:07:47.430 - 01:08:00.500

at the senior centers. Yeah, I've been a Tai chi practitioner for many, many years. Over 15 or 20 years. And I’m now teaching Tai chi at Vietnamese

01:08:01.960 - 01:08:22.610

Senior Centers, for once or twice a week. And whenever I have a chance I will teach Vietnamese again to young children. So it seems like you’ve had a lot of teaching

01:08:23.010 - 01:08:37.600

roles throughout your life. What brings you back to teaching and what do you like about teaching other people? Um, I like the military, but I also like the teaching job because I have been

01:08:39.690 - 01:08:53.620

mainly a teacher at Saigon medical school and then at MD Anderson Cancer Center. So working with the students whether they are doctor students, or very young children,

01:08:54.120 - 01:09:15.690

it’s always fun, and very--it’s a good learning process to work with them. You learn a lot from each student. So what other- besides teaching, what other ways do you give back, or want to give back

01:09:16.030 - 01:09:39.590

to the community? Um, it’s a difficult question for me to answer . But I’m giving lectures on

01:09:39.590 - 01:09:58.000

medical field at the radio station here occasionally. And I’m giving lectures on health topics occasionally at some Vietnamese gatherings

01:09:58.960 - 01:10:15.450

to, to use my knowledge for help them--help others to understand the medical problems. And how would you describe the Vietnamese American

01:10:16.100 - 01:10:33.030

community in Houston and how it’s changed overtime? One thing is Vietnamese American community in Houston is big because as far as I know

01:10:33.070 - 01:10:54.630

it’s the second largest group of Vietnamese, after California. So uh, and I can see there are so many Vietnamese TV stations, and

01:10:54.630 - 01:11:12.390

so many 5 or 6 stations. And 2 or 3 radio stations. Um, but- and also I see a lot of achievement

01:11:15.400 - 01:11:33.500

of individual Vietnamese students. But as far as a community, I haven’t seen a concerted effort to progress as a community within

01:11:33.630 - 01:11:56.830

the American life yet. What do you want your legacy to be for future generations? What impact do you want to leave behind you? Can you say it again?

01:11:58.560 - 01:12:15.680

What legacy do you want to leave behind you for the future? What impact do you want to make? Well I don’t think I- I can have an impact after I go . Yeah. It, it’s not

01:12:15.680 - 01:12:35.640

easy to make good of your life and leave a legacy. I don’t think I have anything to leave behind. How would you want your children or your grandchildren to remember you as? Well they remember as a provider to help them progress

01:12:37.500 - 01:12:56.260

in the education and to take care of them when they were young and do my best to help them to have a good education. So I

01:12:56.300 - 01:13:12.190

think- I think that kind of concludes our interview, but before it’s concluded, I wanted to ask if you have any other things that you wanted to talk about that wasn’t talked about. Uh, I think that we cover

01:13:12.820 - 01:13:20.200

everything I wanted to say and thank you very much for interviewing me. Thank you so much Dr. Nguyen.