Event marks 25th anniversary of Saigon’s fall to Communists

By Mary Hoang Daily Bruin Contributor Sunday marked the 25th
anniversary of Black April, the day Saigon fell to the communists
at the end of the Vietnam War. To commemorate the event, the
Vietnamese Student Union held a remembrance ceremony Friday.

Yellow and red flowers lined the aisles of Franz Hall as songs
about the war played in the background before the event began. The
black-clad students paid respect to their ancestors’ efforts.

The program consisted of speakers, a video, choral
presentations, poem readings and a candlelight procession to
Kerckhoff patio.

Many speakers relayed their personal experiences from the war,
and talked about their journey to America and the struggles to
adapt.

When Northern Vietnamese Communists took over the city of Saigon
in 1975, it signified the end of a democratic republic for the
Vietnamese. Speaker Nguyen Van Uc, who fought in the war as a
helicopter commander, said, "It was an end of our human rights,
freedom and peace."

Uc retold the history of the war through his own experiences. Uc
stressed that the losing side never has their story told
correctly.

"The American press was only concerned with their soldiers in
the war. I was upset that they were not one bit concerned about the
sacrifice of the Vietnamese in the war," he said.

Soon after the end of the war, many Southern Vietnamese had
their "right to education, freedom of religion and human rights
taken away," he said.

Hop Tran, co-president of VSU, said the event organizers had two
goals in mind. The first was to educate the youth on Vietnamese
culture and history so they could better understand their parents.
Second, they wanted to examine the state in which which Vietnamese
in the United States are living in today.

"I don’t think the kids understand what their parents went
through, what their history is. And that’s sad because it tells you
so much about who you are," he said. "The kids don’t understand who
their parents are. That’s a pity."

Speaker and UCLA alumnus Do Hoang Diem was a child during the
war and remembers the struggle.

"We, the Vietnamese, came to the United States with nothing and
we have overcome so much," he said. "We did not allow language and
cultural barriers to prevent us from succeeding."

Undergraduate Students Association Council President Mike de la
Rocha attended the event, he said, to gain an understanding of what
has shaped the lives of many of his fellow students.

"This event has helped me better understand the struggles the
Vietnamese went through during the war and also how they have
succeeded here. It is very similar to the other immigrant groups in
the United States," he said.

The latter portion of the event consisted of a candlelight vigil
from Franz Hall to Kerckhoff Patio where Anh Dao Do recited a poem
called "Thang Tu Cua Chung Toi" or "This country of ours," and
Dung-Nghi Le performed a solo interpretive dance called "Hope."

The outdoor segment involved looking back at the events that
have shaped the lives of Vietnamese Americans and aimed to
encourage Vietnamese youth not to forget the past.

"We have to examine the past and present in order to look into
the future. Without one part, the Vietnamese culture is lost. You
can not understand yourself without knowing the history of your
ancestors," Diem said.

Other Vietnamese communities commemorated this event in similar
fashion throughout Southern California. This day of remembrance is
filled with sorrow as people remember the lives lost in the war,
and the lives they left behind in Vietnam.