Letters From Far From Home

Revealing excerpts following the Fall of Saigon

It was nearly five weeks after the Fall of Saigon—49 years ago this week—that my father returned home to us in the States and those 1000 South Vietnamese souls who’d accompanied him off the southern tip of Vietnam made their way to various sites in the United States.

The following letters, addressed to both my mother and father, highlight their gratitude, their hopes, their fears and the difficulties of making a new life in an unknown world.

Fort Chaffee Arkansas
May 31st, 1975

Dear Jim,

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for everything you have done for us at House 7. I would also like to express my personal thanks to you and your family for your kindness toward me. I’ll never forget the happy times we had together at parties or on trips to Vung Tau . . . In fact, I must say truthfully that you are loved by most, if not all, of the House 7 Staff.

Yours Truly,
M. Chau

Guam, June 1st, 1975
Dear Nancy,

It is almost a big dream if not a nightmare, for us to be having to evacuate a few weeks after you left Vietnam. Nobody could ever imagine such an abrupt fall of the South. However, the Vietnam issue now has drifted into the past as so said President Ford!

In the many of us here, there is a new life, a new horizon to look ahead. We have, I guess to try real hard to adjust ourselves and blend ourselves into this modernized world.

In regard to our story about the evacuation, I am sure Mr. Welch will fill you out, especially on the exceptional hair-raising episodes that we have gone through. However, there is this one particular point I have to stress here and that is that Jim always was always making himself available among us (about over a 1000 [people]. He has accepted willing all dangers in order to help and guide us through the most difficult days in our flight to safe U.S.A. Such is the most precious pride we have for having with us a friend and advisor as dedicated as Mr. Welch and I am sure you must also look at it that way–a brave and generous husband.

Sincerely,
Mr. & Mrs. K.D. Thoai

On United States Air Force letterhead

June 8, 1975
Dear Sir, 

I should have written you early last week, but I have always been kept busy by the processing here. For my whole family, I would like to express our most profound gratitude to you and your family for the greatest evacuation challenge you planned for us all from Saigon to Phu Quoc to ship and then to Guam. I personally understand that, without your precious help, we should have been trapped in Saigon. Since our arrival at Indiantown Gap, we have been located at Area 5, building 5-12. We are given everything we need, a room, food, clothing, etc, and all is better than it was in Asam, Guam.

P. N. Ky,
Radio technician

Fort Indiantown Gap,
June 9, 1975

Dear Sir,
After a long flight, finally we set foot on Indiantown Gap, PA. 

Before saying anything else, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks for your kindness, the generosity given to us, and the hardships and sacrifices that you shared with us on the way to America.

Looking back to Viet Nam, it is now thousands of miles far from here. After many long years at war, I had never thought of this day, the day that I had to flee my country and nobody thought of the Fall of Saigon. It is quite a dream! How sorrowful for South Vietnam and its people who had suffered long misfortunes from the war, writing about this past, Mr. Welch, I cannot stop from weeping for my poor country. 

Anyhow, it is now finished with Viet Nam. The two lovely words that a young Vietnamese child will firstly learn when practicing to speak.

After Vietnam, America is my second Fatherland. It is really a nice and great country where I’ll have no fear of communism, of oppression. This is where my family completely believes that we will be able to live a life in peace, justice, freedom, and democracy.

Looking forward, we are now living in Fort Indiantown Gap, Bldg. 5-12. After a few days of doing immigration process and medical screening procedures, we are now waiting for a sponsor to settle in some area of America.

In a strange land, as the family head, I am really worried for the days ahead, I don’t know how to get a job and start making a livelihood. Though I strongly think that finally everything will be getting along, because these are only the difficulties of a starting point, in other words, a new life. However, Mr. Welch, sincerely speaking, I earnestly need your help and advice. Please tell me all what it is I need to do.

In the past, now, and in the future, I myself and my family would and will be grateful to you for all the things you have done for us.

Before closing this letter, please convey my best regards to Mrs. Welch and your beloved ones. Let me hear from you please. May God bless you and your family. 

Sincerely yours,
T. V. Thinh

I hope, like me, you find these illuminating and moving. A 2012 Pew poll revealed the American Vietnamese community to be one of the happiest sectors of the U.S. population. They came to this country having lost everything, and in the face of enormous odds and the challenges of being a refugee and associated with a terrible war, persevered and thrived.

If you’ve read and liked my book, please consider leaving a 5-star review on Amazon or Goodreads to help spread the word.

Subscribe to receive free weekly emails of “Stories of Vietnam,” which offer a historical and personal glimpse into the Vietnam Era as we approach the 50th Anniversary of the End of the Vietnam War.

Kat-Fitzpatrick.com.