On Healing Land, Birds Perch (2025)

[bunniefuu]

- [Narrator] The so-called

Indochina w*r did come to an end,

which left Vietnam divided

between a Communist North

and an Anti-Communist South.

The military forces of the

Communist North, the Vit Cng,

began to infiltrate the South

in ever increasing numbers.

(g*ns sh**ting)

- [Narrator] On the first two nights

of the Tet Lunar New Year's,

the Vit Cng, violating

the truce agreed on

for that holiday, struck

across the entire length

of South Vietnam.

(person speaks in Vietnamese)

(g*n shoots)

- [Narrator] Within 24

hours, Eddie Adams' snapshot

of a Vit Cng guerrilla being ex*cuted

made front pages around the world.

- The first time I saw the photo,

I was in 11th grade,

I was horrified, I guess.

That's my dad.

- The first time I was shown

that picture was in Time

Magazine by one of my uncle.

That's the Viet Cong that k*lled your family.

- [Narrator] The picture of

the execution so shocked people

that people who hadn't

thought about the w*r

suddenly got such a jolt.

(crowd chanting indistinctly)

- [Narrator] An unsettling image

that won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize.

- Pictures don't tell the whole story.

You look at a photograph,

youre looking at one five-hundredth of a second

or one two-hundred-and-fiftieth of a second,

and its a moment

you dont see all sides of it.

(somber music)

(no audio)

(birds chirping)

(engine rumbling)

- [June] Okay.

Bon appetit.

- It's a small bowl of pho.

- [Loc] It's nice to have

a dinner together, right?

- [June] Oh, definitely.

- Yes. We haven't eaten

together in a long time.

I miss coming home to your food.

- Yes.

Yeah, I remember when

I went to grad school,

- [Christine] Just American food?

- Uh-huh.

Uh, bratwurst.

(all laughing)

I share a lot about my childhood

because I think my

childhood was so idyllic.

I loved living in Vietnam.

- I would love to visit Vietnam

to see where you both grew up.

- It's hard because Vietnam

now is so different.

The Vietnam, where I grew

up, it's just a memory.

- People from Vietnam

used to tell us stories

about our grandparents.

- They want to make sure that we know

what happened during the years of w*r.

- You know, our family has

always chosen the path of, like,

just keeping silent on the subject.

But now there's a new

generation, two new generations

that come up who knew nothing

about the Vietnam w*r.

- I can't imagine moving my whole life.

So I'm very grateful

that you've given us all

the opportunities that we have today.

- This is our family when

the kids were very young.

For Vietnamese families,

extremely important.

But for us it's even more so.

We as a family form a perimeter, a fence

to protect ourselves.

Here are my kids.

I took this picture, (laughs)

and I think they are the

sweetest and cutest things.

When we came over, the

experience of being a refugee,

being different, and then

with the experience of my dad.

This is my dad.

Having to deal with the publicity.

My dad, I think of him every day.

Every day.

(music)

- [Hun] It is a combination

of New Year, Thanksgiving,

Christmas roll into one.

(music)

- You get to have an

outfit made just for Tet.

- Children receive a lot

of l x, red envelope

with new money for good

luck and good health.

It's a time of renewal,

- But Tet 1968 was not like that.

- Every year around Tet,

I start dreaming again

(Hun snivels)

of this nightmare.

(distant waves crashing)

We have this tradition

during Tet on New Year's day,

whoever it is, the

first to enter the house

will bring the luck into the house.

Usually, they would choose a person

that will bring good luck, good fortune,

good health to the family.

They called it xng t,

first to enter the portal of the family.

On New Year's day of 1968,

I heard the firecracker outside.

I was curious.

I just opened the door, walked out,

enjoying the views, and

then came back in again

and I was the first one

to xng t that year.

My father saw that

and basically just slapped me in the face.

I was nine years old at that time,

and to this day I still regret it.

I still think that I brought...

I still think that I'm the one

who brought bad luck to the family.

(music)

(g*ns sh**ting)

- [Narrator] Suddenly and without warning,

the violence of w*r shattered

the peaceful celebration

of the Lunar New Year.

- [Narrator] The Vit Cng

simultaneously attacked

just about every major city

and town in South Vietnam.

- [Narrator] The battle

now was for Saigon itself.

- [Narrator] As many

as 12 North Vietnamese

and Vit Cng battalions

had taken the city.

(children crying)

- We were all awakened by our father

and told us to get into a bunker.

I was praying to God, "Please save us."

But that didn't happen.

I see some bright lights.

The next thing is I found

myself on the floor bleeding.

I was shot in the head.

It pierced through my skull here

and my brother,

I can still see his belly was cut open

and he was breathing hard.

Some of his last breath.

(music)

And I hid between the sandbags.

In the meantime, Vit Cng,

they went through the house.

They took out the beers

and they were eating,

while my mom was laying there dying.

(music)

I listened to my mom crying out in pain

for almost, seems like eternity.

She suffered a lot.

I can't erase that out of my memory.

(typewriter clattering)

(drums playing)

(typewriter clattering)

(drums playing)

(somber music)

- [Narrator] Vit Cng

sn*pers and suicide commandos

were holed up inside the embassy compound

and firing from surrounding building.

(g*ns sh**ting)

- [Narrator] Now the Vit

Cng have carried the w*r

into the cities, and there

seems to be no place to hide

from the bombs and the b*ll*ts.

- [Narrator] Almost predictably,

the South Vietnamese reacted

to the surprise attack

by arresting anyone

who couldn't prove his

loyalty to the government.

- [Hun] The first time I saw the photo

of my family was in Time Magazine.

- [Narrator] Government

troops were ordered

to get as much revenge as they could.

(g*ns sh**ting)

- [Hun] It was shown to me by my uncle.

He showed me also the picture

executing one of the Vit Cng.

- [Narrator] Government troops

had captured the commander

of the Vit Cng Commando unit.

- He told me that that was

the Viet Cong that k*lled my family

and I was thinking in my

mind is, how does he know

that that's the guy who k*lled my family?

(g*n bangs)

(somber music)

(somber music)

In Washington today,

an echo of the Vietnam w*r,

the U.S. government wants to deport a refugee

General Nguyn Ngc Loan,

once chief of the National

Police of South Vietnam.

He is remembered for having shot

and k*lled a man in the streets of Saigon.

The immigration service calls

that moral turpitude and wants him out.

- [Reporter] Today, the former general

runs a small restaurant

in Burke, Virginia,

just outside of Washington,

and now the government

wants to deport him.

- You know, I probably

had the same reaction

that any normal person would have,

which is horror.

But then, you know, I know my dad.

He's somebody who's

extremely generous and kind,

somebody who put their family first

and put their country first.

When I think of my dad, I think

of all the pictures showing

his love for his grandchildren

and here he is holding my son.

When I first heard about

it, it was everywhere.

It was in the news. It

was discussed in school.

The kids in the class

had that horrified look,

that "What kind of a person is your dad?"

- It's beautiful. Walking

through this is really zen.

As a child, that's probably one

of my happiest time in Vietnam.

Trees all around you,

make you forget about

all the life trouble.

I used to just lie down like this,

looking up and looking

in the cloud floating by

and just imagine that I'm one of the cloud

and just daydreaming all day long.

I feel connected.

I feel like I'm part of the surrounding

that just make me happy.

Yeah, being here like

this is just bring back

a lot of the good memory that I had.

(music)

I try to recall the good

time with my mom, my dad,

my family in Vietnam.

It's just override with all

of these painful memories.

The happier time seemed to fade faster.

I don't remember what my

brother and sisters like,

what my dad or my mom

smelled like, their voice.

To think about them in a peaceful way,

it's just almost impossible.

What I recall was what happened to them.

It's just like, just happened yesterday.

It never goes away.

(traffic humming)

I wrote this when I went back to Vietnam.

The taxi weave its way from the airport

threading through the

tangled maze of the city.

A park came into view, striking

a chord of familiarity.

I leaned forward and asked the cab driver,

"Isn't that the former

Mc nh Chi cemetery?"

The memory came rushing back.

I recognized that that

park was the old cemetery

where my family was buried.

I barely remember what happened that day.

I was like a zombie.

I don't even feel pain at that point.

I'm just lost.

My guilt is I'm the one who caused it all,

'cause I bring bad luck to the family.

I still regret it to this day.

Guilt that I survive.

I feel like God is punishing me.

I wish that I could be with them.

I wish that all the time.

(birds chirping)

(engine humming)

- My parents' restaurant was

right here with this door.

There was no door here.

That was the front and

that's the mall entrance.

My parents were working seven

days a week for several years.

You know, there were all these

extracurricular activities

through high school

that I didn't belong to,

because I had to go home

and work at a restaurant.

That became our lives.

Life was difficult enough

trying to make a living

without having to deal

with this extra stress

of the deportation hearings.

I was angry that this

is happening to my dad

and to our family.

To send him back would be

to essentially send him

to be k*lled.

I remember seeing graffiti

a lot in the restrooms,

four letter words,

and my dad described as a w*r criminal.

It made me make a resolve to work hard,

to not have to deal with all that.

I got accepted to UVA, but my dad got sick

and I told him maybe I

should stay and help.

My dad said, "No way."

We were refugees

and he knew that the only way

that we could dig ourselves

out of this poverty

that we were in is for us kids

to get an education.

I felt very relieved when

President Carter decided

that the whole deportation

issue should be dropped.

When I went to college I could

leave all of that behind,

escaping being the

daughter of General Loan

and be my own person.

- This is always a quest for me,

trying to piece together my life,

my life of them, how it was.

I feel there's no justice in the world.

Sure, the execution is

very, very traumatic,

but this is just one

single act of atrocity.

It captured your attention,

but the true casualties of w*r here

are the women and the children.

At least 15,000 civilian deaths

happened during that time.

The picture of that Eddie Adams took,

changed the course of the w*r.

It changed the perception of the w*r.

- [Narrator] Radicals shouted

support for the Vietnam.

- But if you compare the two, right, one

between the two combatant on the field,

despite Vit Cng wearing

civilian clothing,

and the photo of my whole

family that was massacred,

which one is more atrocious?

And why is it that that's

not the frontline picture?

I think that the public

opinion will be different then.

- The picture is a picture,

but it doesn't tell the entire story.

The picture doesn't show what

happened before the photo.

The picture doesn't show

that this guy has been going

through town ordering, people

k*lled, k*lling people.

Until you are a soldier,

you cannot understand

how they react to things.

I can imagine my dad standing

right there seeing it,

just how it would've affected him.

You do not have their

experiences with w*r.

- I don't know what I would do.

I hope that I would be able

to have that discipline

to not sh**t the guy.

- If you tell me,

identify him as the person

that k*lled my family,

I will say that I cannot

testify to that fact.

I can't see his face.

I'm speaking from a nine

years old perspective.

I don't remember.

- Even though I look at the picture

and I see the horror in it,

I don't see my dad as the

person in the picture,

I see him as an entire person

with all the experience I had with him.

So I don't question

what he did.

- I have so much connection to this place.

It's a place of reflection.

Speak to me from a

connection to the old country,

from a perspective of my new adopted home.

I was lucky enough to be able to come here

to America as refugee.

That doesn't happen all

the time to everyone.

We became part of this American fabric

that we are building today.

Joining the Navy is because

I want to repay that debt.

I always wanted to

continue my father's legacy

to do the thing that my

family would be proud of me.

It is a great honor to attain the rank of Admiral,

and Im tremendously humbled to become the

first Vietnamese American

to wear the flags insignia of

the United States Navy.

The refugees, we all go

through the same steps.

We all come over here.

We all have to deal with all

the trauma that we experience,

leaving our homeland,

figuring out how to fit in,

whether you ever fit in.

What does it mean to be Vietnamese

after 50 years not visiting Vietnam?

Once you become very sure of yourself,

you found yourself, you can have peace

and be able to say, "Even

though I am an American,

I'm a Vietnamese at heart.

(music)

- When the Vietnamese diaspora,

they lost the w*r, they came here.

They never had a chance to have closure.

- You still see the trauma

of w*r on both sides,

and so how do we

move forward togther?

- Before I was very adamant

about not going back to Vietnam,

because I felt that I

would be dishonoring my dad

against communism and

protecting his country.

But now, I've made peace with the fact

that Vietnam is no longer the

Vietnam that I grew up in.

My kids want to see Vietnam,

where their parents came from.

They've grown up with

the Vietnamese culture.

They want to know their roots,

and I think that

I should not prevent that from happening.

- Why I survive? Why me?

That question always gnawed at me.

I want that nine years

old little boy to move on

and achieve greater things.

(music)

When I first came to the US,

that's the first time I experienced peace

and I'm wishing for

peace around the world.

The Vietnamese will say

"Dat Lanh Chim Dau",

it means that where you

have a blessed place,

birds will stay there,

will be there