Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey

Dzung Chung begins the next section by describing the events of 1974, when she and Tri Huu lived in Vung Tau. Dzung Chung worked at a bank, and Tri Huu continued teaching. To convince Dzung Chung’s mother, Thi Mot, to approve of their marriage, Do disguised himself as Tri Huu’s brother and informed her that Tri Huu’s parents approved of the union. That year, Dzung Chung gave birth to Vy, but her stepfather became gravely ill.

Meanwhile, Dzung Chung’s younger brother, Vinh, was drafted in the war and wrote home to his sister. Excerpts from his letters show that Vinh felt distant from the war. In his spare time, he taught poor children in Ca Mau, and he felt that the people in these villages had no interest in the political ideologies circumscribing the war. He described the sentiment that most people simply wanted to live together rather than engage in a civil war. During his service, he was injured in combat and hospitalized.

Do and Dzung Chung shared their feelings about the war from the perspective of each side. Dzung Chung believed that young men like Vinh who were drafted in the South had no interest in dying for a cause they didn’t believe in or for a corrupt government. Do contended that the North would win because their fighters held a stronger belief in their nationalist and anti-imperialist goals.

This section takes place in 1994, 20 years after the Tran family left Vietnam. Tri Huu and Dzung Chung depart for their first trip back to their homeland. Dzung Chung asks GB to join them, but he has no interest, and Tri Huu tells him he doesn’t have to go if he doesn’t want to.

GB notes that after the country’s victory and reunification in 1975, the colonial and imperialist authorities were replaced by an equally corrupt communist government. GB describes his grandfather, Huu Nghiep, as an exceptional citizen who deeply believed in the nationalist cause when he joined the Viet Minh. Leaving his wife and children behind, Huu Nghiep devoted his life serving as an operative to fight against the Japanese and then French occupation. He then served the Viet Minh as a chief doctor, training others to treat the wounded. The narrative transitions to Huu Nghiep narrating his own story to his son, Tri Huu, during his 1994 visit. Tri Huu hadn’t seen his father since 1946, the year Huu Nghiep left his family permanently.

Huu Nghiep explains that after the North’s victory, he searched for his wife, Le Nhi, and his family. He traveled to My Tho, Saigon, and Vung Tau only to learn that they fled the country shortly before the war’s end. Huu Nghiep was astonished that they’d leave when he could now provide them with everything they needed. Do gave him Tri Huu’s address in America, while Huu Nghiep searched their abandoned home in Vung Tau for any belongings.

Huu Nghiep, now an elderly man who walked with a cane, retrieved some souvenirs to give to his visiting son. He handed Tri Huu the canteen he used in the jungle and a coat that he found in his son’s home in Vung Tau. (The coat is the item that years later Dzung Chung gives away during her Tet holiday cleaning.) In addition, Huu Nghiep recovered one of Tri Huu’s paintings and couldn’t bring himself to part with it.

At the end of their trip, Dzung Chung and Tri Huu visited Vung Tau. In a scene similar to GB’s culture shock during his visit to Vietnam, the parents were disoriented and overwhelmed by how much Vietnam has changed. When they return to Arizona, Dzung Chung encouraged GB to travel with them on their next visit. GB showed little interest, and when Dzung Chung asked Tri Huu to support her, he agreed and told GB that he should go and might learn something. For GB’s graduation gift, his father gave him a book on the Vietnam War. GB tossed the book in a box of clutter but hinted that he’d learn something about his family and heritage when he was older.