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For this primary source analysis assignment, you need to read two primary source excerpts and compare and contrast them together. Both excerpts deal with different sets of experiences of leaving Vietnam and arriving to the United States. Complete your reading of Chapter 11 before beginning this assignment.
In the first excerpt, Lang Ngan discusses his experiences leaving Vietnam in 1975 as a first-wave refugee:
On April 25th, near the end of the war, my supervisor called me in, and told me that by six o'clock that evening, we had to meet, to get to the airport by nine the next morning. I had worked for the US Embassy in Saigon for seven years. If we had stayed, we would have been persecuted by the new government.
There was no time to talk to friends or relatives because the evacuation was supposed to be secret, and we were not allowed to tell our relatives. We couldn't even take our money out of the bank. We weren't prepared to come to this country. It was a last minute thing. We had to make our decision overnight...
I was allowed to take my family, because I was single. My father, my mother, myself and six brothers and sisters -- the nine of us. We were so frightened because we didn't have any friends or relatives in this country to help us... We literally left with the clothes on our backs. I was twenty-nine when I came to the US, one brother was twenty-three, and one was nineteen. The youngest was only eight. The rest were in their teens.
I didn't have the Golden Mountain dream... I knew life wouldn't be easy, especially since we didn't receive a high education in Vietnam. I told my brothers and sisters in the plane coming here that I didn't know whether I could support all of them. If not, then I would have to give them up for adoption. They said they understood but asked that before I left, I give them my address so that when they grew up, they could look for me.
We were transported by military cargo plane. At the time, the evacuation was so sudden the US government didn't have a chance to prepare for our arrival. So we were taken to a military camp in the Philippines for a few days... We arrived at the camp in Arkansas on May 4th.
At the beginning, there wasn't enough food. There was a shortage because the US government wasn't prepared for us. [But] it was actually much better than the first asylum camps in Malaysia and Tahiland... the volunteer agencies -- refugee resettlement agencies -- started sending people to process us.... Because I could speak English, I started helping many of those [other refugees] who couldn't, translating for them. I met the representative from the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and started to work as a volunteer for IRC. I ended up in New York because the IRC offered me a job, Southeast Asian refugees were calling the office, and no one could understand what they were saying. I was so happy that I could get a job right away...
Source: Asian American Experiences in the United States: Oral Histories of First- to Fourth Generation Americans from China, the Philippines, Japan, India, the Pacific Islands, Vietnam, and Cambodia (Links to an external site.).
The second primary source is an excerpt from a 1989 college essay written by student Le Tan Si regarding his escape from Vietnam in 1979:
Around 9 PM on June 4, 1979, our boat departed in good weather with fifty-eight people on board. Our boat operated safely for the next two days. However, although I had paid for my trip I starved on those days. The trip was full of hardship...
On June 6, 1979, the overworked engine broke down. Our boat drifted downwind, and so did my life... On June 7, the weather changed suddenly... and because our boat's engine was broken, the boat bobbed up and down with the waves. We were frightened because we had no control over our boat with a dead engine. We prayed to God for help in the heavy rain. Meanwhile, we anchored to make the boat safer. I thought and thought about my life, parents, and friends, and I also wondered if my death was near. Our supply of food and water was gradually decreasing as our boat drifted on the sea, so we starved...
Around 11 AM that day, a strange boat came toward our boat. It was a Thai boat in which there were six Thai fishermen.... [they] tried to repair our engine, but they were not able to; however, they took our engine apart. Then they gave us lunch and some cans of water, and they us that they would help us... Our boat passed into Thailand's territorial waters. Ten minutes later, the Thai "fishermen" displayed guns, knives, and hooks in order to frighten us. We understood then that the Thai fishermen were pirates. They quickly took our valuables, such as rings, earrings, chains, watches, and bracelets, because they saw another boat coming toward us. [They] were afraid that it might have been a Thai patrol boat, so they left right after they robbed us. However, this other boat was also a fishing boat. They passed by our boat without pity; in fact, they laughed at us, because they perceived that we had been robbed recently... almost all of us were flabbergasted at the recent occurrence. We understood that we were faced with Thai pirates and would probably die next time...
Around 10:30 AM on June 9, other pirates came to rob us, and they gave us some food and water. They left us after they took a gold ring from us, but they refused to help us by towing our boat to land or to Malaysia. We despaired and could not do anything with our boat... Everyone's life was left to chance. Fortunately, [another] Thai boat came toward us... They were saviors. They let us have a night on their boat, gave us some soup and water, and tried to repair our engine... On June 10, the Thai fishermen drew our boat to Malaysia. When we spotted the Malaysian islands, they left us after they gave us some food and water...
We arrived at shore about 5 PM on June 11, and our engine was broken again... Next day, June 12, a Malaysian patrol boat came toward us and towed us toward them. The captain promised us that they would take us to the Malaysian refugee camp on the next day, we were pleased with the news...
[On] June 13, the patrol boat's captain refused to guide our boats to their refugee camp, because their government had stopped accepting refugees. There were about thirty thousand Vietnamese refugees in the camp, so the camp was full. Then the captain ordered his patrol boat to tow our boats to Singapore. That news disappointed us and struck us with consternation... However, they towed us only about thirty hours, then they left us after they told us to navigate our boats to some islands. We again resigned ourselves to our fate...
Finally , our boat came to the unknown islands about 9 PM on June 14. I saw that there were many Vietnamese people on those islands, and then I learned that I had arrived in Indonesia. I really had survived, because I was a legal refugee in the Indonesian refugee camp... I had a miraculous escape, but my mind was still haunted by death. In January 1980, approval was given for me to migrate to the United States. I lived in the KuKu and Galang refugee camps [in Indonesia] for fourteen months...
On August 20, 1980, I set foot in Seattle. I then really had freedom and a new life in this country.
Source: The Far East Comes Near: Autobiographical Accounts of Southeast Asian Students in America. (Links to an external site.)
As with prior primary source analysis assignments, you need to demonstrate that you can connect this text with relevant historical information. The following questions can guide your writing:
How do these two different accounts reflect the range of refugee experiences? What does each experience tell you about the conditions under which people can be displaced by conflict? How is the year of displacement significant to the refugee experience? Explicitly compare and contrast the experiences together.
