T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection

ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME: Dang Van Song # 4700.0957

IDENTIFICATION: Vietnam veteran

INTERVIEWER: Dudley K. Meier, Jr.

PROJECT: Americans in Vietnam

DATES: 11/1/75

FOCUS DATES:

ABSTRACT:

T 1394

From Thua Thien province in central Vietnam; schooling, studied chemistry, physics; wanted to become teacher; taught math in Vietnam; division of subjects between teachers in Vietnam; worked as police officer; worked undercover for intelligence service; organized informers to get information; people he worked with; coordinated work with Americans; was in high school in 1954 when country split into north and south; his family left Vietnam and went to Philippines, then Wake Island; leaving Vietnam by boat; going to Singapore by boat, met family at Wake Island; spent a month in Honolulu; situation in Saigon before he left; people catching boat rides from Vietnam; many officials couldn't leave because they didn't have boats, but lots of fishermen escaped; thinks the VC would kill him if he stayed in Vietnam; Time magazine wrote about Dang twice in early 1970s; father was French soldier; father was killed by French; lived in central Vietnam; feelings about defeat of South Vietnamese; leaders of Vietnam; corruption in Vietnam; bribes, corruption; lowering taxes depending on who's paying; other forms of corruption; thinks ARVN was very good; lack of leadership broke ARVN's spirit; weaponry, ammunition, planes of ARVN; bad leadership, leaders ran away; Communists killed many, many people; Communists will continue to kill; water in Vietnam can make you sick, kill you; poison water in mountains; drought, infertile lands, no food; famines; montagnards who migrate to city; people with desk jobs who got resettled in mountains; communists will never trust people who didn't embrace their regime; some people they don't kill, but still make life miserable; President Thieu was corrupt; his family's future is in US, his children can study here; wants his children to work in forestry in US; planning children's education; children's grasp of English language, have also studied French; children's ability to learn languages; thinks they might forget how to speak Vietnamese; thinks US government should help Vietnamese refugees learn to speak English; Vietnamese refugee families in Shreveport, about 40 Vietnamese families in Shreveport.

TAPES: 1

TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 40 minutes

# PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 2 page index

RESTRICTIONS: none