The Vietnamese Student Association commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon with a memorial on the south end of the lawn Tuesday. The display will be in place through Thursday.
The fall of Saigon, the capital city of South Vietnam, to North Vietnamese forces on April 30, 1975 effectively marked the end of the Vietnam War and the transition of the country to Communist rule.
The VSA posted a statement in front of the memorial explaining the hardships many Vietnamese citizens endured in the aftermath of the event. The statement outlined the brutal facts of the violent conflict in which the Communist party forced many people to flee the country and punished those who fought against them in the war.
“An estimated 65,000 Vietnamese were executed in the aftermath along with 1 million being sent to prison-like re-education camps where an estimated 165,000 died,” the statement reads. “Those who could escape had to flee their homes and leave their families and belongings in hopes of finding freedom in another land.”
The memorial itself consists of approximately 400 red and yellow pinwheels arranged into the shape of the South Vietnamese flag on the lawn as well as posters profiling victims of the war who are either relatives or family friends of VSA members. The posters aim to educate students about the significance of the day and honor those individuals who were affected.
Fourth-year Commerce student Lauren Nguyen, outgoing VSA culture chair, whose father is featured in the display, explained the importance the anniversary has for Vietnamese Americans.
“The Fall of Saigon is really important to us as Vietnamese Americans,” Nguyen said. “A lot of our families wouldn’t be here in America if it weren’t for the end of the Vietnam War.”
Nguyen’s father, Liem Nguyen, was a fourth-year Engineering student at the University at the end of the Vietnam War.
“My dream of going back to Vietnam to help develop my country as a UVA-educated engineer evaporated,” Liem Nguyen’s display read. “All of a sudden, I was lost and did not have a country to come back home to.”
He helped his family to overcome the difficulties they faced following the Communist takeover of South Vietnam.
“After years of struggling to locate my family, helping my parents to rebuild their lives from scratch and providing guidance to my younger siblings to escape to freedom, my story has a happy ending,” Liem Nguyen said. “Our extended family, having escaped by various means, is thriving in Australia, Canada, and in the US. My wife and I became citizens of this great land.”
Second-year College student Jenny Pham, another former VSA culture chair who organized the display, emphasized the importance of marking the anniversary of the event.
“It’s a sad point in our history, but it’s also very important because we wouldn’t have the lives we have today without it,” Pham said.
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