Away From Vietnam Summary

"April, 1975... Saigon fell to the Communist North." It is the Vietnam War, on a small family owned farm where the story of Truong Nguyen begins. Viet Cong versus Viet Minh, and as a young boy of just twelve, this farmer's son is caught in the middle of the greatest 'conflict' in American, and more importantly, Vietnamese history. As Communism spread throughout southern Vietnam, and with an older brother fighting the North, Truong's father loses the rights to his farm, and they must work as slaves for the government as they give up everything they harvest. "They what to tell you what to do, and give you food." Forced to quit school and work on his father's farm for the North, he suffers through this for six years. At the age of eighteen, he decides he cannot live in this oppressive country any longer, and plans to flee, "escape". Truong successfully escapes his home, in search of a new one. Leaving on a small, open boat with his older brother, niece and nephew in 1981, he finds himself displaced. Without a home and treading dangerous waters, he speaks of the tragedies many refugees such as himself faced, "Half of the people who left died on the ocean". He considers himself lucky to have even survived on the boat. Mr. Nguyen spends five months living in a refugee camp
When asked where his home is, he responds with, "I have no home in Vietnam, I have nothing there. I have no relatives in Vietnam, but I still miss it. This is my home". His thoughts on the future of his family are even more powerful, as he explains how his life in the United States is greater than that in Vietnam, "Of course, of course. Freedom. Authority to do anything you like. Everything is better... This is the best country, and I have traveled to a lot of different countries, not just