I was born in a poor family in Ca Mau province, my parent divorced when I was ten years old. My mother worked very hard to feed her three children, and my aunty with four children. My mother spent her whole life taking care of the two families, she was a vegetable, and bean sprouts seller. I understood my family and loved my mother who sacrificed her life for my children, and my nieces, and nephew (my cousins called my mother as mum). Despite my family being poor, therefore, my mother encouraged me the study, I helped my mother with the homework and planted the bean sprouts and I also succeeded as a good student. Annually, I won the top student awards, so my mother didn’t worry about the books that I had for the next year. My hard work was rewarded, I won the top student among 500 students to select the public senior high school called Anxuyen’s High School. Because Ca Mau province did not have enough English teachers, so I was forced to learn the French language as a second language. I learned through a pocket French dictionary, so my classmates called me a nickname as the live dictionary.
After graduating senior high school (baccalaureate grades one and two), I had to go to Cần Thơ province because my home town had no university. My mother felt so sad, she told me” I couldn’t help you”. I understood and found a way to study. Luckily, my relative (a cousin of my grandmother) lived in Cần Thơ who helped me to stay to study. I applied to the science faculty and chose SPCN (Science-Physic-Chemical-Natural). My cousin’s uncle (a former Lieutenant Ranger who was wounded and discharged) helped me get a job in the American Army (he was chief compound of the U.S. military services). I worked and studied so hard. Despite dealing with the difficulties, I passed the first year with 12 subjects. I was exempted the military duty. Therefore I volunteered to join the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, the motive also came from my grand uncle being beheaded by the Vietcong because he did not have enough money to pay their taxes. I passed the examination, and the army sent me to train at Quang Trung for three months to learn the basic weapons, and tactics of a soldier. The second stage was the Political Warfare Academy at Dalat to train the regular army officers. My Third Course taught me the weapons, tactics, and the art of being the commander of the Infantry Company at the Army Military Academy (Trường Võ Bị), and also learned psychological warfare. The cadets of the Political Warfare Academy could fight against the Vietcong in the military battle and psychological field. During training at Dalat, I saved my wage as a Corporal (Cadet). I sent it to my mother because I knew she dealt with the hardship, I reduced the weekly holiday to every Sunday. After I graduated with the rank of First Lieutenant, I returned to Ca Mau to fight against the Vietcong. Initially, I gave my mother three months of wage, and she bought a house near the new airport. I felt happy to serve in Cà Mau because I could help my mother.
The misfortune pursued my life, on April 30, 1975, the terror Vietcong claimed the unpredictable victory, and I was arrested on May 2nd, 1975. Vietcong imprisoned me in nine hell of re-education camps. I survived, sometimes my mother saved money, and she bought the food and visited me in the prison. I saw the Vietcong kill, and torture the prisoners, so I promised myself” If I survived, I would write the books to accuse the cruelty of Vietcong”. On a visit, I told my mother that I wanted to learn English. My mother said” All books were burnt down in the beaten counter-revolutionary culture”, I felt disappointed, but my mother remembered,” English pocket dictionary was still hidden beneath my bed”. Learning English in the re-education camps was risky, and committed the crime of counter-revolution because the Vietcong accused English as America’s Empire language. My mother tore the dictionary and used the rice glue to create the sheets as newspapers, she wrapped the food and sent it to me in jail. I secretly learned English in silence, I couldn’t pronounce it. Instead, I used my finger to write on the air, so my friends called me a madman. I spent nearly four years learning through the dictionary with 65,000 words.
After living 6 years in the hell of a re-education camp, the Vietcong released me because I was ever sick, my weight was 40 kilograms. Therefore, the Vietcong controlled for 12 months called the probation at local government. Eventually, I used a sweet potato to make a fake government stamp and made a fake travel document. I passed over the checkpoints, and in August 1982 I escaped by a small boat, I stayed a few months in a Malaysia refugee camp and resettled a new life in Australia. I must give up my studies, instead, I worked and sent money to my mother in Vietnam. Therefore, I tried to keep the self promise, I learned English in newspapers, television, working places, shopping, and the lessons of my child from year one to year twelve. My first book” The Dark Journey: Inside the Re-Education Camps of Vietcong” was published in 2010 in New York, I spent 30 years keeping my promise (It book was chosen by the U.S Congress Library).
Many times, my mother told me on the phone that” When I die, do not return to Vietnam”. In 2001, my youngest sister helped my mother to come to America because she could not come to Australia due to a health problem. I came to America to see my mother for the last time. In 2016, she passed away, but I didn’t return to Vietnam for her funeral because the Vietcong would arrest, jail, or kill me.
I wrote ten English books published in the United States, without the help of my mother, I couldn’t write the books, and now I am the editor of daily news online thedawnmedia.Com from March 5, 2017. Certainly, Vietnam’s Communists (Vietcong) are not my compatriots, instead the enemies, they killed the people, including 165,000 prisoners after the Vietnam War. The Australians, Americans, and others are not my compatriots, but they are generous hearts to help me, and millions of Vietnamese refugees. We are grateful to the people, so I chose Australia as my second homeland.
Annually, Mother’s Day comes, my mental sorrow wakes up, and the memories revive in my mind. I have never forgotten my mother who was my solid wall to help me stand up against adversities, and my success came from the efforts of my mother. The Western countries may overhaul the aid, and trade with Vietcong’s regime. They currently violate human rights and profess corruption. The aid is the boon of Vietcong, the taxpayers wasted. The communists have never loved their people, and they consider the democratic countries as their enemies. Therefore, the communists love the money of the counter-revolutionary countries. The Vietcong banned prisoners from learning English, therefore they sent the children to study in the United States, Australia, Canada, England, and other countries/.
(thedawnmedia.com)