Fifty years have passed since American soldiers and their South Vietnamese allies fled Vietnam on what would become known as Black April – a time many in Orange County’s Vietnamese community remember as the day they lost their homeland.
Tháng Tư Đen or Black April commemorates the Fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese Communist forces on April 30, 1975 after a month-long campaign into the southlands that would end the Vietnam War and start one of the largest refugee crises in history.
Kiet Huynh, a 71-year-old Garden Grove resident who fought against the communists for five years in Vietnam, said Black April anniversaries remind him of the lives lost on both sides during the war.
“It reminds me how many people in Vietnam died that day, and how many children,” said Huynh, a former South Vietnamese soldier who kept fighting after Saigon fell.
“One day,” Huynh continued. “We will be back in Vietnam. No communism. Freedom.”
His own son is now in the U.S. Air Force – a point of pride for Huynh.
State Assemblyman Tri Ta said Black April marks the day many South Vietnamese people – like Huynh – also started to flee their country.
“That’s the day we left Vietnam for freedom, and for the last 50 years, the Vietnamese overseas and a lot of Vietnamese in Vietnam, we continue to fight for freedom,” Ta said in an interview earlier this month.
“Every year the Vietnamese around the world honor the sacrifices of 58,000 American soldiers and more than 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers who fought side by side for freedom.”
Ta himself would leave Vietnam at the age of 19 as a refugee on the 17th anniversary of Black April before later being elected as the country’s first Vietnamese-American mayor in the city of Westminster in 2012.
The exodus that followed in the decades after the Fall of Saigon would lead to the emergence of the largest concentration of Vietnamese people outside the Southeast Asian country in Orange County’s Little Saigon – which Ta now represents as a state assemblyman and which continues to grow.
On Good Friday, Ta, a couple of other elected officials, veterans and residents gathered near the 405 freeway to unveil a sign dedicating a stretch of the highway as the Little Saigon Freeway and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon.
The unveiling came after Gov. Gavin Newsom last year signed legislation authored by Ta to designate the 405 between Bolsa Avenue and Bolsa Chica Street as Little Saigon Freeway.
“This moment not only marks the physical representation of our vibrant Little Saigon, but also embodies the spirit, culture and contributions of the Vietnamese community in our city,” said Westminster Charlie Chi Nguyen at the unveiling.
The freeway dedication and this year’s anniversary come in the wake of former County Supervisor Andrew Do – himself a former Vietnamese refugee – pleading guilty to a bribery scheme that enriched himself and his family anywhere from federal COVID bailout money meant to feed the elderly in Little Saigon.
Orange County Supervisors approved a resolution earlier this week to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to push for a harsher sentence on Do – something several Vietnamese veterans and residents called for at public meetings this month.
Earlier this month, Do’s former colleagues and successor Janet Nguyen also recognized Black April.
“The Fall of Saigon was not just a moment in history. It was an event that changed my life, my family’s and millions of Vietnamese refugees around the world. My family, like many others, fled Vietnam on a small wooden boat in search of freedom and democracy,” Nguyen said at the April 8 Supervisor meeting.
“It was the end of the war but the beginning of unimaginable suffering for millions of Vietnamese people.”
Nguyen said the people who fled in the aftermath and made it to America worked tirelessly to rebuild and contribute to their new communities.
“The Vietnamese American community has made a lasting impact in Orange County not only as survivors but as leaders, entrepreneurs, active citizens and very proud Americans.”
Remembering the Fall of Saigon
Le Phuoc Nhuan, a former South Vietnamese paratrooper, said it’s important to remember the Fall of Saigon because Vietnam is still controlled by the communist government.
“The first is for the communist people and then after that comes the people,” Phuoc said. “That’s not good. There needs to be not one party but democracy.”
Nhuan said some of his friends stayed behind in Vietnam and were put in prisons that communists called “re-education camps” for years.
Tom Vo, 77, who flew a fighter jet during the Vietnam War, said people lost everything because of Black April.
“That changed our life and Vietnam now is no more freedom,” Vo said. “We came here with nothing, and we are starting our life again, and we are honored to live here in the United States, and we work hard.”
Nick Berardino, U.S. Marine Corp. veteran and machine gunner in Vietnam, said the Fall of Saigon is a reminder that the pain that accompanies war does not discriminate – crossing borders and generations.
“Many of us continue to struggle with the physical and emotional scars of the conflict, the suffering caused by war lingers long after the battles have ended and passed in our memories and spirit,” he said in a phone interview.
“Now is the time for all of us to transform our pain into purpose and commit ourselves to a future where tragedies like war never occur again.”
Berardino adds that seeing the Vietnamese community in Little Saigon prosper gives him strength and peace.
“We know that our sacrifices were not in vain because another group of suppressed people are allowed to enjoy and participate in the American dream,” he said.
Anh Doan, a Westminster resident and pharmacist, said Black April was a loss for Southern Vietnamese people and a lot of Americans but it was also the start of a new beginning in a new country.
Doan, Ta’s wife, said it is important to remember Black April because it’s part of history and for the younger generations to hold on to their roots.
“We have to make sure that the story is told and is told correctly because if you don’t tell your stories, someone else will,” she said.
“It’s a strong reminder of where you came from and why you are here, especially for the younger generations, to know your roots, to know what your parents went through.”
Doan’s father was a colonel in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and was taken away by the communists when she was 6 months old. She did not see him again until she was 10.
Westminster Councilwoman Amy Phan West said the Fall of Saigon was a sad moment in history.
“April 30 is a sad day of what happened to our country, the Vietnamese community, but also a hope that now we are in the land of the free because of the brave in America, that we can establish ourselves and now we can continue to move on,” Phan West said
She said her family escaped Vietnam by fishing boat when she was about 5 years old and made it to a Thailand refugee camp before being granted asylum and moving to Huntington Beach.
“I remember we ran out of fresh water. My mom had to cook salt water, and none of us could eat,” Phan West said.
The councilwoman pleaded not guilty earlier this year to allegedly attempting to bribe parking enforcement officers in 2023, to stop her husband’s car from being towed.
Irvine City Councilman James Mai said Black April is a time of mourning.
“But also remembering what we lost so that we can also teach the future and talk about these things–I think with all things we should never forget, we should always remember what happened,” Mai said.
Mai’s family escaped communism in 1954 from Vietnam, coming to the United States before the fall of Saigon.
White Christmas, Black April & a Refugee Crisis
White Christmas, a song originally sung by Bing Crosby, played on a loop over the U.S. Armed Forces Radio airwaves on April 29, 1975 – a coded message signaling the immediate evacuation of all Americans out of Vietnam as communist forces surrounded Saigon.
Through the day and into the night, helicopter pilots landed in 10 minute intervals at the American Embassy to carry thousands of people out of the country to U.S. navy ships in the South China Sea.
At the same time, thousands of South Vietnamese clamored outside the gates of the embassy looking for a way out before the communists took the city.
Some South Vietnamese Air Force Pilots took helicopters and flew their families out to the U.S. ships – so much so that helicopters had to be pushed off the decks for others to land.
In the end, the U.S. military evacuated around 7,000 people – more than half of them Vietnamese – in less than 24 hours with some pilots flying 19 hours straight.
Many of those who stayed or were left behind including former South Vietnamese soldiers – U.S. allies – were tortured and forced into labor camps dubbed reeducation camps.
In the decades that followed, millions would flee Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos – many in makeshift, crowded boats who would become known as “boat people.”
Some people died at sea.
Some people went to refugee camps in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.
Others would find a new life in America.
Welcome to Little Saigon: A New Homeland
Many of the first and second wave refugees eventually resettled in Orange County, laying the foundation for what is now Little Saigon.
“It’s become such a vibrant community because it was built by these refugees who didn’t have much resources but they made do with what they could and they capitalized on areas that other people didn’t want to live at that time,” Tu-Uyen Nguyen, an associate professor in Asian American studies at California State University, Fullerton, said in an interview.
Tu-Uyen was 7-years-old when she and her brother made the perilous voyage with their parents to the U.S. as part of the second wave of “boat people” in 1979.
Upon arriving in Southern California, she remembers cities such as Westminster and Garden Grove – which would become the nucleus for Little Saigon – were still relatively undeveloped with remnants of orange groves and strawberry fields from when the county was primarily an agricultural region.
Many Vietnamese refugees found Westmister, Garden Grove and neighboring cities offered more affordable housing, job opportunities and preferred weather making them ideal places to settle.
People like Frank Jao, Danh Quach and Tony Lam – some of the first Vietnamese American businessmen to open shops in what would become Little Saigon – saw possibility in the undervalued land particularly along Bolsa Avenue and an opportunity to create a community hub reminiscent of their former homeland.
Jao’s developments of shopping centers such as the Asian Village or across the street the Asian Garden Mall (Phước Lộc Thọ) is now a cultural landmark of Little Saigon and spurred Westminster’s economic growth.
Quach, the first Vietnamese pharmacist in the area, worked to help those in what was becoming an ethnic enclave of refugees and immigrants byway of healthcare and advocacy.
Lam, once a small business owner as well, made history in 1992 when he was elected to the Westminster City Council, becoming the first Vietnamese American to hold public office in the country – a turning point for Vietnamese American representation that paved the way for broader civic engagement by the community.
By the late 1980s, the cultural and commercial momentum in Westminster and Garden Grove became so undeniable that in 1988, state Gov. George Deukmejian officially designated the area as “Little Saigon,” solidifying it as a core component of the Vietnamese diaspora in America.
To many who came from Vietnam, Little Saigon in Westminster, which later expanded into neighboring cities like Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Fountain Valley, served as a reminder of their lost homeland.
Orange County’s Vietnamese American community was forged not only by bold entrepreneurs and visionaries but also by survivors like Tu-Uyen’s family.
Her father, a dentist, once imprisoned in a reeducation camp, hid diamonds in her mother’s molars to protect against pirate raids at sea and to safeguard their future.
Tu-Uyen said that legacy is key to understanding the drive and tenacity often associated with immigrants – to keep pushing themselves to succeed amid adversity.
“A lot of it contributes to this model minority myth of why immigrants and refugees work so hard to be successful,” Tu-Uyen said. “I think it has a lot to do with when you’ve been through the worst, such horrible tragedies, it really makes you get through life and just do whatever you can to survive.”
Tu-Uyen said the struggles are what taught immigrants and refugees to be resilient.
“For immigrants and refugees, it’s like, we’ve seen death, we’ve been through life threatening emergencies and all kinds of horrific travails. And so, you know, if I don’t get this job, or if someone calls me a name in the street, you just pick yourself up and you keep going,” she said.
“You know you’re going to fight to survive, and so you do whatever it takes. And so I think that sense of history and struggle, it really makes you resilient.”
Van Tran, currently an Orange County Water District board member, and one of the community’s longest serving elected officials as a former state legislator and chief of staff to Andrew Do, said the Black April anniversary is also a time to reflect on the growth and contributions of the Vietnamese American community to the county.
“I’m very proud of the fact that just within a relatively short period of time, the Vietnamese American community as one of the youngest communities having lived and assimilated into the American fabric here, have achieved quite a bit, politically, educational wise, as well as in economics,” he said in an interview.
“So we’re very happy to have an opportunity to live, to raise our family and to really grow and contribute here in the local society.”
Tran was 10 when he and his family left Vietnam a week before the Fall of Saigon – evacuated by the U.S. military in a cargo plane.
He adds the freeway signs and the name they carry is symbolic for many.
“The name of Saigon still lives out in the hearts and minds of not only many Vietnamese, but also many Americans as well,” Tran said.
Joseph Nguyen, a lecturer in Asian American studies at Cal State Fullerton, said resurrecting the name “Saigon” was not just a suggestion based on geography, but a political and personal statement.
“After 75, Saigon was changed into Ho Chi Minh City. The naming of Little Saigon is a way for diasporas to make a statement against that,” Joseph said.
For many younger Vietnamese Americans, this legacy resonates deeply.
“For the younger generation, Black April is a time to affirm their Vietnamese identity and to remember the sacrifices of their parents,” Joseph said.
“For older generations, it’s also a day of mourning, a reminder of the Fall of Saigon—and a call to continue advocating for democracy and human rights.”
Chapman University Students Josiah Mendoza and Efrem Plawner contributed to this article.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
Noriko Ostroy is an intern at Voice of OC. To contact her, please email storybynori@gmail.com.