Nguyễn Quoc Cường video oral history interview and transcript
Date
2011-03-07Description
This recording and transcript form part of a collection of oral history interviews conducted by the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation and donated to the Chao Center for Asian Studies at Rice University. This collection includes video recordings of interviews with Vietnamese Americans native to or living in Texas. This interview forms part of the national 500 Oral Histories Project conducted by the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation.
Citation
Abstract
Nguyễn Quoc Cường was born on 21 August 1944 in Hanoi, Vietnam. He arrived in the United States in May 1975. He currently works as a publisher. He is Catholic. He and his family fled Hanoi for South Vietnam when he was 5 years-old at his uncle's warning about political tension. Nguyễn Quoc Cường went to law school in 1963 and graduated in 1966. He attended a French High School in Saigon. After graduating from Law School in Saigon, Nguyễn Quoc Cuong was drafted to 7th Division of Infantry under General Nguyen Khoa Nam then transferred to the “High Commission of People Mobilization”. After that he worked for the “Post-War Economic Planning” Program, ”Public Affairs Center”, “Open Arms Policy”, the “Vietnam Press Agency” then the “Overseas Information Center”. The last position he held (from 1973 to 1975) was Spokesman of the South Vietnamese Government. Nguyen Quoc Cuong discusses about the spirit of Vietnamese youths in 1960’s, experiences when he was in the Army, evaluated leaders of the Government of Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnamese Government) from 1954 to 1963 then from 1963 to 1975. He looks back the coup in 1963 and the fall of S. Vietnam in 1975. Although he arrived in the USA in 1975 with wife and 4 children, he attended the University of St Thomas (Houston), graduated with MA degree. Nguyen Quoc Cuong worked for Continental Airlines, Department of Labor then City of Houston before retiring. He is now a publisher of a Vietnamese newspaper in Houston.