LOST DREAMS AND MOURNING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504460011-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: April 18, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RD P90-00965R000504460011-4
tlli PAGE
WASHINGTON POST
18 April 1985
'i Refugees
Lost Dreams and Mourning
Many Prosper Here, but Others Are Mired in Poverty
By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
oan Ngoc An is a
boss' dream. The
35-year-old Viet-
namese refugee
is known as a
tireless worker
at the Beltsville electroplating
plant where he works the 4 p.m.
to midnight shift. He goes home,
sleeps for three hours, and then
gets up at 6 a.m. for his second
job, delivering newspapers.
An, who arrived in this country
in 1980, seems to be the epitome
of industriousness that Americans
point to in their praise of Viet-
namese refugees.
**c**EXCEPTED
Guilty About Freedom
Many Vietnamese are still pre-
occupied with life in their home-
land. Most refugees send money
and goods to impoverished relatives
there, and anxiously wait for word
back.-."They feel guilty they have
freedom and security, and there are
so many relying -on them back
home," said Yen Do, editor of a
Vietnamese newspaper in Orange
County. "They can never get away
from their oppressors. It will follow
them for their whole lives."
Reluctance to break those ties is
thought to be a reason why only 16
percent of the Indochinese refugees
who are eligible have become cit-
izens. And Vietnamese say that po-
litical involvement is discouraged
by an atmosphere of distrust found
at all levels of their society here.
The Vietnamese communities
are severely split by factions with,
for example, former Army officers
criticizing their counterparts from
the Navy, reformers against the
old line, class against class, and on
and on. The exile press is filled,
with' accusations that one or an-
other leader is a "Hanoi hench-
man," a "puppet" of corrupt South
Vietnamese generals, a CIA agent
or a sellout to the Americans.
Vietnamese widely believe that`
Communists have infiltrated the
refugees here. Many claim that
details of secret meetings of anti-
Hanoi groups have appeared in
radio broadcasts in Vietnam. Fed-
eral law enforcement officials say
they also believe the Vietnamese
communities are shot through
with spies.
"We come from a war-torn soci-
ety," said Yen. "It's in the nature of
things, the secrets, the divisions."
This atmosphere of intrigue
surrounds the activities of the
shadowy but apparently active re-
sistance movement that aims to
overthrow the Hanoi government.
There are more than 50 such com-
peting organizations here, and
many issue harsh condemnations.
of one another. - -
Despite the infighting, almost
all Vietnamese here support the
aims of the resistance. It is almost
a rite of adolescence for many
male Vietnamese teen-agers to
talk about returning to Vietnam to
-fight the Communists. . .
. Yet Vietnamese youths also ac-
knowledge their futures are not in
Vietnam, but in the United States.
Their parents know that their chil-
dren, for better or worse, have
been caught up in the American
-
dream.
"I'm on the track team, I run the
880 relay, the mile relay and the
85-meter dash," said Thu-Nga
Hoang, a lithe 16-year-old girl who.
is a straight-A sophomore at J.E.B
Stuart High school. "I play in the
orchestra, first chair, second violin;
I'm in the French club, the science
club, the international club,".' -
Thu-Nga. cannot remember the
name of the town in Vietnam that
she left at age 6 with her. family;-
and has forgotten Vietnamese, but.
she's confident about her life here.
;"I really think I'm going to be able
to do whatever I set out to do," she,
said. "I think it's going to be strict
studying until I reach my goal..",
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504460011-4