Transcript: Vicky Nguyen
An interview with the American journalist and bestselling author
As we navigate a period rife with political tensions on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border, I wanted to bring you all an incredible story that celebrates the human spirit and affirms our common humanity. My guest on the program today was an eight-month-old baby when her parents smuggled her out of communist Vietnam, crossing the South China Sea to begin a new life. Decades later, she reports for the Today show.
Vicky Nguyen is an NBC News Daily anchor and Chief Consumer Investigative correspondent. She reports for the Today show, Nightly News, and NBC News Now. Her New York Times-bestselling debut is Boat Baby.
This is an edited transcript for paid subscribers. You can listen to the interview here.
TH: I loved this book, as I told you. I'm a huge reader. I know you are, too. I picked it up, and I couldn't put it down. I read it in one weekend. It was such a compelling story.
VN: That is the best compliment you could give me. To put a book out and to have someone say they really enjoyed it, that they couldn't put it down, that they felt like they could relate to it — that is everything I hoped it would be and more.
TH: It's such an interesting book. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Your parents were there. What was life like for them at that time, finding themselves living under communist rule?
VN: This was the best part for me, in terms of researching and getting to ask my parents these questions about what their life was like before I was ever in existence. We always think of our parents as mom and dad, but when you peel back the layers and think of who they were as individual people before you came along? It was 1975, April 30th, the fall of Saigon. My dad had been in the military, the South Vietnamese army, as a medic, and he was drafted when he was 18.
My mom, who was actually six years older, was working during the war for various American companies, including military contractors. Her job was to go around and inspect the different vehicles and Jeeps and write down the damage. She was able to practice her English by doing that. She's this beautiful slip of a woman in Saigon. When you are on the losing side of the war, everything changes for you. When she and my dad met and eventually married after about a year of getting to know each other, it was a really somber time. There wasn't a lot of cause for celebration.
People weren't in the mood for all of the wedding pageantry and exchanging of gifts and dowries and all the pomp and circumstance. It was more practical: We've met, we seem compatible, we'll get married. It wasn't until I was born in August of 1978. The three years after the fall of Saigon really crystallized and cemented for my parents that they wanted to escape communist Vietnam. They had already been living under communist rule for three years and feeling like they were in a surveillance state, and understanding that kids who went to school were instructed to report on their parents. To say, "If you hear something in your house, if anyone is saying anything critical of the government, you come back here and you tell us at school."
For my parents, when I asked them, "Why would you leave your families behind and risk your lives and take an eight-month-old baby out of Vietnam?" Their answer was always, "We wanted a better life for you. We wanted you to have education, and we wanted freedom."
TH: Your mother, I've seen her interviewed on the Today show. She talked about how your birth catalyzed their decision to flee the country, with your father telling your mother that there is no future if there is no freedom. That atmosphere that you're describing of young children reporting their parents for anti-communist thought — there was also the fact that the country was awash in propaganda, which your father particularly despised. I'm curious, looking back on your parents’ decision, what do you think was it about their characters that enabled them, that propelled them, to have the courage to risk everything to leave?
VN: Thank you so much for asking this question, because I want to give credit where credit is due. I recognize so many of the characteristics that I have now as a journalist come from my parents. They had a “why not?” attitude: Why not us? Why not take this chance? What do we have to lose? Certainly, they had to lose their families, and they potentially could have lost their lives, like people did when they tried to cross the South China Sea. But they were also perpetually optimistic. They knew people had made it out. They knew people were headed to countries that embraced freedom and democracy and the ability to be independent thinkers. My parents did not let fear hold them back.
My parents were also perpetually optimistic. They knew people had made it out. They knew people were headed to countries that embraced freedom and democracy and the ability to be independent thinkers. My parents did not let fear hold them back.
They, I think, took smart and calculated risks. I'm just so grateful for that because, throughout the years, I've really never heard my parents complain. They really follow that adage, "Never complain, never explain." They put one foot in front of the other, whatever obstacle is in their way, they find a way around it or through it or above it or below it. When you're a kid growing up, you're not paying attention to those things. You don't recognize how hard it is that your parents are working, or how tough it is for them to find an apartment or a business to lease or a business to buy or whatever.
Then you become an adult, you become a parent yourself, and you recognize, wow, this is what it takes. This is what I would do for my children. I'm so grateful they were just gritty and they were really resilient. They just taught by example. They modeled a lot of things. They didn't explain a lot of things, but it all imprinted on me.
TH: Speaking of that resilience, you tell the story in the book about crossing the South China Sea. They left in the dead of the night, they have an eight-month-old, they carry you through the jungle. They're on the boat. The boat is attacked by pirates.
