After the former British Empire crowned their present King, a 65-year-old Vietnamese refugee evacuated by the U.S. in April 1975 sings the Star Spangled Banner for her fellow Vietnamese American compatriots!
I was the last Vietnamese woman to walk the Tao Dan public park in central Saigon, March 1975, for this honor (the national honor prize in literature for the Trung Sisters' commemoration), awarded by the now defunct Republic of Vietnam. The collapse of South Vietnam occurred barely a month later...
The award was started by Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu of the First Republic.
I celebrated (poignantly) my 17th birthday in America, Happy or sad? What I left behind: a wound that nevel heals.
