HOF084: Dang Van Nghiem

 

Dang Van Nghiem grew up in the countryside in South Vietnam, where his fellow villagers lived under the constant threat of raids by the North Vietnam army during the war. He lost his two siblings when they were shot in a targeted attack in their mother’s home. When the war ended, Dang considered joining insurgents who were committed to continuing the fight. He ultimately decided to abandon his medical studies and leave the country.

 

After he was sponsored by the Hamilton Mennonite Church to come to Canada from an Indonesian refugee camp, he benefited from the church’s multi-year support as he worked on a university degree in nursing. He chose the occupation because he wanted to enlist in the medical corps of the National United Front for the Freedom of Vietnam, which at the time was encamped in the mountains of Thailand with the goal of marshalling resources to topple the Communist regime.

 
 
 
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Note to Researchers

A consent form was signed by each of the interviewees whose videos are posted here on the website. They have each consented to making the video available to the public and they have consented to the use of the contents of their videos by the Hearts of Freedom project researchers. Consent is not available to external researchers to quote or publish from it. Researchers interested in the subject have the opportunity to view a documentary film, Passage to Freedom which has been completed and is available through a distributor https://www.mcintyre.ca/ Researchers from the project are in the process of completing a full length book based on the interviews. Once this book is available researchers will have the opportunity to review it and to refer to it for research purposes.