Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 3, 1995 TAG: 9505050022
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAL THOMAS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Probably the most significant question is whether it was worth the loss of 58,000 American lives. Is there consolation for those who died and for those who continue to grieve?
There is. His name is Francis Q. Hoang, and next month he will graduate near the top of his class from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Hoang's family moved from North to South Vietnam in the 1960s because of religious persecution under the Communists. His father was drafted into the South Vietnamese Army. His mother worked for the American Navy attache in Saigon. On April 27, 1975, three days before Saigon fell, Hoang's family - father, mother, himself and sister Ann - were given one hour to grab their belongings and board an American plane for San Diego.
When they arrived in the States, they were told they could live anywhere they wished. Hoang's father chose Washington State because he had heard fruit trees grow there and he wanted to start a business. A sponsoring American family in Tumwater, south of Olympia, took them in and helped them start their new life.
When Hoang was in the eighth grade, his class traveled to Washington, D.C., where he visited the Vietnam Memorial and the Wall with the names of the American dead. ``As I looked at the names stretching on either side of me,'' he says, ``I suddenly felt a deep, deep sense of sadness and grief. That was followed by a sense of debt that I had to repay.''
Hoang kept this vow to himself, telling neither his teachers nor his parents, because, he says, he didn't know how he could repay so great a sacrifice. ``All I knew was that I had been given something and I had to give it back.''
In his senior year in high school, a retired three-star general visited his school and took an interest in him. He advised Hoang to apply to West Point. He did and, despite his late application, was nominated and accepted.
On a subsequent trip to the capital, Hoang paid another visit to the Wall, wondering whether he was wise to seek an Army career. ``It was late at night,'' he recalls, ``and I remember distinctly walking down that path and hearing murmurs as I passed people and standing there in that spot (where I had made my vow) and feeling that I had done the right thing.''
What does he think about the controversy over former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's book? ``What matters,'' he says, ``is that American soldiers came to Vietnam, fought in a country far from home, spilled their blood and, in some cases, gave their lives out of a sense of duty, out of a sense of honor and out of a desire to serve their country. It made it possible for people like me to have another life. I would have died if I had stayed there, or become an orphan because my parents would have been killed and I would have been forced to live in the streets like a dog and eventually die. Instead, I got to come to the United States, have a wonderful education and an opportunity to serve this nation.''
Hoang, who says he believes Vietnam will someday be free, was in Washington on April 27, the 20th anniversary of his family's escape from Vietnam. He went to the Wall, leaving some of his brigade ribbons along with a letter of thanks to those who gave their lives for him.
Hoang personifies West Point's motto - Duty, Honor, Country - all the more because this is not his native land. The 58,000 died for more than one, but if there are more Francis Hoangs and if Vietnam is someday free, the debt will have been paid. For Hoang, graduation day at West Point and his commission in the U.S. Army will mark a significant down payment.
- Los Angeles Times Syndicate
by CNB