Dao Le Quang

“How was life in Vietnam in 1984?” – “The situation did not improve much. You could still see the consequences of the war; there was still poverty. There was a rationing system in place. But it was miserable. In the village, only those who had some cattle at home had meat. We enjoyed plenty of meat only once per year. We were always looking forward to the new lunar year. Each family had a pig, but back then, pigs took very long to grow. We had one for the whole year and it weighed about fifty kilos. When someone was better off, their pig weighed for example seventy kilos. Meat was also on sale but people from villages never had the money for that. Only my father had the rationing of 700 grams of meat per month and he was bringing it home, so we had a bit of it. When there was meat for lunch, it was three, four thin slices.” – “Did you experience hunger?” - “That did happen, as well. We did not even have enough rice. We had sweet potatoes; every family would grow them for its own needs, and we had to trade them for rice and vice versa.“

“I experienced aerial attacks of the American B-53 bombers and went through the horrors. Next to our village there was a big factory which was also being targeted. The bombers were flying over our heads. We were hiding under ground and at school we hid under the tables serving as a shelter. We had to run and hide underneath the tables every now and then.” – “Did the bombers ever hit the village? Had anyone lost their life?” – “Yes. Quite a lot of people died near the factory. It was a factory producing fertilizers for the agriculture.” – “How did your parents explain to you what was happening?” – “Everyone knew that the Americans were the enemy who wanted to occupy Vietnam. When they started to bomb civilians, they became a major enemy to us.”