For the second generation of Vietnamese Americans, the remnants of the Vietnam War can be seen through documented photos, ones that were captured by Vietnamese translators and photographers who worked for Americans.
Nguyễn Ngọc Lương was one of those unsung heroes from the Vietnam War Era who worked closely with the New York Times to capture the war up close. He passed away at the age of 79 in Vietnam.
Nguyễn Ngọc Lương’s coverage of the Vietnam War, available in the New York Times, included moments when American troops prepared to leave Saigon on April 1975. He declined the Time’s offer to relocate him to the U.S., and chose to remain in his homeland knowing the inevitable communist takeover.
According to the Times obituary, Nguyễn Ngọc Lương was barred from exercising his journalist skills under the communist government.
In the generation that is unfamiliar with the direct experiences of the Vietnam War, only subjects from famous photographs come to mind. Nguyễn Ngọc Lương was a Vietnamese journalist who needs to be recognized as the subject taking the photos. He, like many other Vietnamese journalists and interpreters who worked for the Americans, played an instrumental role in the translation and capturing of the history of the Vietnam War.
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Viviane Nguyen She is a lover of politics. She has researched and worked in different levels of government in San Jose, Sacramento, Washington D.C., and Thailand. She is motivated to highlight issues impacting the Vietnamese-American community and Asian American communities at large. She was formerly a Cal-in-Sacramento Fellow at UC Berkeley and notably a Public Policy and International Affairs Fellow at the Goldman School of Public Policy. She wants to write to show why politics, especially in 2016, is important.