Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism (https://caucus.iowawatch.org/tag/special-report-part-of-a-series/)
The world is smaller, and more fearful about others, an Iowan whose family took in a Vietnamese family in the 1970s says in this conclusion of a five-part serial about that experience some 40 years ago.
Vietnamese refugee Phat (Patrick) Nguyen, revealed stories about his life in Vietnam before coming to Iowa and the family’s experience in the Malaysian refugee camp, along with stories about living in the United States. It was a story of friends, a home and hope, but he left one special person behind.
In this installment of a special five-part series Wayne Buck says in an ABC News interview from the 1970s that he thinks the Nguyen family, Vietnamese refugees living in Iowa, soon will be financially independent. Young Jeanne Buck, meanwhile, says her family can say it saved eight lives.
The Pulau Bidong camp, where the Nguyen family lived for six months, was only 1 square kilometer in area and housed approximately 18,000 Vietnamese refugees by January 1979. After the Nguyens moved to Iowa that number continued to grow.
Saigon had fallen and Vietnamese refugees needed a new home. Iowa opened its arms in the 1970s. A former IowaWatch reporter’s story rekindled memories for one Iowan whose family took in some of those refugees. This five-part series by Clare McCarthy tells that story.