After Saigon Fell, My Family Rose
I grew up hearing their stories: The Viet Cong dominated dinner table conversations. My father talked about jumping into a mortar pit full of scorpions and described sleeping on the roof so he would be the first to spot anything incoming. My mother recounted frantically packing five dresses and pretending to be engaged to an American family friend to secure her last-minute escape to a refugee camp in Guam.
The fall of Saigon was a tragedy—lives lost, a country fractured, families like mine clinging to helicopters or braving the seas. Their exodus reminds us of the lengths people will go to escape the scourge of communism and build something from nothing.
Look at Little Saigon in Westminster, Calif.—the largest Vietnamese population outside Vietnam—or at Eden Center in Falls Church, Va. These are hubs of small businesses born from resilience and extraordinary tenacity. More than 300,000 businesses in the U.S. are owned by Vietnamese-Americans, including the billion-dollar company that makes Sriracha hot sauce. Fifty-five percent of U.S.-born Vietnamese-Americans hold bachelor's degrees or higher, well above the national average of 38%.
Young Americans today have known peace for decades. But from Saigon to Kabul, we've seen how freedom's promise can vanish in an instant. With distance comes danger: the fading of memory. On this anniversary, we must remember that the gifts of the U.S. are fragile, precious and worth defending.
Americans' most powerful adversary is now communist China—the same regime that bankrolled and armed the Viet Cong—and we face a different kind of battlefield. National power is no longer measured by military strength alone. It's exercised through economic leverage, technological dominance and strategic investment. Our freedom is being tested not only in war rooms but in boardrooms. It's being shaped not only by soldiers but by the choices of everyday social-media users.
So how do we preserve it? Can we give up TikTok, knowing its ties to a totalitarian regime? Will we invest in building the next generation of trusted technology—designed not only to win markets but to uphold freedom?
My father often repeated a simple Seabee motto: 'Can Do.' Fifty years after Black April, as new threats challenge liberty, that same spirit must guide Americans to meet this moment.
Ms. Giuda is CEO of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue. She served as assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, 2018-20.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
2 hours ago
- Indian Express
Daily Briefing: Post-tariff anxiety; India's ‘dead' economy; Dhadak 2 movie review
Good morning, Sydney Sweeney's ad is selling 'great jeans,' or maybe, reinforcing just the same-old 'tired, recurring trope' of sexualised women selling products ranging from cars to mango juice. Highlighting the commodification of Sweeney's sexuality in American Eagle's latest campaign, my colleague Sonal Gupta, in our latest Fresh Take column, shares why we need change. 'Critics argue that casting a blue-eyed, blonde, conventionally attractive white woman while referencing 'great genes' inadvertently echoes eugenics — the discredited pseudo-scientific belief in racial and genetic superiority.' With that, let's move on the top 5 stories from today's edition: 🚨 Big Story Hailing India's decision of not buying oil from Russia as a 'good step', United States President Donald Trump Saturday said that he wasn't sure of the development. His comments come a day after Trump unveiled sweeping new tariffs on dozens of countries including 25 per cent for goods from India. Moreover, Trump also mounted a sharp attack on India and Russia for their close ties and said that the two countries can take their 'dead economies down together.' 'A diplomatic challenge': A day earlier, Trump's remarks were met with diplomatic pragmatism from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Underlining that the India-US partnership has 'weathered several transitions and challenges,' the MEA said that New Delhi will remain 'focused on the substantive agenda' even as it flagged that its friendship with Russia was 'time-tested.' Trump's comments sever Delhi's diplomatic challenge at a time India and the US are negotiating a bilateral trade deal. 'Setback': Amid Trump's higher tariffs imposed in India, domestic apparel exporters have expressed concern and sought government intervention to 'offset this huge setback.' The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), Delhi based-industry chambers of the textile and clothing sector, said that the latest US tariff announcement has added to the challenges that India's textile and apparel exporters were already grappling with. A 'veiled jibe': Earlier on Thursday, Trump's announcement that Americans will work with Pakistan to develop the latter's 'massive' oil reserves, came as a bit of a surprise, as Pakistan is not exactly a country synonymous with oil exploration and production. However, Trump said that 'maybe' Pakistan will be 'selling oil to India some day', a remark interpreted as a veiled jibe in New Delhi over heavy imports of Russian oil, which has emerged as an irritant relationship between India and US. Does Pakistan possess these massive oil reserves? We delve deeper. ⚡ Only in Express 'Pushed back': Thousands of migrant workers from West Bengal have, over the last few months, been detained and pushed into the neighboring country as part of an ongoing drive against illegal Bangladeshis. It's the Bengali-speaking migrant workers in cities such as Gurgaon, Assam, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Mumbai and Odisha, who have borne the brunt, with some of them packing their bags and returning to their home state. Here's an account of these migrant workers being 'pushed back' from parts of the country. 💡 Express Explained 'Dead economy?': Trump's sharp attack on India and Russia for their close ties led him to significantly remark that the two countries can take their 'dead economies down together.' The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, agreeing with the US President's remarks, called it a 'fact.' Meanwhile, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal pushed back, saying that India had rapidly transformed from being one of the 'fragile five' to the fastest growing major economy in the world in just over a decade. Is India's economy really 'dead'? We unpack. ✍️ Express Opinion In our Opinion section today, S Y Quraishi delves into PM Modi's declaration of Indian democracy predating Magna Carta as an invocation of the 'truth that has too often been forgotten.' Calling it 'timely' and 'necessary,' Quraishi writes: 'At a moment when democracy across the world is under pressure — from authoritarian populism, money power, disinformation, and shrinking civic space — it is vital to remind ourselves that India's democracy is not a borrowed robe. It is rooted in indigenous traditions of collective decision-making, anchored in values of ethics, equity, and participation.' 🍿 Movie Review Wondering what to watch this weekend? Well, we've got you covered! Shazia Iqbal's 'Dhadak 2' has hit the theatres, bringing you a young love story, set against the political depths of discrimination in India. Shubhra Gupta, in her review, writes: 'This is a film which is clearly on the right side of many of the hot button issues we need to be pressing: casteism, classism, feminism, gender identities. While at it, you can see an awareness of the wrongs and injustices which have made, and continue to make headlines.' That's all for today. Have a lovely weekend! Until next time, Ariba
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
Trump's fund cuts: CPB to shut down after GOP slashes funding; 'trashed decades of democracy' say critics
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced that it would be winding down its operations on Friday, in a major victory for Republican lawmakers. This follows a successful effort to defund local PBS and NPR stations across the United States. The decision comes just over a week after US President Donald Trump signed a rescissions bill that clawed back $9 billion in previously approved federal funding, including $1.1 billion earmarked for CPB over the next two years. 'Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,' said CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison. 'CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care.' Founded over six decades ago, the CPB has long served as the funding backbone for public broadcasters across the country. With its dissolution, officials are now working to help local stations grapple with sudden financial shortfalls. Harrison has particularly warned that smaller, rural stations could be forced to shut down entirely without federal assistance. Larger stations, which often have more diversified funding streams including public donations, may fare better. Nonetheless, public media leaders argue that the entire ecosystem will suffer without CPB's foundational support. 'The ripple effects of this closure will be felt across every public media organisation and, more importantly, in every community across the country that relies on public broadcasting,' said NPR CEO Katherine Maher in a statement ctied by CNN. Nearly all of the corporation's 100 staff roles will be eliminated when funding officially ends on 30 September. A small transition team will stay on through January to ensure 'a responsible and orderly closeout of operations,' the CPB said. The move represents a political milestone for Trump, who has long campaigned to strip public broadcasting of federal support. Earlier this year, he even attempted, unsuccessfully, to dismiss three members of the CPB board, despite having no legal authority to do so under the legislation that established the organisation in 1967, CNN reported. Although the corporation initially took legal action to defend its board members, it filed a voluntary dismissal of the case on Friday—an implicit acknowledgment that the administration has won. 'REPUBLICANS HAVE TRIED DOING THIS FOR 40 YEARS, AND FAILED….BUT NO MORE,' Trump wrote on Truth Social, following the approval of the bill in both the Republican-controlled House and Senate. While public media advocates had held out hope that Congress might restore funding through the normal appropriations process, a draft Senate bill advanced on Thursday without any such provision, effectively shutting the door on a last-minute rescue. For Trump and his Republican allies, the elimination of CPB is a strike against what they perceive as liberal bias within public broadcasting. But for media advocates, it marks the end of an era, one that saw the federal government play a crucial role in sustaining non-commercial TV and radio. 'The end of CPB is the direct result of the deep and corrupt failure of Congress and the Trump administration to invest in informing the American public,' said Craig Aaron, co-CEO of the progressive media reform group Free Press. 'They have trashed decades of democracy-building work and will deny many journalists, artists, educators and creators the opportunity to be heard.' Aaron, however, held out hope for the future, suggesting the crisis could spur the rebirth of publicly funded media 'as a bulwark against authoritarianism that meets the civic needs of all our communities.'
New Indian Express
4 hours ago
- New Indian Express
Corporation for Public Broadcasting to shut down after being defunded by Congress, targeted by Trump
WASHINGTON: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a cornerstone of American culture for three generations, announced Friday it would take steps toward its own closure after being defunded by Congress — marking the end of a nearly six-decade era in which it fueled the production of renowned educational programming, cultural content and even emergency alerts. The demise of the corporation, known as CPB, is a direct result of President Donald Trump's targeting of public media, which he has repeatedly said is spreading political and cultural views antithetical to those the United States should be espousing. The closure is expected to have a profound impact on the journalistic and cultural landscape — in particular, public radio and TV stations in small communities across the United States. CPB helps fund both PBS and NPR, but most of its funding is distributed to more than 1,500 local public radio and television stations around the country. The corporation also has deep ties to much of the nation's most familiar programming, from NPR's "All Things Considered" to, historically, "Sesame Street," "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" and the documentaries of Ken Burns. The corporation said its end, 58 years after being signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, would come in an "orderly wind-down." In a statement, it said the decision came after the passage through Congress of a package that clawed back its funding for the next two budget years — about $1.1 billion. Then, the Senate Appropriations Committee reinforced that policy change Thursday by excluding funding for the corporation for the first time in more than 50 years as part of a broader spending bill. "Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations," said Patricia Harrison, the corporation's president and CEO.
