Lee’s Sandwiches owner recounts his harrowing voyage from post-war Vietnam.
Nguyen and family at Lee's Sandwiches. Photo by David Jennings.
On any given day, Minh Nguyen can be found behind a cash register in the neon-lit, cafeteria-style eatery of Lee’s Sandwiches, a quick-serve Vietnamese sandwich place in the bustling Asian District. Nguyen calmly awaits his patrons’ requests as meal order numbers prattle on the loudspeaker overhead like bingo calls, each said in both English and Vietnamese. No one would guess that behind Nguyen’s soft smile lies an incredible experience of survival and resilience.
The nation is debating intensely the role and place of immigrants right now. Xenophobia runs rampant and hot. In a country that defines itself as a “melting pot,” public opinion for refugees has been historically been mixed or resistant, then as now. In 1979, shortly after President Jimmy Carter announced he would double the acceptance rate of Vietnamese refugees into the United States, a CBS News/The New York Times poll showed public opinion against refugees stood at a staggering 62 percent. A year later, 71 percent were against Cuban refugees emigrating. During the last century and a half, each immigrant-descendant generation expressed similar resistance to more.
Nguyen spent his adolescence in wartime South Vietnam, near the important military base at Cam Ranh Bay. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, the South occupied the port and committed anyone who had ties to the South’s government to “re-education camps.”
In 1980, Nguyen became a part of the refugee boat crisis that saw 590,000 refugees risk their lives to escape Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, according to the Pew Research Center. Minh’s group spent harrowing weeks adrift at sea before landing in China and being relocated by Catholic Charities to San Diego. He and his wife, an Oklahoman, eventually moved to Oklahoma City with their two children. Family and an assembly job at Tinker Air Force base provided a new start.
"No one would guess that behind Nguyen’s soft smile lies an incredible experience of survival and resilience."
Even though Nguyen has experienced unimaginable circumstances, this has not hampered his compassion. “Minh is great,” said Cathy Truong, a longtime employee at Lee’s. “My mom is really sick, so I need flexible hours to leave whenever I want to. He’s allowed me to do that a lot throughout the years I’ve worked here.”
Lee’s Sandwiches has earned a devoted following in OKC. Over the past year, the Nguyens have transferred the managerial reigns to their daughter, Jenny. She left her life in Dallas to help at Lee’s. “My parents needed someone to fill the spot, and I’m at that age where it’s kind of my turn,” Jenny said. “But I’ll give up 70 hours a week—(they) gave up their whole life.”
We asked Minh spent some time sharing the long and winding road he’s traveled.
Our Conversation
You left South Vietnam when you were 18, in 1980. Why?
There are several reason why I left. One of the main reason is that my dad was in the...what they call “re-educational camps,” because he working for the South Vietnamese government. After 1975, the fall of Saigon, they gather all military people, especially the high-ranking people, and they put them in what they call “camps,” but it’s like a prison. What you do in there is just labors, produce foods and crops and all of that kind of stuff. Very little to eat.
One reason I escaped is because my mom was able to bribe the prison guards so they can let my dad come home for one night. And that the night that my mom already set up with all the people with the boats and everything ready to escape that night.
When we took off in the middle of the night, we barely be able to pick up all of the supplies because the middle of the night, the dogs are all barking...the police come out. We left without supplies to travel from there to the Philippines, which is our destination. So, after maybe five days, we ran out of supplies, and we ran out of diesel. And then we have no choice but took the engine, got the engine ripped out and dumped it in the ocean. Lighter, the boat, so we can go sailing.
You mentioned you were aboard a 39-foot boat with 43 other people, trying beyond all hope to make it to the Philippines. Help us understand what such a desperate journey is like—we’ve seen similar attempts recently by Syrian families fleeing war.
We didn’t get to the Philippines. We were sailing around the ocean, whatever the current and the wind brought us, we just followed that for directions. We don’t have enough food, so we barely have any water to drink, so we have to wait for rain. Lot of childrens so thirsties and they see salt waters and drinking them. Lucky nobody got killed. One time, when the boat owner, he so terrified and so frustrated, he got out of control and he want to chop off the sailing poles and cut the boat and make sure it sink and everybody die. No more suffering. But we was able to stop him. It took us about three weeks just circling around on the ocean and one day there was a typhoon coming and typhoon came in and pushed us into one of the island belong to China. So we crashed our boats on it. After three weeks on the ocean, we was barely walking because you got the uh…what you call it, the sickness?
You mean sea legs?
Yes. Everybody crawled on the shore after the boat crashed on the shore. And that island is military island, so after we crash into it, there were a lot of island and military personnel that came out and took us and put us in the bunker. Inside the bunker, they feed us but there’s no facility for us to take a shower so we took shower in salt water. We have to stay there for a week before they can get an interpreter from China, came to see if we are really refugee or if we are spies or whatever. So after a few days of interviews and all of that, they let us go.
So you obtained refugee status and were sponsored by Catholic Charities to travel to San Diego. Help us understand what the early years can be like as an émigré.
My first job was folding newspapers. There’s a lot of competition in that job and there’s only $3.35 an hour. If you’re too slow, you get out. At night time, I go to an English class. First thing after receive welfare checks is buy the bus ticket so I can get around. In the morning, I go to one school, in the afternoon I go to one school, in the evening one school because they only allow you to enroll for certain hours and don’t let you stay there all day…I’m very embarrassed that we have to get welfare for six months.
A year ago you brought on your daughter, Jenny. What do you hope a new generation brings to Lee’s?
I would say better communication between the restaurant and the customer. She understands the culture, but not me. I’m not good in that culture. She does, she grows up here. I hope that it will give customer more bonding relationships and know us better.
3300 N. Classen Blvd. More info on Lee's Sandwiches available online here.
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