Westminster Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen left Vietnam crowded on a dinghy, fleeing the communist government in the years after the fall of Saigon, joining so many Vietnamese refugees who went on to rebuild lives in Little Saigon.
On Wednesday, he’ll reflect on a wider arc of the Vietnamese diaspora as his city commemorates the 50 years since Black April, when South Vietnam lost the war.
Westminster Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen speaks during an event commemorating Vietnam War Veterans Day on Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Westminster, Calif. (Photo by William Liang, Contributing Photographer) Westminster Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen walks in the Little Saigon neighborhood of Westminster, CA, on Monday, April 21, 2025. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Westminster Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen talks with Phe Nguyen, 102, a she shops at ABC Supermarket in the Little Saigon neighborhood of Westminster, CA, on Monday, April 21, 2025. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Show Caption1 of 3Westminster Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen speaks during an event commemorating Vietnam War Veterans Day on Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Westminster, Calif. (Photo by William Liang, Contributing Photographer) ExpandIn one of several commemoration events planned in Orange County, Westminster leaders will lay a wreath at the city’s Vietnam War memorial to honor the lives lost during the war.
“The event is to remember those who fought for freedom but never found it,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen was the oldest of six children raised on a farm near the coastal town of Vung Tau, southeast of Saigon. His early years were good, he said. Childlike.
“I went to school, and I enjoyed school,” he said.
Then came war and communism.
“I still vividly remember every moment of April 1975,” Nguyen said during a recent interview at Quan Hy Restaurant in Westminster’s Today Plaza. His gaze might as well have been as far away as Vietnam.
“I was with my mom and siblings when the communists came in,” he continued. “I was 11 years old. My father had been in Saigon in the army. He came home briefly before the communists took him away. They said he’d be gone three days.”
Three years went by. Then four.
His dad remained imprisoned in communist reeducation camps. Following the war, communist forces imprisoned hundreds of thousands of former military officers, government workers and supporters of the former government of South Vietnam.
“When my dad was taken away, I had to drop out of school to work the farm and provide for my family,” Nguyen said. “Then, in April 1979, my mom told me I had to leave Vietnam.”
“She was worried about the draft,” he said. She didn’t want her oldest son taken into the very communist army that his father had tried to destroy.
So, at age 15, she arranged for Nguyen to leave the country on a dinghy.
“It was no more than this big,” he said as he reached his arms from the coffee table toward the restaurant entrance about 20 feet to his right. “I remember there were more than three dozen people on that boat.”
They set off from Vung Tau at night with only one clear destination — international waters.
“When I left, I felt I had nothing.”
If you go
What: City of Westminster Black April commemoration event
When: 10 a.m. on April 30
Where: Sid Goldstein Freedom Park, 14180 All American Way
Information: westminster-ca.gov
***
What: Richard Nixon Foundation will host a commemoration event
When: 11:15 a.m. on April 30
Where: Nixon Presidential Library & Museum, 18001 Yorba Linda Blvd., Yorba Linda
Information and registration: NixonFoundation.org
As he looked into the dark waters, darker thoughts penetrated his mind, Nguyen said. “I decided I would kill myself after a day at sea.”
He planned to jump off the dinghy and drown.
“I saw no hope,” he said. “But, for some reason, as I prepared to jump, something held me back and told me not to do it. That’s why I’m here today.”
Nguyen spent four nights and three days at sea until that dinghy reached the shores of Thailand.
After the fall of Saigon, approximately 2 million Vietnamese people eventually fled the country by boat. It’s estimated that between 200,000 and 400,000 of those refugees died at sea.
“Wednesday’s event is for them, the soldiers who died on the battlefield and those who died in the camps,” Nguyen said.
He was part of the City Council in 2019 when it voted to become the first city globally to recognize Black April Memorial Week.
“April 30 is always an emotional day,” Nguyen said. “Even more so this year as we reflect on what our community has accomplished in 50 years.”
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