Oral History Interview: Ut Ha

Courtesy Ut Ha

Ut Ha was born in 1954 and grew up in Da Lat, Vietnam as one of eight children. Her parents had moved to South Vietnam shortly before she was born to escape the Communist regime.  

In 1963 when President Ngô Đình Diệm was assassinated, she remembers having to stay home from school for weeks.  She remembers troops surrounding her city during the Tet Offensive of 1968.

Her mother later relocated the family first to Na Chang and later to Saigon in an attempt to avoid the Viet Cong.  

When Saigon fell to the Communists, her mother moved the family back to Da Lat.  

Ha and her sister tried multiple times to escape by boat.  Her sister finally succeeded in 1987.  

Ha met her husband, Bon Bui, in 1986 and was able to move to the United States in 1990 because he had been a prisoner of war.