The Vietnamese Mayflowers of 1975

Our life is a reflection of the times we lived in. The Vietnamese Mayflowers is about growing up within a culturally and spiritually vibrant South Vietnamese society, about a uniquely challenging and enriching wartime medical education, about losing the only world and life that one ever knew, about surviving the rigors and humiliation of reeducation camps, about embarking onto dangerous and unpredictable odysseys, and most importantly about the poignant rebuilding of personal and professional lives. Humbled by chains of events beyond human comprehension, many referred to fate, providence, luck, karma, destiny, fortune, miracle, grace or God in their accounts. This endeavor is designed to provide a historic document written by people who actually lived the events for future reference. Included are reviews of Vietnamese history and culture, descriptions of a peaceful way of life in the South before the winds of war, recollections of an American Professor assisting medical education in Saigon, as well as emotional accounts of the younger generations to define and preserve their roots. The Editors attempted to maintain the book’s uniqueness and preserve its veracity by using a trilingual approach and avoiding strong political overtones. The Editors hope that the book will entertain, inform and inspire, and that it will grow to become a written memorial to the largest maritime diaspora to occur in human history.