Yes it was. The southern Communists were almost all dead or surrendered. I was a radio op in c-47s listening to the NVA ops on the ground after the Tet fiasco and the accents were all northern and desperate for help and instructions. Some was in clear speech because the radio ops with the codes were dead. They got back instructions to hide their weapons and try to get back to the North.
I knew a Vietnamese immigrant who worked on machinery for us a few years back, and I had a difficult relationship with him.
He was extremely difficult and obstreperous, and grew to dislike him. He was difficult to understand, stubborn, and refused to work with you to resolve issues.
Then, I was forced to work with him closely for several days in a row where we had to spend many long hours in waiting and observation, so I asked him where he was from and when he came to America.
He said he was Vietnamese, and had been a junior ARVN officer when Vietnam fell. He came to America in 1979, and when I asked what he did between the fall of Vietnam and his immigration to America, he said that he had been in a “re-education” camp in the jungle up until 1978.
I asked if they had finally released him and allowed him to emigrate, and he said no...he had escaped the camp and made his way to the coast, stolen a boat and made it out to sea where he was rescued after a few weeks, then ended up in Australia for some reason. After a little while there, he came to America. (This was quite a few years back, so I can’t remember his exact words)
I was stunned. All the time I knew this guy, I knew nothing about him or his past, and resolved to never take for granted what a person may be or where they had come from.
But the thing that I will never forget, when I asked him what it had been like in the re-education camp, he didn’t say anything. He just got a very far away look in his eyes, and said almost inaudibly “The things we had to do...” and said no more.
It reminded me of a college history professor, a somewhat elderly gentleman who was telling us one day in class about having kidney stones, which is an odd subject to discuss with a class. Years later, after I went through several months of acute and painful kidney stones, I understood completely (I had to command myself to shut up about them, even to my poor wife) and I remembered that “far away” look the professor got in his eyes when he was talking about it.
It was clear the professor was far away too at that point, and I recall thinking “Holy crap. Whatever kidney stones are like, I don’t want them because they must really suck!”
That was the exact same look the Vietnamese guy had in his eyes when he said those words “The things we had to do...”