A Vietnamese Girl Flees to Hong Kong, 1968

Here I proudly present what I believe to be a neat piece of history: a South Vietnamese passport issued in 1968 during the Vietnam War to nineteen-year-old young lady. I suppose she was among the well-to-do in Saigon, where she lived, as I am sure not many people at the time had the means to travel outside the country by air. Note also that the passport number is 00085, which might hint that either (a) passports at the time were issued few and far apart, so having one means you are among the fortunate few, or (b) this young lady was among the very first to receive a passport when they began issued them, which means she was among those of influence and power. There is also the possibility that (c) they simply ran out of serial numbers and so started from 000001 again, but I would prefer (a) or (b).

Also interesting is the fact that many visas were granted to the passport holder, but only one was used: the one for Hong Kong. This, plus the fact that there is no Hong Kong exit endorsement on this passport, leads me to believe that the reason why this young lady applied for all these different visas was to give immigration officials the impression that she was embarking on some sort of tour of Asia. In fact, the passport was valid only for travel to South Korea, Taiwan ROC, Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia; and she procured visas for all of these countries (except the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia - perhaps they did not require visas?) without fail. This was probably done to boost the credibility of her story.

The visas issued were:

Japan 18 Nov 1968
Taiwan ROC 19 Nov 1968
Thailand 19 Nov 1968
S. Korea 21 Nov 1968
Hong Kong 25 Nov 1968

To further support my theory that the young lady's real intention was to flee to Hong Kong, the evidence shows that the very next day after the issuance of her Hong Kong visa, she took off on flight CX060 bound for Hong Kong!

I imagine that she fled with her family, although there is no evidence on this document that would support that theory.

It must have been an exciting time for her - deciding to up and leave her country in the midst of a radical war and in hopes of greener pastures! Of course, maybe she was terrified by the thought of leaving all she ever knew until that point in her life, and maybe she did not want to leave, but the fact that she did leave (most likely to escape the threat of the ongoing war on her safety) is a very interesting story for it would be the product of an infamous era of our history.

There is a possibility that Miss Dan My Diem is still alive to tell her story and confirm or disprove my theories as she was born in 1949 and would be 61 today. If she is still alive, she might be in the United States as that is where this passport was found.

Did she manage to make it all the way across the Pacific in search of a better life? Why did she? Was it because her life in Hong Kong terrible? Unbearable? And if she did, how did she? Was she granted leave to enter the United States with refugee status? She certainly id not use this passport for her onward travel, so she either stayed in Hong Kong for more than two years (the passport expired in 1970) or maybe she procured fake travel documents for her onward voyage to America? There are many spaces in the passport for renewals and extensions and all are blank. Did she have to go into hiding? Did the Vietnamese government condemn those who fled the country and, if so, is that why she had to procure other travel documents that this one? Or did she return to Vietnam? If so, how did this passport make its way to California, where its seller lives?

There are so many questions and so few answers, but that is the beauty of collecting such items as these: they tell you a story and leave it to your imagination to get carried away with trying to figure out the rest of it.



Above is an exit visa that reads in Vietnam and English, "Issued to Mlle. [Mademoiselle] Dan My Diem. Authorized to travel to Rep. de Coree [Korea], Rep. de Chine, Japon, Philippines, HongKong, Thailande, Singapour, Malaisie and to return within un mois [one month]. This visa is valid for (?????) from the date of issue. Saigon, 13 Novembre 1968."