Biography: Kathy Phan

[Kathy Phan]

My name is Kathy Phan and I am a current student, in my final year of high school in Australia. I was raised up in Australia, although my parents were Vietnamese immigrants who came over during the 1980s. I am currently studying about the Vietnam war, as a background to the text we are studying at school. As a result I did some research about it, and I was amazed to find a common view that people had, showing Ngo Dinh Diem (NDD) in such a negative light. Many people believed that he was very unpopular amongst the Vietnamese people and was corrupt. Through conversations with my parents and other Vietnamese people of the era, their shared view differed to how the Western countries have perceived NDD. As a result, I felt a strong sense to rectify some of these misjudged views that people had. This is why I want to join the forum, to voice a truth from the perspective of a large proportion of the Vietnamese people and to participate in some thought provoking discussions on this board.