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April 28, 2000
Web posted at: 5:00 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- In 1965, the U.S. started sending combat troops to Vietnam and began bombing North Vietnam. Ten years later, the war in Vietnam came to an end on April 29, 1975, when the last American troops and officials were evacuated from Saigon. A quarter of a century later, Vietnam is celebrating the end of what that country calls the "American war."

Tony Bui was born in Vietnam. His father was a South Vietnamese Air Force captain. With American assistance, Tony and his parents and older brother, Timothy, fled the Vietnam War in 1975. They eventually settled in northern California where Tony felt a stigma growing up as a Vietnamese in America.

Bui first returned to Vietnam at age 19 and eventually made the first American-financed film shot in Communist Vietnam, the award-winning "Three Seasons." "Green Dragon", his next project, is about a Vietnamese brother and sister who are sent to a refugee orientation camp in California just before the fall of Saigon.

Chat Moderator: Welcome to CNN, Tony Bui.

Tony Bui: Hi everyone, thanks for joining us.

Question from yiyi: I really enjoyed "Three Seasons," Tony, and wonder if it will be released on video?

Tony Bui: It's actually already released on video. Blockbuster carries it.

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Chat Moderator: How did you and your family manage to flee Vietnam?

Tony Bui: My father was an officer in the Air Force and before the fall, word came through and we were evacuated out. So we came to America right before the fall of Saigon. I was only two, so I don't fully remember. What I know about it is through pictures and what my parents told me.

Chat Moderator: Did you hope that the day would come when it would be possible for you to return to your homeland?

Tony Bui: When I returned, I was only 19 years old and that was in 1992. At that time, there was not this consciousness of wanting to return. For me, having to grow up entirely in the United States, I was not aware of my past at that age. When I returned, it was more to please my parents to go back to visit my grandparents, who remained behind. That trip would ultimately change my life and open my eyes and my heart. It affected the way I would live from that point on and the films I would begin to make.

Chat Moderator: How did the trip affect your filmmaking and outlook on life?

Tony Bui: I lived I think what I would describe as a sheltered life. Growing up in the suburbs in Northern California closed my eyes from so much that was out in the world. My only knowledge of Vietnam was through the films that I had seen or the books that I had read. They all centered around war. So growing up, the word "Vietnam" to me was interchangeable with the word "war," and Vietnam was only a past tense word for me. Then I went back to Vietnam in 1992 and that would change everything for me. In a sense, the walls that blinded me were lifted, and I began to see Vietnam in both its present tense and its future tense. I would begin seeing a country not at war but at peace.

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Question from yiyi: Isn't the lack of familiarity with our past and history a repeating theme you have seen in many kids growing up in this country from various backgrounds?

Tony Bui: I think so. What I've found through the years is that a lot of children that come from other backgrounds tend to suppress that or deny it so they can fit in, so they can assimilate and, more importantly, not feel different. But, inevitably, as you get older -- especially after high school -- questions arise that draw you back to where you come from, to answer questions that you didn't want to ask the years prior.

Since my first trip back to Vietnam in 1992, I've been living in both Vietnam and the United States and answering a lot of questions that I didn't want to or was too afraid to ask while growing up. And "Three Seasons," my first film, and "Green Dragon," my upcoming film, are part of that journey.

Question from yiyi: I had a similar eye-opening experience when I returned home. It made me realize that I am indeed Vietnamese and, at the same time, very American. It’s such an interesting paradox.

Tony Bui: For me, it's no longer a paradox or something I question or confuses me like when I was a child. The dichotomy is something I embrace now, being both of American culture and Vietnamese culture. And I feel now that as I get older, it strengthens me. It gives me more perspective on how I see things, which helps how I live and how I work.

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Chat Moderator: One of our audience members, Aurora, says that it is hard to believe that it has been 25 years. In many ways, it seems that the war has never ended. Has the war ended for your family, or does it go on in some way?

Tony Bui: For my immediate family who live in America, I think it will never end. Because, in a sense, by being here -- even though this is now their permanent home -- it means they are away from their homeland. So it's impossible to forget or put that in the past.

I think for my Vietnamese family, my grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins who live in Vietnam, it is very much in the past. In general, I think that's the consciousness of both countries. I don’t think the Vietnam War has ended for all Americans. Whereas the feeling you get in Vietnam is that the people have walked far away from the war and are trying to think about their present and their future in terms of building their country, their economy and trying to improve their country.

Question from MaryG: Do the Vietnamese allow you to be both? What I have experienced is a dislike for differences in the culture, at least in the past.

Tony Bui: I don't live like I'm an American among the Vietnamese community. Besides my family and some friends who are Vietnamese, I don't spend a lot of time in the Vietnamese communities, thus I don't get that kind of response. I don't live in a Chinatown or a Vietnamese community, so I can walk among both cultures comfortably. To me, there is really only one culture; I don't separate the two.

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Chat Moderator: What are your thoughts on the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon?

Tony Bui: I have a lot of thoughts about it. Some make me very sad; some make me happy. I'm currently making a film about the Vietnamese refugee camps at the fall of Saigon, which happened exactly 25 years ago this week actually. These were the camps set up by the Marines in America. So every day I look at hundreds and hundreds of photos of that time period and talk to my crew on a daily basis about recreating that time period. So it is always on my mind. Because we are making a film about it and the stories of the people that lived through these camps emotionally, I feel like I'm a part of it everyday even though it happened 25 years ago.

Chat Moderator: What do you think of the U.S. normalizing relations with Vietnam?

Tony Bui: It's a sensitive question and a controversial one. I personally think that it was a great decision and a necessary one.

Chat Moderator: What is your current project?

Tony Bui: The film I just described is called "Green Dragon." It's about the Camp Pendleton refugee camp in 1975 which was at the Camp Pendleton Marine Base near San Diego. It is about the first wave of Vietnamese refugees coming to America and their interaction with the Marines on the base. Besides a 90 percent Vietnamese cast, it also stars Patrick Swayze and Forest Whitaker. I am producing this film, and my brother, Tim Bui, is directing based on a screenplay we wrote together.

Chat Moderator: Do you have any final thoughts for us?

Tony Bui: I hope for the 50th anniversary we can celebrate more of the present and the future and not hold ourselves in the past. This is not to say that we should forget, but it is important to see Vietnam outside the context of the war.

Chat Moderator: Thank you, Tony Bui, for joining us today to discuss your returning to Vietnam.

Tony Bui: Thank you and goodbye.

Tony Bui joined the News chat from California by telephone. CNN provided a typist for him. The above is an edited transcript of the chat.