As much as The People’s Republic of Poland may seem a distant country hidden behind the Iron Curtain, it was an open and welcoming one... towards other socialist states. Student exchange programmes were one of the many ways of building international socialist partnerships.

The Vietnam War was just ending when Hai ‘Nam’ Bui Ngoc had reached university. He was one of the few lucky ones given a chance to travel to the other side of the world to study ship building. After a few weeks spent travelling by train from Hanoi to Warsaw, he saw everything other than what he had imagined. But this was only the beginning of his incredible journey...

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Time stamps

[01:08 ] What does Nam mean?
[02:09 ] The end of the world: growing up during the Vietnam War
[07:14 ] Moving to Poland to study shipbuilding
[12:51 ] Vietnamese secret agents appear
[13:51 ] Becoming a guru
[15:21 ] Love
[16:30 ] Escape
[20:44 ] 'What saved me was a hand'
[23:22 ] Asylum in France
[24:13 ] Problems in heaven & a difficult return to Poland
​​​​​​​[25:36 ] Where home is

Further reading & watching

• Nam’s martial arts school // official website

• June 1976 and the Workers’ Defence Committee // an article on the Workers Defence Committee on Poland.pl

• Polska PRL 1974 r // Polish news chronicle from 1974 on Youtube

• Polska 1975, Polska Kronika Filmowa // Polish news chronicle from 1975 on Youtube

• ( Life In Gdansk ) (1971) // British Pathé footage of Gdańsk in 1971 on Youtube