Contrarian on Fall of Saigon; Pac Life as Political Football?

No surprise that Nghia X. Nguyen left it for others to mark last week’s 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, an event that set off a refugee trail that would make OC’s Little Saigon a capital of the Vietnamese diaspora. Nguyen’s contrarian ways are part of his character and the intellectual point of view that’s fueled his popular columns and commentary in media ranging from local news outlets Người Việt, Việt Báo, Sống, and Saigon TV, to Radio Free Asia in Washington, D.C., and Radio France Internationale in Paris. Nguyen paused over a recent lunch at Saigon Bistro on McFadden to say that he celebrates each April 26 as his own “Thanksgiving”—it’s the anniversary of the day in 1975 that he got the last of his family safely away from South Vietnam as the country crumbled. The much-memorialized final fall of the capital came on April 30, and Nguyen didn’t make it out by then. He spent 10 more years over there before taking residence in Paris on his way to an eventual landing in OC. Nguyen found all eight of his siblings thriving in the U.S., where his sister-in-law, Debi Duong, had married Khanh Tran, who has since risen to president of Pac Life in Newport Center. Nguyen joined the family trend, embarking on his journalistic career, which has seen a recent spike in celebrity thanks to the TV gigs, with regular appearances on yet another Vietnamese-language channel—SBTN TV—expected to start soon … Did Pac Life get dragged into Democratic Party politics last week? Looked that way when Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts—a darling of the party’s liberal wing—put the insurer in line with MetLife, AIG and various lesser-known providers of annuities that will be the target of a probe she plans on the perks they give third parties that sell the products, citing concerns that incentives ranging from cash to diamond rings appear to be “kickbacks” that induce sales folk to put the interest of the insurers ahead of the everyday investor. Warren has a seat on the Senate’s Banking Committee, but her party is in the minority, which seems to leave her with little more than a hope for some headlines. Any such splash might be a way to investigate something else: whether it makes sense for Warren to challenge Hillary Clinton for the 2016 presidential nomination, as some left-leaning Dems have urged … Unnoted winner on last week’s hire of former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke by one-time Pac Life subsidiary Pimco: the Irvine Company, which adds another global name to the increasingly upscale mix in Newport Center … Kudos to Gentlemen’s Haberdashery, the annual fashion show that benefits the Heart of Jesus Retreat Center in Santa Ana, with models from OC’s community of business walking the catwalk at the Ritz-Carlton. This year’s edition—led by the Moiso clan’s Frandy and Jeremy Laster and Trina and Marc Lamkin—brought in more than $200,000 for the Sisters of the Society Devoted to the Sacred Heart, who operate the center … Classic Californio Culture: The annual Battle of the Mariachi’s Festival fundraiser for Mission San Juan Capistrano, sponsored by the Thomas J. and Erma Jean Tracy Family Foundation, is set to run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on May 9. Tickets are $15 for adults and seniors; $6 for children 4-11; free for kids 3 or younger. Visit missionsjc.com or call (949) 234-1300 for more information.