Near the end of my time in the camp, the brilliant Vietnamese translator, Miss Lan, posed with me for a picture. I would not be surprised to learn that now she is a nuclear physicist or the head of a university department.

She was fascinatingly honest and frank. One of the things she told me was that the politics of Vietnam had absolutely nothing to do with her decision to leave. She, was simply sure that her opportunities, including the opportunity to make a lot of money, would be greater in the United States than in her native country. I once asked her if she would go back to Vietnam if the government there changed, "Absolutely not," she told me. "I sacrificed my fortune and risked my life to go to America. I'll never leave."

I'm sure that millions, and perhaps, billions of other people on would agree with her. The people I met in the camps were simply the fortunate ones — pawns on the international chessboard who, through no fault of their own, got lucky.

In the end, perhaps a more fitting name for "Freedom Plaza" would be "Lucky Plaza." The people of the Philippines were stuck with corruption, immorality, and rape. They weren't so lucky.

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