All three were born and grew up in Vietnam.  Shorty first saw light in 1928, year of the Dragon, at Phatjiem-Ninhbinh, the southernmost part of North Vietnam.  Fatty  was born six years earlier in the capital city of Hanoi whose former historic name means Ascending Dragon.  Tally, four years younger than Shorty, hailed from the imperial city  of Hue, capital of Central Vietnam.  His birthyear was that of the Gorilla.  In Vietnamese, Long means Dragon.  That’s why, I surmise, Fatty’s and Shorty’s parents gave them that personal name.  I don’t know the reason for Tally to be thus named.  All three came to the United States as foreign students in the early fifties.  Shorty was the first to come in 1950.  He studied business and economics at the University of Portland and Syracuse University.  Next came Tally in late 1952 to the University of Wisconsin.  He majored in electrical engineering.  Last came Fatty in 1954 to Harvard Business School and enrolled in its MBA program. 

All three served as president of the Vietnamese Catholic Students Association in North America: first, Shorty for two terms, Fatty for the next term, then Tally for the following term, before he turned the presidency over to Ngo dinh Tuan.  Mind you, both these Ngo dinh’s were not related to the regretted President Ngo dinh Diem of South Vietnam.  Ngo dinh Tuan later married one of Fatty’s younger sisters. 

All three married Vietnamese beauties.   In 1956 Tally tied the knot with Mary Tram-Anh, a distant descendant of the last imperial dynasty, then a student at Madonna College in Indiana.  Early in 1959 a nuptial mass was celebrated at St. Martin Chapel in downtown Saigon for Shorty and his bride Danielle Anh-Nguyet, a Reed College graduate who taught English at Gialong High School.  Late in 1960 Fatty and Christiane Trung-Nghia, a Southern belle, exchanged their solemn vows of “high mountains and deep oceans.”  At the time both were associated with the Esso-Standard Oil of Vietnam. 

All three got the right size families they wanted.  Tally’s family is the same size as LBJ’s or LBJ’s successor’s; so Tally could be famous or infamous or both.  Shorty and his wife were as prolific as RFK and Ethel, and they refused to be downsized.  Some of their children do, and some don’t, believe in the zero growth population theory.  Shorty’s third generation counts seven members and is growing.  As for Fatty, I believe his family size is comparable to FDR’s or George Bush’s.  But I haven’t heard whether he owns any Fala- or Millie-like canines.  All three went back to Vietnam in the mid-fifties after completing their university education, while many others chose to remain permanently in the host country and become American citizens. 

All three served their country from the day they returned until the collapse of the country in April 1975.  They spent almost twenty years in their prime to help build a better nation, a better system, and a better society in South Vietnam.  Among themselves during this long period, they filled a host of positions in the private and public sectors, such as: managing editor of magazine, corporate assistant accounting manager, assistant sales man-ager, public relations manager, chairman of credit union, nuclear reactor specialist, reserve military officer, foreign aid inspector, director of nuclear reactor, corporate president and chief executive officer, minister of labor, college professor, assistant dean, dean of faculty, university administrator, and general administrator of foundation. 

All three were associated with the Catholic University of Dalat in various capacities.  A renaissance man, Tally taught science courses, language studies, and business mathematics at different colleges within the university.  A versatile sportsman, he served as its director of student affairs for many years.  He was also SGB acting dean for the 1970-71 year.  Beside teaching business economics, Shorty served first as director of studies and then dean of SGB from 1964 to 1970.  He was general administrator of Dalat University Foundation from 1970 to 1975.  Beside teaching management courses, Fatty served as SGB dean from 1971 to 1975.  He also lectured at the Faculty of Pedagogy. 

All three left Saigon suddenly in 1975.  Shorty’s ten-member family was plucked off a building rooftop and ferried out by U.S. Marine helicopters to U.S. warships a few hours before the communist takeover of South Vietnam on April 30.  Tally’s four-member family had escaped three days earlier.  Fatty, his wife, and their children had left Saigon six days earlier.  They all ended up in American refugee camps. 

All three and their families resettled in the United States:  Fatty in Virginia, near Washington, D.C.; Tally in California, first in the Bay Area and later in the Los Angeles megalopolis; and Shorty in Hillsboro, a suburb west of Portland, Oregon. 

All three and their wives succeeded in helping all their children complete college education and become professionals in various fields: law, diplomacy, social work, high technology, engineering, business, finance, accountancy, medicine and pharmacy.  I know Shorty well because I have been living with him twenty-four hours a day.  So most of the things I write about him and his family are probably true.  However, I cannot vouch for the accuracy or veracity of what I record above about Fatty and Tally.  It would be best that I consult with them before I add anything further. 

I had better stop, before I put my foot into my mouth.  See, I keep my promise.  I make this long, long, long story, short.

Source: Memoir of Professor TranLong