I don't know where you heard this, Khan, but you piqued my interest. I think you're right, she had connections. The evidence fits to perfection. OTOH, there's no smoking gun, but no one would expect a smoking gun.
Read the many news reports, including quotes from various neighbors and friends, and you will see a consistent picture. Consider...
- Kathy Nguyen "worked for the U.S. Embassy, and was one of the last evacuees to be plucked from its roof by helicopter when the North Vietnamese attacked the city, said Edith Navedo, 57, Nguyen's friend of 20 years."
Source: New York Post, Oct 31, 2001, http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nypost/87209737.html?did=87209737&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&date=Oct+31%2C+2001&author=DOUGLAS+MONTERO&desc=ANOTHER+CRUEL+TURN+FOR+HOSP+VICTIM
- "Nguyen owned a bar in Saigon, and [friend since the 1970s Gina] Ramjassingh said Nguyen told her she was 'working with the Americans' during the Vietnam War."
Source: St Augustine Record, Nov 11, 2002, http://www.staugustine.com/stories/111102/nat_1115994.shtml
- "[Neighbor Josefa] Richardson said Nguyen rarely spoke of her past, but said she had worked at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon."
Source: AP, Nov 1, 2001, http://breakingnews.morris.com/terrorism/stories/110101/vic.shtml
- "Immigration and Naturalization Service records show she entered the United States in San Diego on May 4, 1975."
Source: AP, Nov 1, 2001, http://breakingnews.morris.com/terrorism/stories/110101/vic.shtml
Comment:The final evacuation from the US Embassy in Saigon was by helicopter on Apr 30, 1975. The date of her entry into the US confirms the story that she was among the last of the evacuees as Saigon was falling.
- "Her mother was a teacher, and her family rented rooms to American soldiers. The family had some money, and a house on the water. She came to New York City in the late 1970s, apparently with the help of an American she met during the war."
Source: USA Today, Oct 31, 2001, http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2001/10/31/anthrax-nyc.htm
What was that final evacuation like? There's a fascinating account at http://www.franksnepp.com/decent/, from Frank Snepp's book Decent Interval: An Insider's Account of Saigon's Indecent End Told by the CIA's Chief Strategy Analyst in Vietnam.
The ambassador and other high-level officials had refused to prepare adequately for the evacuation, and did not even start it in sufficient time. Why? Partly because of denial of the imminence of Saigon's fall, partly because of fear that evacuation planning would lead the S. Viet Namese army to conclude that the US had thrown in the towel and that the end was at hand, turning into a self-fulfilling prophecy. So they did nothing. And when the NVA was at the edge of the city, there was suddenly a mad scramble to escape.
The CIA seems to have been in charge of the evacuation. It wasn't just Americans who were to be evacuated, of course, but also as many as possible, at that late time, of the Viet Namese who had worked with the CIA and who did not want to take a chance on being treated by the communists as enemy collaborators. Here's a quote from Snepp's website:
"From time to time I stopped by the CIA operations room to listen in horror at the radios as stranded Vietnamese agents pleaded over the circuits for help, begging not to be forgotten. Some would be picked up by Air America helicopters that CIA colleagues and I sent shuttling around the city. Most would be forgotten."
Here's more evidence of the central role of the CIA in the evacuation. From Fall of Saigon Stories, http://www.vietmemorial.org/myweb/fall_of_saigon.htm, a photograph and its caption:
Cia man-indentified by alias "T.D.Latz" help evacuees up
ladder to make-shift chopper pad on last day of war.
[sic - Forgive the errors in spelling and grammar. I think the caption was written by a Viet Namese refugee. I've quoted it verbatim.]
With the CIA not even able to get all the people out who had been of help to the US over the years, there was no room left for random refugees. Without a doubt, almost all of the Viet Namese who escaped at the end were either CIA assets or close friends of somebody influential in the CIA evacuation operation. Kathy Nguyen was one of these Viet Namese who escaped at the end. She, like the others, must have had some CIA connection.
Another interesting fact:
As documented in the St Augustine Record link above, Nguyen owned a bar in Saigon. The CIA frequently worked with Saigon bar-owners, because of their ready access to the seamy side of life and also because of their many contacts. Not all bar-owners worked with the CIA, of course, but this bar-owner worked with Americans in the US embassy and was part of the final CIA evacuation of the embassy.
Finally, look at a couple of quotes from the papers on the secretive life she lived in the days before her illness. Just like the rest, not at all definitive, but they make you go "Hmmmmm":
- They discovered that although Nguyen had a bank account, she did not seem to write checks from it. Instead, she relied on postal money orders.
[CDC Chief Investigator in New York, Dr. Stephen] Ostroff did not know at which post office Nguyen purchased them, and he said the usual paper trail most people generate was nearly nonexistent for Nguyen.
"She didn't do that," Ostroff said. "She has a minimal paper trail."
Source: New York Daily News, Nov 11, 2001, http://web.archive.org/web/20011111175953/http://www.nydailynews.com/2001-11-11/News_and_Views/Beyond_the_City/a-131689.asp
- There were initial reports that Nguyen worked a second job. City health officals disputed them, but according to NYU's Tierno, who is briefed daily on the investigation, she did have other income.
"She had an outside job and perhaps crossed the path of a terrorist or at least worked with a person who was one," said Tierno. "It turns out she may have had several jobs, she may have been moonlighting."
Source: Boston Globe, Nov 18, 2001, http://web.archive.org/web/20011126121037/www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/322/nation/Anthrax_victim_s_last_days_examinedP.shtm