Bon is one of the Captain’s childhood friends who accompanies him to the US. In The Sympathizer, Fred Nguyen Khan plays Bon.
The Captain has two childhood best friends: Bon and Man, who are his blood brothers. The three of them are family to each other.
Bon is a soldier serving in the army of South Vietnam. Bon and his wife, Linh, have a newborn son who is the Captain’s godson.
Bon is a good friend to the Captain. Whenever the Captain faces discrimination, Bon stands up and fights for him.
However, Bon does not know that Man and the Captain have been keeping secrets from him—secrets that can affect their friendship.
Losing his family
Bon’s father was killed by the Viet Cong, which has made Bon strongly anti-communist. This is why Man and the Captain keep their communist identities secret from him.
Unaware that his best friends have been working for North Vietnam, Bon believes that they will be leaving the country with him and his family.
As the General’s right-hand man, the Captain is able to arrange seats on the plane provided to the General by the CIA for Bon and his family to leave Vietnam.
Unfortunately, as they are leaving, there is an airstrike on the airstrip, resulting in the death of Bon’s wife and son.
The Captain manages to get Bon on the plane to the US, but Bon is not the same after that. He finds himself in a country he does not know, without his family.
The grief of losing his family consumes him, and Bon withdraws into himself. He stops speaking and eating, among other things.
The Captain’s attempts to help Bon return to his old self fail, so he has to take care of Bon, who becomes completely dependent on him.
Although Bon’s condition improves slightly, all he does is drink and watch TV to cope with his loss; he has yet to find a job.
When the Captain is asked by the General to kill Major Oanh, he sees it as an opportunity to involve Bon in something.
The Captain asks for Bon’s help, and this finally gives Bon some semblance of purpose, so he agrees to help his best friend.
It is then that Bon reveals to the Captain that he used to be an assassin in the top secret F-6 program back in Vietnam; the Captain and Man were not the only ones who had secrets.