Figure 1.--These Vietnamese children are some of the lucky Boat People who managed to escape Communist Vietnam. The number who did not make it is unknown. They are at the havily over-crowded Argyle St. Detention Centre in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The photograph is undated, but would have been taken in the 1980s. Somr of the children were birn in the camp. Photographer: David Browne.

The first wave of Vietnamese refugees occured in the wake of the Viet Minh victory over the French in North Vietnam (1953). They were primarily Christians, mostly Catholic, fleeing the Communists. Religious people were Communists targets because if the atheist ideology. Both Budhists and Christians were targeted. Christins were a spcial target because if gheuir cinndctions with the French and West in general. Chriustians became a target again when the Cimmunjists prevailed in the South (1975). Again they were a priority target because they had been strong supporters of the South Vietnamese regime. This time unlike the situation in 1953, the Chruistians and others whohas opposed the Communists had no where to flee. An estimate 150,000 South Vietnamese were desperate to get out of the collapsing country. The included political leaders, military officers, skilled professionals, Christians, and others ho had supported the South Vietnamese Government. Some 1,000 South Vietnamese were able to get out with the Americans. Some orphans were flow out. After that the only way out was by sea, but a t first only a few took to the sea. Cambodia and Laos to the West both fell to the Communists. And the Kymer Rouge was not only more brutal than the North Viernnmes, but hostile to Vietnmese people. Fewer than a thousand Vietnamese successfully fled the nation. Large numbers of people were executed by the Communists. Others were arrsted and held in brutal reducation camps. Those who tried to escape by sea in rickety boats faced pirates, typhoons, and starvation, They were trying to seek sought safety and a new life in refugee camps located in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. For many, these countries became permanent homes, but most were seeking waystations to political asylum in other countrus, primarily the United States. he immigration of thousands of Vienmeseabd other people from Southeast Asia (1970s and 1980s) resulted in new communities of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, and Hmong Americans in the United States. They became known as the Boat People as they escaping the Communists by sea. It caused a massive international humanitarin crisis. As the Vietnames more vigorisly pursued socialist reforms such as seizing shps and land, more and more people were increasingkly desperate to leave the country. An unprecedebte 100,000 fled by boat (1979). International attention to the plight of Vietnamese immigrants escalated in 1979, when the human tide of boat people increased to an unprecedented level of 100,000. Public alarm outside of Asia increased when Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and the Philippines (known as ASEAN countries) declared that they could no longer accept immigrants into their overcrowded camps. But from ten thousand to fifteen thousand immigrants were still leaving Vietnam each month. United Nations secretary general Kurt Waldheim called a conference in response to the impending catastrophe. Sixty-five nations attended the meeting in Geneva, voting to increase funding to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Utilizing an executive order to raise immigration quotas, President Carter doubled the number of Southeast Asian refugees allowed into the United States each month. Agreements were also reached with Vietnam to establish an orderly departure program. These developments combined to slow the exodus of refugees in 1980 and 1981. By 2000, more than two million Vietnamese had left the nation of their birth to start new lives in foreign lands.

Created: 4:37 AM 9/15/2018
Last updated: 4:38 AM 9/15/2018