VIETNAMESE | CAMBODIAN | LAOTIAN AMERICAN
Push Factors: War in Southeast Asia
● French Indochina colonization
● Japanese occupation during WWII
● French try to reoccupy but are defeated at Dien Bien Phu
● Geneva Accords partitions Vietnam into North and South at the 17th parallel
Push Factors: War in Southeast Asia (Cold War)
● Domino Theory drives U.S. influence in Vietnam
● Ho Chi Minh Trail runs through Laos and Cambodia, effectively bringing them into the war
● Hmong are recruited by CIA in the “Secret War”
Aftermath: War in Southeast Asia
● Khmer Rouge capture Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975 --> Forced labor, torture, murder, abolishment of money, destruction of family and Theravada Buddhism
● Saigon falls on April 30, 1975
● Pathet Lao defeat royals on December 2, 1975
Three Waves of Migration
● First: Operation Frequent Wind (1975)
● Second: “Boat people” and subsequent Orderly Departure Program (1979)
● Third: Amerasian/Humanitarian Programs
+ Amerasian Act (1982)
+ Amerasian Homecoming Act (1987)
+ Humanitarian Operation Program (1989)
Vietnam War: Who came, and when?
● Elites who fled around the time of the fall of Saigon in April 1975
● Boat people and land refugees (late 1970’s)
+ “Re-education” under the Communist regime
+ U.S. embargo
+ Poor harvests in 1978 and 1979
● Sponsored immigrants, political prisoners, Amerasians (starting in 1980’s)
"Write, they tell me, so people won't forget" - The Last War Poem
● French Indochina colonization
● Japanese occupation during WWII
● French try to reoccupy but are defeated at Dien Bien Phu
● Geneva Accords partitions Vietnam into North and South at the 17th parallel
Push Factors: War in Southeast Asia (Cold War)
● Domino Theory drives U.S. influence in Vietnam
● Ho Chi Minh Trail runs through Laos and Cambodia, effectively bringing them into the war
● Hmong are recruited by CIA in the “Secret War”
Aftermath: War in Southeast Asia
● Khmer Rouge capture Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975 --> Forced labor, torture, murder, abolishment of money, destruction of family and Theravada Buddhism
● Saigon falls on April 30, 1975
● Pathet Lao defeat royals on December 2, 1975
- Hmong face reprisals for involvement
Three Waves of Migration
● First: Operation Frequent Wind (1975)
● Second: “Boat people” and subsequent Orderly Departure Program (1979)
● Third: Amerasian/Humanitarian Programs
+ Amerasian Act (1982)
+ Amerasian Homecoming Act (1987)
+ Humanitarian Operation Program (1989)
Vietnam War: Who came, and when?
● Elites who fled around the time of the fall of Saigon in April 1975
● Boat people and land refugees (late 1970’s)
+ “Re-education” under the Communist regime
+ U.S. embargo
+ Poor harvests in 1978 and 1979
● Sponsored immigrants, political prisoners, Amerasians (starting in 1980’s)
"Write, they tell me, so people won't forget" - The Last War Poem