After the United States withdrew from South Vietnam in 1975, communist North Vietnam quickly took over and established the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The leaders of the new government then began to exact revenge against those who had been their enemies and who had sided with the U.S. to fight the North. As a result, an estimated two million Vietnamese risked their lives in crowded boats and fled across the South China Sea to countries throughout the region. These refugees, known as “boat people,” forced the United States, Australia and others to scramble to find them a home. The countries neighboring Vietnam struggled to find a balance in receiving refugees – and also refusing entry to people from China deemed to be economic migrants — and passing them onto larger nations to become permanent residents. The U.S. ended up receiving well over a million refugees, who started new lives in communities across the country. The crisis has received renewed attention in the wake of the ongoing flood of migrants from Central America, many of them children.
Robert H. Miller, appointed Ambassador to Malaysia in 1977, discusses the ethnic tensions in the country at the time in dealing with a flood of refugees. Thomas P. Shoesmith was the Consul General in Hong Kong when refugees started to arrive and later served as Ambassador to Malaysia from 1983-87, where he continued to work on the issue. Melvin R. Chatman worked for the Agency for International Development (USAID) in Vietnam, New York City and Malaysia, coordinating refugee housing and ultimately directed the AID Refugee Office in the late 1970s. Edmund McWilliams was the Indochina Watch Officer in Thailand while the boat people were making their escape from Vietnam. Wolfgang J. Lehmann had spent a number of years in Vietnam when the boat people began to leave. He was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Saigon and was the Chargé d’Affaires prior to the fall of Saigon in April 1975. Miller, Shoesmith, Chatman and McWilliams were interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy in May 1990, December 1991, October 2006, and December 2005, respectively. Lehmann was interviewed by Robert Martens in May of 1989. Go here to read other Moments dealing with Vietnam.
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