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SOUTHEAST ASIAN REFUGEES
After the Vietnam War ended with the Fall of Saigon in 1975, hundreds of thousands of refugees came to the U.S. to escape the Communist
regimes and political upheaval in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Vietnamese
In 1954, Vietnam gained independence from France, but was split into North and South. The North Vietnamese, aided by the Viet Cong,
defeated the Southern Army, which was supported by the Americans. With the communist takeover in 1975, South Vietnamese who had
worked with the United States military, fled to this country. This group consisted of mainly highly educated professionals that were able to
adapt fairly well in American mainstream society.
However, a second wave of Vietnamese started leaving the country to escape the government re-education camps. They were often less
educated, coming from the rural areas and escaping to Hong Kong or Malaysia on fishing boats. From there, many stayed in refugee
camps until they were sponsored into the United States or another country. Many of these “boat people” perished at sea or were attacked
by pirates.
Cambodians (Khmer)
In the early 1970s, the Vietnam War spilled into Cambodia. The communist-backed Khmer Rouge fought against Cambodian government
troops until the Fall of Saigon in 1975. Under Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge forced citizens to move to state-run labor camps. There, they
worked 16 hours a day and were given starvation diets. Between 1970 and 1980, an estimated 3 million Cambodian people (out of a
population of 8 million) died by execution, starvation or disease. In 1979, the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and interrupted the Khmer
Rouge terror.
Cambodians came to the U.S. in two waves. The first wave was in 1975, and the second in the early 1980s. Many spent months in refugee
camps in Thailand before being sponsored to the U.S. Many of the refugees came from rural areas and had little education and knowledge
of Western culture. In Seattle, Cambodians (who also call themselves “Khmer”) founded many social and cultural organizations, and many
maintain their traditional Buddhist religion.
Laotians & Hill Tribes
During the 1960s, Laotians and Hill Tribe men were recruited and trained by the U.S. CIA to aid in the war effort against North Vietnam. The
bombing of Laos in the late 1960s caused the flight of 600,000 refugees. Laotians began coming to the U.S. in 1979.
The Hmong, Mien and Khmu are three of the minority groups that lived in the highlands of Laos. From 1975 to the early ‘80s, those
suspected of working with the U.S. fled the communist Pathet Lao regime. The Pathet Lao killed an estimated 10% of the Hmong
population after the Vietnam War. Other groups had fled earlier to escape the bombing of Laos.
SUMMARY
This brief historical overview is intended to provide you with a summary and to illustrate the diversity of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the
Pacific Northwest.
LITERATURE CITED
Bock, Paula. “Children of the Dust.”
The Seattle Times
, 27 Oct. 1991.
Cordova, Fred.
Filipinos: Forgotten Asian Americans, A Pictorial Essay.
Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hung Publishing, 1983.
Meany, Edwin S.
History of the State of Washington,
New York: Macmillian Co., 1941.
Nomura, Gail M.
Peoples of Washington,
Chapter on Washington’s Asian/Pacific American Communities, Eds. Sid White and S.E. Solberg.
WSU Press, 1989.
Takami, David.
Shared Dreams: Images of the Asian and Pacific American Experience in Washington State,
exhibit catalog, Washington
Centennial Commission, 1989.
Teacher’s guide written by the staff of the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, 1996.
