2025 EXHIBIT
A New Beginning in America
Vietnamese Americans Fifty Years after the Fall of Saigon
By April 1975, it became clear that the communist forces of the North Vietnamese Army were on the threshold of victory as they encircled Saigon, the capital of the South Vietnamese Republic. Tough choices took shape for a large segment of the population in towns and cities across the country as they foresaw a future of arrest, torture, “re-education,” or death at the hands of the communist government that was about to take the reins of power. Some were directly evacuated by the American government, but many who urgently needed to leave received no help. What followed as the situation in the South Vietnamese Republic deteriorated was a humanitarian crisis as tens of thousands of Vietnamese took to the seas, often overloading dilapidated ships, carrying desperate hopes of defying the odds and arriving in Indonesia, Malaysia, or the Philippines. Desperate crews scanned the horizon, fearing attacks from pirates and hoping for rescue from American naval ships.
The fortunate ones were taken in by American ships and brought to refugee camps, places where the ties to an old life were released and the first pieces of a new life were assembled. Rescue at sea, Guam, a military base in America, a sponsoring family, then an entirely new work in an entirely new and foreign nation… these steps formed the path from one world to another. This exhibit presents accounts of this journey from the courageous and resilient people who made it.
EXHIBIT PRESENTATION:
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15 | 5:15 PM
ALTMAN AUDITORIUM
With Thomas Tobin, curator
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Featured image: 35 Vietnamese refugees wait to be taken aboard the amphibious command ship USS BLUE RIDGE (LCC-19). They are being rescued from a 35 foot fishing boat 350 miles northeast of Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, after spending eight days at sea. Photo by an employee of the U.S. Navy on duty; PD-US
