Vietnamese Experience in America

"We are all refugees. I did not leave my country by choice. I was forced to leave. I am glad to have my new home here, but I did not plan to come here. I had to leave my country or die. Vietnamese refugee living in Southern California. This concise interpretation of the Vietnamese experience in America begins with the fall of Saigon in 1975, when enormous waves of refugees fled Vietnam. It graphically details their flight to asylum countries in Asia and then to the United States. Based in part on first hand interviews, the book recounts vivid stories of the horror of getting out of Vietnam and the difficulties of starting over in a new country. It emphasizes the resettlement process in the United States, from the policies of the U.S. government to aspects of community acceptance and conflict, and describes Vietnamese culture and the changes it has undergone in the process of becoming a new Vietnamese-American culture. Among the topics addressed are the arrival of the boat people, the orderly departure program, Amerasians, and the integration and adjustment of refugees to American society. The book concludes with a portrait of contemporary Vietnamese-American society and the outlook for its future.