Seattle storyteller Thanh Tân, who presented at our February 2025 History Cafe: Hidden Echoes of Vietnam in Seattle, looked through photographs at MOHAI’s Sophie Frye Bass Library for her talk. Explore a selection of these photos below and learn more about the history of Seattle’s Vietnamese American community in our online collection.
/ February 19, 2025
Washington Governor Dan Evans greeting Vietnamese children at Camp Murray, 1975
MOHAI, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, 2000.107.220.20.07, photo by Tom Brownell
When the Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975, thousands of people from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos fled the ensuing violence and persecution in their home countries and sought refuge in the United States and elsewhere. Vietnamese refugees destined for the West Coast were brought to the Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton near San Diego in May 1975.
Washington State—under the leadership of Governor Dan Evans—developed a comprehensive resettlement program and recruited refugees from Camp Pendleton to settle in Washington State. Upon their arrival, refugees were temporarily housed at Camp Murray, a National Guard base near Fort Lewis, until they could be matched with sponsors to provide help with housing, employment, and skills needed to navigate their new home.
This image shows Governor Evans greeting Vietnamese children from the first group of refugees to come to Washington in May 1975.
The Nguyens in their Pioneer Square grocery store, 1977
MOHAI, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, 2000.107.132.14.02, photo by Grant Haller
Thuy-Ngan and Hy-Van Nguyen came to Seattle in 1975 with their seven-month-old son as refugees at end of the Vietnam War. Both in their 30s, they had held professional jobs in Vietnam: Thuy-Nan taught French at the University of Saigon, and her husband was an architect. Unable to find jobs in their fields, the couple opened the Mekong grocery store at 318 Second Avenue South. Stocked with Vietnamese food, books, and tapes, the small store soon became a hub for local Vietnamese refugees.
The couple is pictured here at their store; Thuy-Ngan is on the left.
Kimlien and Duong Tran, 1985
MOHAI, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, 2000.107.213.34.01, photo by Robert DeGiulio
Duong Tran moved to the United States as a refugee when she was 13 years old. Her family settled in Pennsylvania, and Duong and her husband Kimlien Tran moved to Seattle when he was hired by Boeing. Duong attended the University of Washington where she studied engineering and served as president of UW’s Vietnamese Student Association.
This photo was taken of the couple before Duong Tran’s graduation from UW, as part of a Seattle Post-Intelligencer story about Vietnamese American engineering students at the university. The article mentions that Duong had also been hired by Boeing to start work after her graduation.
Da C. Le, editor of the Vietnam Times, in his office, 1992
MOHAI, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, 2000.107.111.17.02, photo by Mike Bainter
Da Le was the editor of the Vietnam Times, a Vietnamese language newspaper based in Seattle. Le worked for the city of Seattle and published the Vietnam Times on nights and weekends. Le was formerly an officer in the South Vietnamese army who came to the US after escaping Vietnam by boat to Thailand.
This image shows Da Le in his office in 1992. Le’s paper advocated for normalizing relations between Vietnam and the US and for the end of a trade embargo imposed by the US against Vietnam.