The Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975, with the fall of South Vietnam to North Vietnamese communist forces. In the immediate aftermath, many thousands of people from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos fled violence and persecution in their home countries and sought refuge in the United States and elsewhere. Vietnamese refugees arriving to the West Coast in May 1975 were brought to the Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton near San Diego, where “tent city” camps had been hastily set up. 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. Arriving 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.
In May 1975, the first group of 530 refugees from Camp Pendleton were selected, mostly at random, from over 1000 that had applied to settle in Washington. On May 20, the first 34 Vietnamese refugees arrived at SeaTac airport. They were greeted by dozens of local Vietnamese women who had volunteered as Red Cross translators and hostesses, and then taken to the Vietnamese Assistance Center at Camp Murray, where they were met by Governor Dan Evans and his wife.
In this photo, Governor Evans greets Tony Le and his son in Tacoma, after their arrival at Camp Murray. Le had worked for the U.S. government in Saigon for 19 years, at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). He brought his wife and four children to the U.S. after the capital fell to the North Vietnamese Army. The family was among the first 34 refugees to arrive in Washington state.
Caption information source: “Evans greets Viet refugees,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 21, 1975, p. A18 Caption information source: “After the fall of Saigon: When Washington did the right thing for refugees,” Seattle Times, April 24, 2015. Retrieved at https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/when-washington-did-the-right-thing-for-refugees/
