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.
Thuy and Xuan Vu, pictured here, fled Vietnam the day Saigon fell to North Vietnamese troops. Amidst the ensuing chaos and panic, they jumped into a small boat, which took them and other refugees to a tanker bound for the Philippines. The couple ended up at Camp Pendleton, where they signed up for the resettlement program at Camp Murray, Washington.
This photo show the Vu family in their Olympia, WA home, from left, daughter Maian, 8, Xuan, Thuy, and son Leyen, 4. They would be attending Refugee Day at Camp Murray later that day, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the resettlement program there. At the time, Thuy Vu worked as an economist with the state Department of Social and Health Services, and Xuan Vu was a teacher at Capital High School.
Caption information source: "Escape from Saigon is still painful memory for Vu family," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 28, 1985, p. D1 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/
