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. 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.
The first refugees arrived at Camp Murray on May 20th, 1975. By mid-June, about 300 refugees from Camp Murray had been placed in communities, with 90 still remaining at the camp, and more arriving from Camp Pendleton. The Tran family, shown here, were placed with a sponsor family in Kirkland shortly after their arrival at Camp Murray, and soon had their own house. Hoi Tran had been a major in the South Vietnamese Air Force. Mr. Tran was hired by the Vietnamese Resettlement Project under the Demonstration Project for Asian-Americans (DPAA), and later by the Department of Emergency Services to organize the Vietnamese Service Center in Seattle. In 2011, Hoi Tran published the memoir "A Vietnamese Fighter Pilot in an American War." This photo shows Hoi and Nguyen Tran (seated) and family at their sponsor's home in Kirkland.
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/ Caption information source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 28, 1975, p. A6 Caption information source: "Prevention is better than cure" by Hoi B. Tran, retrieved at http://www.vietamericanvets.com/Page-Records-Prevention-Is-Better-Than-Cure.htm
