Full Description
More than 130,000 South Vietnamese fled their homeland at the end of the Vietnam War. Tens of thousands landed on the island of Guam on their way to the U.S. Many remained there. Guamanians and U.S. military personnel welcomed them. Funded by a $405 million Congressional appropriation, Operation New Life was among the most intensive humanitarian efforts ever accomplished by the U.S. government, with the help of the people of Guam. Without it, many evacuees would have died somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
This book chronicles a part of the first mass migration of Vietnamese "boat people," before and after the fall of Saigon in April 1975--a story still unfolding almost half a century later.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Last Days of Saigon
2. The Vietnamese Navy and the Trýờng Xuân
3. Task Force 76 and USS Kirk
4. Guam's Preparations
5. Operation New Life
6. Life in the Guam Camps
7. First, Second, and Third Wave Arrivals
8. Repatriates and the Thýõng Tín I Odyssey
9. Auxiliary Team and Sponsors
10. The Other Camps
11. Follow Up and Untold Stories
12. The Two Vietnams
Abbreviations
Appendix I: Chronology of Important Events (1975)
Appendix II: Motion
Appendix III: By the Numbers
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
