Most Vietnamese fled to the United States were spouses and children of American servicemen in Vietnam. After "the fall of Saigon" ended the Vietnam War and prompted the first of two waves of emigration from Vietnam to the United States. Because Vietnamese who had worked closely with Americans during the Vietnam War feared that the Communist might punish them. 125,000 Vietnamese citizens departed their native country during the Spring of 1975. They fled Vietnam on U.S military cargo ships and transferred to United States government bases in Guam, Thailand, Wake Island, Hawaii, and the Philippines. Subsequently, they were transferred to four refugee centers throughout the United States: Camp Pendleton in California, Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, and Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania. The second wave began as a result of the new Communist government’s implementation of economic, political and agricultural policies based on Communist ideology. These policies included “reeducation” and torture of former South Vietnamese military personnel and those presumed friendly to the South Vietnamese cause, the closing of businesses owned by ethnic Chinese Vietnamese, the seizing of farmland and redistributing it, and the mass forced relocation of citizens from urban to rural areas that were previously uncultivated or ruined during the war. This group of refugees would come to be known as the “boat people”.
As a result of recent normalization of relations between the United States and Vietnam, as well as continued high rates of poverty in Vietnam, it is expected that Vietnamese immigration to the United States will continue at a high rate, mainly through family reunification. According to the 2000 census, there are currently 1,223,736 Vietnamese Americans. They are the fifth largest Asian immigrant group behind Chinese, Filipino, Asian Indian and Korean, however recent studies have shown that by the year 2010, Vietnamese Americans will surpass all other Asian groups, with the exception of Chinese Americans, to become the second largest Asian-American population in the United States.
As a result of recent normalization of relations between the United States and Vietnam, as well as continued high rates of poverty in Vietnam, it is expected that Vietnamese immigration to the United States will continue at a high rate, mainly through family reunification. According to the 2000 census, there are currently 1,223,736 Vietnamese Americans. They are the fifth largest Asian immigrant group behind Chinese, Filipino, Asian Indian and Korean, however recent studies have shown that by the year 2010, Vietnamese Americans will surpass all other Asian groups, with the exception of Chinese Americans, to become the second largest Asian-American population in the United States.