Searching for the ‘Mythical’ Prize

Searching for the ‘Mythical’ Prize -

When people think of the post–Vietnam war era, they think about the end of the pain, suffering and helplessness of the Vietnamese people. But many fail to realize that after the end of the war, it was only the beginning of their fight. Their desperate fight against a corrupt country and their search for a place where freedom and hope are realized as a basic right and practiced without fear.

After the collapse of Saigon in 1970 to communists, some 135,000 Vietnamese fled to America. These were mainly ex-military and government officials, Vietnamese who had worked for the United States during the war and their families. However, conditions in the southern portion of the newly reunified Vietnam worsened in the late 1970s, and there also was a drive by the new government to rid the country of its Chinese merchant class. As a result, thousands of Vietnamese and Sino-Vietnamese sought to escape from the country.

To many Vietna...