The Journey
to America
Quang and Tong were both sent to Fort Chaffee, a refugee resettlement camp on an old US military base. The refugees stayed in army barracks and spent their days taking classes and entertaining themselves as they waited to be processed and released.
Over 50,000 refugees came and went from the camp in the 7 months it was active.
There were others groups of Vietnamese refugees in the years after the fall of Saigon. The "boat people" took different routes to the US, Australia, and elsewhere.
In the early 1970's there were fewer than 100 ethnic Vietnamese in Houston. Today, the region is home to more Vietnamese-Americans than any other place in America outside of California.
This video highlights the fascinating and often harrowing stories of several Vietnamese families as they escaped Vietnam and came to call Houston home.
The Journey
to Houston
Learn the story of Asiatown's Vietnam War Memorial.
Little Saigon
Many Vietnamese refugees who moved to Houston set up businesses and homes around Bellaire Boulevard and Chinatown, a neighborhood now called Little Saigon.
Click on the pictures in the slide show to learn about two memorials in Little Saigon.