Vietnamese Amerasian Timeline

Year Event
May 1954 Vietnamese defeat French in the battle of Dien Bien Phu to gain their
independence.
Nov. 1955 The Viet Nam War begins
1961 President Kennedy increases the number of American advisors in South Viet Nam.
1973 U.S. pulls out a majority of their troops through Vietnamization.
March 1975 Operation Babylift airlifted approximately 2000 Vietnamese orphans out of Viet
Nam and brought them to adopted families in the United States. Among them are
several hundred Amerasian orphans.
April 30, 1975 The Viet Nam War ends as South Viet Nams capital, Sai Gon, falls to Communist
North. South Viet Nam and North Viet Nam and united into
1975 The United States places an embargo against Viet Nam. The nation prohibited
Americans from sending money, mail, and humanitarian aid to Viet Nam, which in
turn caused American servicemen who had fathered Amerasians children to lose
contact with their family in Viet Nam. In addition, the U.S. vetoed Viet Nams bid
to join the United Nations.
1979 Passage of the Orderly Departure Program (ODP). ODP created an alternative to
fleeing by boat for impoverished and politically oppressed Vietnamese falling the
fall of Sai Gon. After the applicants were accepted, they would be sent to one of 40
receiving countries.
1982 Congress passes the Amerasian Immigration act to allow Amerasians throughout
southeast Asia immigrate to the U.S. and live with sponsor families. The act was
partially passed in response to TV Journalist Bill Kurtis documents of the
overwhelming number of Amerasian street children he encountered in 1980 after
coming back to Viet Nam to study Agent Orange (Lipman: See below).
Bureaucracy because of the two nations strained relationship, and the lack of U.S.
officials in Viet Nam to conduct interviews, however, made the efforts futile.
Dec. 1987 The Amerasian Homecoming Act is passed. The act allows Amerasians fathered
by U.S. servicemen between 1962 and 1976 and members of their immediate
family to emigrate to the United States.
1989- 1994 Emigration of Amerasians and their family. Amerasian applicants are interviewed
by the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS). They then pass through the
Philippine Refugee Processing Center (PRPC) for approximately 6 months and are
typically relocated to one of the 55 cluster sites for Vietnamese Amerasians in the
United States. Toward the latter end of the program, some Amerasians were sent
directly to the United States where they became acculturated in Refugee Centers
which offered them many of the same services as PRPC did.
Oct. 1993 Federal funding for Amerasian resettlement ends. The number of overall
Amerasians and their families who settled in the U.S. through the Homecoming
Act recorded range from 70,000- 100,000. A small number of Vietnamese
Amerasians continue to emigrate to the United States annually.
Feb. 1994 President Clinton ends the U.S. embargo in Viet Nam and the two nations begin to
normalize their relationship.