Voices of Vietnamese Boat People

On April 30 1975 the Hanoi government of North Vietnam took control over the South. South Vietnamese particularly intellectuals and those thought to have been associated with the previous regime underwent terrible punishment persecution and re-education. Seeking their freedom thousands of South Vietnamese took to the sea in rickety boats often with few supplies and faced the dangers of nature pirates and starvation. While the sea and its danger claimed many lives those who made it to the refugee camps still faced struggle and hardships in their quest for freedom. Here are collected the narratives of nineteen men and women who survived the ordeal of escape by sea. Today they live in the United States as students professors entrepreneurs scientists and craftspeople who have chosen to tell the stories of their struggles and their triumph. Each narrative is accompanied by biographical information.