Figure 1.-- This press photoraph was taken after the Communist victory. It is dated August 6, 1967. The caption read, "The three Vietnamese tots in the small apartment house were playing war games. The five-year-old daughter, Thu Dung (Virtuous Beauty of Autumn) chased her younger brother through the tiny living room with a plastic rifle. Brother Minh (Enlightenment) retaliated by ambushing her from behind the made-in-Japan refrigerator. Dwarfed, three-year-old Minh Hung (Enlightenment Hero) clapped his hands with glee. Instead of cops and robbers, the three youngsters were playing Viet Cong Communists versus government solders. Sometimes the children of Saigon play coup d'etat -- one being a Vietnamese government general in power and the others toppling him with a make-believe tank assault against his palace. Other children, gripping bows and arrows or tin machine guns, pretend to ratty-tat-tat down low-flying America aircraft. Their father, Pham Quang Phuoc (Clear Happiness) is the head of a young, typical middle-class Vietnamese family, living as best they can in the nervous capital city of Saigon. Phuoc understands well the impact of war on his children, for the long shadows of World War II rolled across his own childhood in a similar manner. The 31-year-old radio technician recalled his childhood vividly."

Children were affected in many ways by the War. And given the nature of the conflict, children and other civilians were especially saffected. Until the later phases of the War and the American withdrawl, it was a counter-insurgency struggle. And in such struggles civilians become an integral part of the struggle. Children were involved in various ways. They were caught in the crossfire between the various combatants. Some civilians were targetted because they supported the other side. Many had parents killed and were orphaned. Homes were destroyed and lives disrupted in various ways. Some children or youths were involved in the actual struggle. And children were among the Boat People who attempted to flee the Communists.

Civilian Casualties

Children were affected in many ways by the War. And given the nature of the conflict, children and other civilians were especially saffected. Until the later phases of the War and the American withdrawl, it was a counter-insurgency struggle. And in such struggles civilians become an integral part of the struggle. Children were involved in various ways. They were caught in the crossfire between the various combatants. Some civilians were targetted because they supported the other side. Many had parents killed and were orphaned.

Destruction

Homes were destroyed and lives disrupted in various ways.

Child Soldiers

Some children or youths were involved in the actual struggle.

Orphans

The War created large number of orphans. There were an estimated 70,000 orphans in Saigo alone. Many were being cared for in Catholic orphanages. Nuns in April 1975, managed to arrange the evacuation of more than 2,000 children by giant cargo planes during the last few days of the War. The effort was called “Operation Babylift.” One of the planes crashed on April 4, 1975, adding yet one more tragedy to the War--killing 144 adults and children, including 76 babies. Many Vietnamese orphans were the children of American Servicemen and Vietnamese women. One of the many tragic aspects of the Vietnam War was the fate of the left behind after the American withdrawl from Vietnam. The unions rarely involved marriage and considered shameful by Vietnamese society. The families involved often did not accept the children, especially if they looked American. Many were abandoned by their mothers because of the shame a mixed race child would bring on the family. These children became street children and many were raised in orphanages.These children were often easy to identify in Vietnamese orphanages. They were generally ostracized in Vietnam even when they grew up. Some of the children were eventually repatriated to America. After the War a program was initiated to repatriate many of the children to Ameica. This was complicated by the lack of birth certificates and other documents. Having been abandoined by their mothers, many did not know who their parents were.

Boat People

Children were among the Boat People who attempted to flee the Communists. After the 1975 Communist victory in Vietnam thousands of South Vietnamese attempted to flee their cointry. As this was only possible by sea, they have become known as the Boat People. It was a very dangerous undertaking, both because of the Vietnamese Governmet policies and the fact that in most cases their boats and rafts were not very seaworthy. Assessments of these refugeess is controversial and often affected by views about the Vietnam War itself. Many believe that the refugees were fleeing the Communists and and their repressive measures. Some believe that the Communists killed about 1 million people in Vietnam after their victory. Others South Vietnamese suffered lengthy detention in concentration camps an reducation centers. Other refugees were fleeing the economic disaster that resulted from the Communist victory. Both factors were almost certainly important. Anti-Communists tend to emphasize the former. The anti-War movement tend to focus on the latter, referring to the Boat People as economic refugees. Emigration laws vary from country to country, but political refugees are generally accorded greater protection than economic refugees. I am not sure how many people were involved, but it was cetainly in the hundreds of thousands. An unknown number of these refugees perished at sea in their often decrepit boats. Many attempted to reach Hong Kong which at the time was still a British territory. Some managed to eventually emigrate to countries like Australia, Canada, France, and the United States which all have sizeable Vienamese communities.

Created: 9:38 PM 7/26/2009
Last updated: 9:38 PM 7/26/2009