Amerasians During Vietnam War

During and after the Vietnam War, “approximately 100,000” Amerasians were born in Vietnam. American soldiers, civilians, and Vietnamese women conceived children together during the war. One main reason was that Americans needed to “fulfill sexual desires” while the Vietnamese women were in need of survival and needed money. The Vietnamese women had to resort to “prostitution” because their homes were destroyed by bombs. Relationships also happened through other reasons such as “love […], curiosity, etc.” The mixed race Amerasian children were mostly either mixed black or mixed white. The Amerasians were called “bụi đời” meaning “dust of life.” It was used as a derogatory word by the non-mixed Vietnamese people. The Amerasians were treated differently

Vietnam has been a communist country since the aftermath of the war and the “fall of Saigon.” The Vietnamese Communists disliked the Amerasians because they were seen as “children of the enemy.” The children reminded them of the trauma that the Vietnam War caused. They felt that the Amerasians deserved punishment because they are part of the body that has caused “sin” in the Vietnam War. The Amerasians suffered for the actions they did not commit; their presence reflected the actions of their fathers. The “hatred” radiated enough that the mothers were also victims for having “relationships with Americans.” During the “fall of Saigon,” these people had to leave the country because they were facing “persecution.” This led to the “Vietnamese diaspora,” causing “four million” people to leave Vietnam (Want,

The United States did not want to be involved with the Amerasian issue, because the Vietnamese government was putting responsibility on the United States for the Amerasians -- the American government and the Vietnamese government still “negotiated.” However, outside of the United States government, the media was able to broadcast this issue and so the public were able to push the United States government to commit to helping the Amerasians. Robert Mrazek began the “initiative” to begin this Act so that Vietnamese Amerasians can bring their families to the United States (Want, 2018). Immigration continued to grow under this Act; “more than 23,000 Amerasians and 67,000 of their relatives came to the United States” (Laurie,