I've seen as many as 250,000 Vietnamese refugees came to the US during and immediately following the war (perhaps a million would follow in the following decades). The recent uproar in many western nations regarding the settlement of Syrian refugees led me to wonder if the same xenophobia took place against the Vietnamese.
Granted, I understand that the situation was different from the current Syrian crisis considering that many of these Vietnamese we took in were allies during the war, but did the same fear of enemy infiltration through the US refugee program exist for that conflict? Were governors public denying entry into their state like we see today against Syrians?
I would also be interested in previous wars involving the US and refugees if someone has information on a different conflict and refugee crisis. Thanks for your time.
"Wide hostility found to Vietnamese Influx: hostility found across the Country as the first south Vietnamese exiles arrive, economic impact is cited by most." That was a New York Times headline on May 1, 1975 -- just a day after the fall of Saigon.
The refugee problem elicited contradictory response, some opposing it and the problems it could bring, while many also volunteered to help or served as sponsors helping resettle families. Few expressed a fear of enemy infiltration. The DRV and NLF had domestic aims. As the evacuating CIA offical reminisced (romantically) after 2001, the North Vietnamese army did not fire on evacuating Vietnamese staff and US personnel -- compared to Al Qaeda, the North Vietnamese and Americans had similar values.
Some in the US did however fear that the Vietnamese refugees would be a right-wing base to the Republican party--something that did happen to a degree. But overwhelmingly the cries were about economics. California Gov. Edmund Brown loudly protested that he didn't want the refugees taking American jobs and wanted to amend the refugee aid bill to provide "jobs for Americans first." In Florida and Arkansas, places that were about to receive refugees, picketers held signs that read "Let's start helping Americans" and "How long is temporary?". The same day Brown spoke out, Congress overwhelming rejected a $330 million bill to aid the refugees. Gallup polls that year found 52 percent of Americans opposed to refugee resettlement in the US, opposed to just 36 percent in support.
But, a simple survey of Gallup polls shows that Americans don't live up to their ideals or popular perception about the US enthusiastically receiving refugees in past crises. After WWII, 56 percent of veterans chose 'few or none at all' when asked if more refugees from Europe should be allowed into the US. In 1951, 69 percent of Americans felt that refugees escaped from the Soviet bloc should not be sent back. But, 40 percent of that group did not want those refugees resettled in the US. Gallup just recently published an article that summarizes more incidents and in more detail. I am away from my materials on this topic so I can source this story, but in one midwest town in the 1980s, pollsters asked first generation Americans, children of immigrants, if they would accept refugees from Southeast Asia. The majority opposed.
However, this is just one side of the reaction and early in the crisis. As I noted, many churches and community groups did a great deal to help the refugees. Thousands of people sponsored families. Other cities volunteered to take in new refugees. But, the response was always mixed.
Lewis Stern, Response to Vietnamese refugees: surveys of public opinion," Social Work (July 1981).