Author Description

One of the legacies of the unification of Vietnam under Communist leadership in 1976 was the problem of Vietnamese boat people. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees fled the country in order to escape persecution and economic hardships. Since majority of them used small boats to flee the country to the neighbouring Southeast Asian Countries and Hong Kong, the Vietnamese refugees came to be called as 'boat people'. This dissertation is an attempt to analyse the problem of Vietnam boat people from 1975 to 1991 - that is from the birth of the boat people problem in the wake of American withdrawal from Vietnam in April 1975, to the conclusion of Paris Peace Accords on Cambodia in October 1991, which, among other things, facilitated Vietnam's "reintegration into the World Community" and the consequent growth of Vietnamese economy which in turn, it was fervently hoped, would not only induce the Vietnamese refugees to return to their native country but also discourage the Vietnamese from leaving the country.