Operation New Life
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Vietnamese Refugee Experiences |
Memoirs Pasifika |
Vietnamese Repatriation |
Newspaper and Archival Material |
Camp life during operation new life |
In April 1975, 93,000 people–– including the Indigenous CHamorus and Carolinians–– called Guam home. For Guamanians under 30 years old, the US military had been a constant presence on the island which was transformed into a massive superbase following its recapture from Japan by the US in 1944.
With the Fall of Saigon imminent, Ricardo Bordallo, the Governor of Guam, communicated to President Gerald Ford the willingness of the island territory to participate in aiding the United States in Operation Babylift–– one of the US’s early efforts to evacuate persons of interest during the tail-end of the war in Vietnam.
By the time Gov. Bordallo had written to Ford, more than 6,000 Guamanians had served in Vietnam. Twenty-five days later, Saigon–– the capital city of South Vietnam–– fell to North Vietnamese forces, marking the formal unification of Vietnam and the end of the war. Of the 130,000 who fled in the waning days of the South Vietnamese state, 112,000 were transported to Guam to be processed. Until more permanent arrangements could be made, they briefly made home on an island where life centered around the CHamoru value of inafa’maolek–– to make good.
Today, the period between April and November of 1975 is known as Operation New Life; and it was during this time that the people of Vietnam and Guam found themselves intimately connected by the ambitions of US empire, the anxieties of self-determination, and the interwoven experiences of displacement and refuge.
With the Fall of Saigon imminent, Ricardo Bordallo, the Governor of Guam, communicated to President Gerald Ford the willingness of the island territory to participate in aiding the United States in Operation Babylift–– one of the US’s early efforts to evacuate persons of interest during the tail-end of the war in Vietnam.
By the time Gov. Bordallo had written to Ford, more than 6,000 Guamanians had served in Vietnam. Twenty-five days later, Saigon–– the capital city of South Vietnam–– fell to North Vietnamese forces, marking the formal unification of Vietnam and the end of the war. Of the 130,000 who fled in the waning days of the South Vietnamese state, 112,000 were transported to Guam to be processed. Until more permanent arrangements could be made, they briefly made home on an island where life centered around the CHamoru value of inafa’maolek–– to make good.
Today, the period between April and November of 1975 is known as Operation New Life; and it was during this time that the people of Vietnam and Guam found themselves intimately connected by the ambitions of US empire, the anxieties of self-determination, and the interwoven experiences of displacement and refuge.
Image from Header: Pacific Daily News Magazine (Guam) June 25, 2005. From the collection of the Richard F. Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center.