ABSTRACT
Perhaps more than any other Asian American immi-grant group-with the possible exception of Filipinos, whose homeland was a U.S. colony for fifty yearsthe Vietnamese American community has been heavily shaped by U.S. foreign policy. The first large contingent of Vietnamese came to the United States in the wake of the overthrow of South Vietnam by the Communists in 1975, after more than a decade of American efforts to prevent that outcome. In the years since, America has become the most important overseas destination for Vietnamese. In Orange County, California, the center of Vietnamese American life, and other locations, the Vietnamese have thrived, opening businesses, building communities, and establishing civic and cultural institutions, all the while nurturing a hard-line anti-Communism, a legacy of decades of armed struggle in their homeland.
