A Brief Overview and Chronology

The Canadian South East Asia Research Project

The flight of refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to other countries around the South China Sea, either by boats to harbours in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, the Philippines and Singapore, or overland to Thailand and China, started in April-May 1975 and continued, intermittently, until the early 1990s.  Its initial causes were the victories of national communist armed forces against the governments in all three countries.  As the defender of purportedly “liberal” but, in fact often corrupt local governments, the United States had waged unwinnable struggles after the defeat and withdrawal of France, the former colonial power.

Take a look at our interactive chronology

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Note to Researchers

A consent form was signed by each of the interviewees whose videos are posted here on the website. They have each consented to making the video available to the public and they have consented to the use of the contents of their videos by the Hearts of Freedom project researchers. Consent is not available to external researchers to quote or publish from it. Researchers interested in the subject have the opportunity to view a documentary film, Passage to Freedom which has been completed and is available through a distributor https://www.mcintyre.ca/ Researchers from the project are in the process of completing a full length book based on the interviews. Once this book is available researchers will have the opportunity to review it and to refer to it for research purposes.