The Story Of Building Chicago’s Vietnamese Community

In 1975, the Vietnam War ended with the fall of Saigon. Afterward, a large wave of Vietnamese refugees fled the country and arrived in neighboring countries like Cambodia and the Philippines – and the United States as well. Many found community on the coasts like in California or New York, but others created enclaves in the Midwest cities like Chicago. To mark 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War and in honor of Asian American, Native American and Pacific Islander Month, Reset learns more about the history of the Vietnamese community in Chicago. Panel: Vân Huynh, executive director of the Vietnamese Association of Illinois Tam Nguyen, employment counselor at Chinese Mutual Aid Association Ngoan Le, the first executive director, Vietnamese Association of Illinois; former chief of the Illinois Bureau of Refugee and Immigrant Services. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.