Skip to main content

Story: Vietnamese

Evacuees from Saigon, 1975

Image
Evacuees from Saigon, 1975

In April 1975 Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) was under siege by North Vietnamese troops. These evacuees, shown leaving an RNZAF Hercules at Whenuapai airbase, had a quicker and easier journey than those who were to follow them. Most languished for years in camps before being accepted as refugees in western countries such as New Zealand.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP-Politics-Immigration-Refugees-05

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Trung Tran, Vietnamese – Migration, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/989/evacuees-from-saigon-1975 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Trung Tran, published 4 March 2009, updated 1 August 2024.