50th Anniversary

The 50th anniversary of Southeast Asians in the United States since the U.S. Wars in Southeast Asia marks a profound milestone—a moment to reflect on five decades of resilience, transformation, and contribution. For Southeast Asian communities, this anniversary represents not just survival in the face of war, displacement, and systemic inequities but also the reclamation of identity, culture, and collective power. It is an opportunity to honor the sacrifices and courage of the first generation of refugees while amplifying the voices of a new generation leading movements for justice and equity. This commemoration invites the broader public to acknowledge the enduring legacies of war, migration, and resilience while creating space for healing, storytelling, and building a future where Southeast Asian communities thrive and lead with pride. It is not only a reflection of the past but also a bold commitment to ensuring these stories inspire transformative social change for the next 50 years.

History

What is often known as the Vietnam War is actually The American War in Southeast Asia (1955–1975). It impacted not only Vietnam, but also devastated Laos through secret bombing campaigns and created conditions for the rise of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia. This legacy of war united Cambodians, Hmong,  Laotian and Vietnamese as it poisoned our land, killed millions of families and created the largest refugee crisis in modern history.  



Following the end of the American War in Southeast Asia, over 1.2  million refugees from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia were resettled in the U.S. While our arrival marked the beginning of a new chapter, it also introduced systemic challenges rooted in racism, xenophobia, and economic exploitation. The U.S. refugee resettlement program, designed to provide a safe haven for those fleeing violence, ultimately failed many Southeast Asian refugees. Instead of receiving adequate support, SEA were often resettled in impoverished urban neighborhoods with limited resources, where we faced systemic neglect and anti-Black policies that exacerbated our marginalization. These policies, rooted in structural racism, perpetuated cycles of poverty, limited access to quality education and healthcare, and entrenched in systemic inequities

U.S. intervention in Cambodia during the Vietnam War-including massive bombing campaigns and support for the 1970 coup that installed the Lon Nol regime-devastated the countryside, killed countless civilians, and fueled widespread anger among rural Cambodians. The Khmer Rouge, once a small insurgency, exploited this resentment and condition to rapidly grow in strength. By 1975, they seized power and unleashed a genocide that killed up 1.7 to 2 million people through mass executions, forced labor, and starvation, targeting intellectuals, minorities, and anyone deemed a threat to their radical vision. Survivors endured harrowing escapes to refugee camps in Thailand and the Philippines before resettling abroad, including in the U.S., where they carried deep trauma that continues to affect subsequent generations. In neighboring Laos, the U.S. recruited Hmong people to fight in the CIA-backed “Secret War,” leading to brutal reprisals by the Pathet Lao after the communist takeover in 197. Many Hmong fled for their lives, with over 100,000 eventually resettling in the U.S., where they, like other Southeast Asian refugees, faced poverty, marginalization, and the enduring effects of war and displacement

The U.S. war in Southeast Asia left deep intergenerational scars on refugee communities, with trauma from war, genocide, and displacement profoundly affecting mental health and family dynamics across generations. Many Southeast Asian Americans, particularly from Cambodian, Lao, and Hmong backgrounds, experience high rates of PTSD and other mental health challenges, which are often passed down through family stories, silences, and inherited stress. Persistent barriers such as the racial wealth gap, systemic racism, and underrepresentation in policy-making further hinder progress and equity for our communities. Despite these challenges, Southeast Asian refugees have worked to preserve our cultures and identities, building vibrant community organizations and cultural institutions that sustain our heritage in the diaspora

Southeast Asian communities in the U.S. continue to face a surge in detentions and deportations, disproportionately targeting refugees who were resettled in under-resourced neighborhoods and entered the criminal justice system decades ago. Despite having served their sentences and rebuilt their lives, many now face a “prison-to-deportation” pipeline, often for offenses committed as youths and with little legal recourse. Deportations to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam have more than doubled in recent years, with nearly all involving individuals who have deep roots in the U.S., including many who arrived as children or were born in refugee camps and now face removal to countries they barely know. These policies tear families apart and perpetuate a cycle of double punishment for Southeast Asian Americans.

Yet, in the face of these challenges, Southeast Asian refugees demonstrated extraordinary resilience, drawing strength from ancestral wisdom and the power of community love. Elders continue to pass down stories of survival and perseverance, while families and communities came together to rebuild lives in a foreign land. Mutual aid networks, cultural traditions, and spiritual practices became lifelines, helping our community navigate the complexities of resettlement and preserve our identities. This resilience, rooted in collective care and intergenerational solidarity, has been the foundation of our survival and resistance. It is in these lessons that inspire us to create a vision centered on justice, equity, and community-led solutions as we enter the next 50 years and beyond. 

Who is SEAFN?

The Southeast Asian Freedom Network (SEAFN) was founded in 2002 to unite and mobilize Southeast Asian communities against the deportation and criminalization of Cambodian refugees in the U.S. What began as a volunteer-driven collective has since evolved into a national movement, bringing together grassroots organizations to advance a bold agenda for immigrant and criminal justice. SEAFN’s mission is to organize Southeast Asians to end deportations, while building collective social, political, and economic power for lasting change

What is SEARR?

    • The SEARR Campaign is SEAFN’s national policy platform to free our people from generational cycles of displacement and heal our communities from this collective trauma. As we enter the 50th year since the end of the U.S. War in Southeast Asia, we are embarking on a multi-year campaign to pass four (4) legislative bills that aim to win concrete relief for our people and to hold the U.S. accountable for the harm and violence inflicted on our people.

 

  • The goals of the campaign are:

(1) To demand for the U.S. to take responsibility for the destabilization of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam due to its military intervention during the war.

(2) To call for immediate relief for our people who have been targeted for detentions and deportations since the early 2000s.

 

ACT NOW

Our Values

  • Respecting the abundance of communities on ancestral lands
  • Respecting ancestral stewards and seeing resource abundance as the responsibility of local stewardship
  • Centering & building local power and governance over our conditions
  • Most impacted communities develop the leadership, vision, and strategy for what we need for our communities
  • Visioning & building a safe, connected community beyond what we have been taught
  • Centering collective principles around community safety, love, and joy
  • Building systems of accountability in our community that recognize the dignity of all people – including those who cause harm
  • As a refugee community, we’ve continued to look out for each other, care for each other, and meet all of our needs, including safety.
  • Throughout times of danger and struggle, our community has been our ultimate refuge.
  • Small business districts, our neighborhoods, why gangs came about – these are all places of refuge
  • Centering the needs of refugees & immigrants
  • Seeing formerly incarcerated people in our community in their full humanity, with all the messy contradictions that all of us have.
  • Being rooted in our communities
  • To migrate wherever we choose
  • Healing is accountability & repair for harm caused to our communities
  • Freeing our community in the U.S. and in Southeast Asia from intergenerational harms against us through violent U.S. policies
  • Freeing the Earth from intergenerational harm through imperialism, war, colonialism
  • Reuniting families who have been separated by deportation

50th Anniversary Messaging Guide

ABOUT THE US WARS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

DO's

[LANGUAGE] DO: call the wars “the US Wars in Southeast Asia” (a.k.a the Vietnam War) to bring light to the U.S.’s role in destabilizing the region, rather than only highlighting its’ role in VN which centralizes some stories about anti-communism

DONT's

[LANGUAGE] DON’T: call the wars only “the Vietnam War.” This hides US role in illegally carpet bombing Laos and Cambodia during the war, which led to destabilizing the countries and genocide (for ex., Khmer Rouge)

[LANGUAGE] DON’T: Use language like “escape” – think about more neutral words like “flee” or “displaced” to capture that some did not have a choice to leave

ABOUT SEA COMMUNITIES

DO's

[STORYTELLING] DO:  Discuss the role of each of our community members in stabilizing our communities after so much tragedy and turmoil by building and re-rooting our communities after resettlement. Example: “Our community was our own refuge”.

[GENERAL] DO: If you have questions about the 50th Anniversary of US Wars in SEA, ask your local SEA organizations and allies for guidance. Uplift SEA organizations working in anti-deportation and impacted voices/stories; invite them in to speak if you can

[IMPACT + FOCUS] DO: Interrogate the experiences of 1.5 gen refugees (refugee children), 2nd generation (born to refugee parents), and 3rd generation drawing a focus to the intergenerational impact of the wars

[STORYTELLING] DO: Humanize SEA refugees and descendents, not labeling us as “victims or survivors with tough skin” but impacted people of U.S. imperialism.

[STORYTELLING] DO: Focus on the impact of deportations and holding the U.S. accountable. Share why deportations have been a growing problem in our community, this will help demystify and break stigmas.

[GENERAL] DO: While creating art, try to give content warnings especially when depicting violence. Violence doesn’t always mean blood or goriness, seeing art resembling war-torn land, refugee camps, or family separation can be triggering. Try to be straightforward with your content warnings so people are well-informed.

[INCLUSIVITY] DO: Focus on queer and trans family structures while creating art. Although we may not hear about family separation in these structures, it does not mean their stories and truths do not exist.

[GENERAL] DO: Uplift and celebrate the myriad of ways that SEA communities have continued to create, sustain, and nurture refuge within our communities over these last 50 years!

[INCLUSIVITY] DO: Uplift ways that various existing communities have supported SEA communities’ survival and remaking of life and families here in the US

[INCLUSIVITY] DO: Name the impact of US systems of oppressions as anti-Black, xenophobic and having specific impact on SEA communities

DONT's

[STORYTELLING] DON’T: Discuss how the U.S. became a place of refuge for SEA refugees or how the U.S. “saved” SEA refugees as it reinforces narratives of “US saviorism”. The U.S. viewpoint has always shifted to their benefit but we know the travesty of real history. The perspectives of real people impacted should be uplifted most.

[GENERAL] DON’T: Expect SEA folks to answer all your questions regarding the US Wars in SEA, Communities are still healing and are deeply impacted to this day. Check out the https://cultural-library.seafn.org/ to do your own research!

[STORYTELLING] DON’T: Focus on experiences of 1st generation refugees as only “victims” and “survivors”, offer reframe as “community builders” – what did they help build to help stabilize our communities once resettled?

[STORYTELLING] DON’T:Use a white saviorism (U.S. savorism) throughout telling history. The U.S. viewpoint has always shifted to their benefit and the perspectives of real people impacted should be uplifted most.

[LANGUAGE] DON’T: Refer to the Khmer Rouge as a communist party, instead refer to them as the genocidal party, brutal regime, or dictatorship in Cambodia. The KR were only “communist” by name, never actually practicing or upholding any Marxist practices. By avoiding this language, we are able to shift the political narrative within the community about communism, socialism, and democracy here in the U.S.

[LANGUAGE] DON’T: Refer to people who have been deported as “deportees” or “the deported”. They are human, let’s have this be reflected in how we speak about them. Instead say, “people who have been deported” or “community members who have been forcibly separated from their families.”

[STORYTELLING] DON’T: Differentiate community members by “success”. The deportation problem within our community is not siloed and across the SEA diaspora people come from different places and grow up with different barriers.

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