Should We Be Preparing For Afghan Immigrants

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By Robert Weller

In the first year after Vietnam, 130,000 refugees fled to the United States for sanctuary.

Many feared, and rightly, that they would be killed for siding with the imperialists. One million were imprisoned in re-educate camps. About 165,000 are estimated to have died.

In many cases it was “Madama Butterfly,” child and all, all over again.

Refugees in the past had mostly voted with their feet. In many cases that wasn’t possible in an area surrounded by water. Often families would break up and send one member at a time as they could afford it, never to meet again.

Remember “the boat people.”

Long, perilous voyages, hiding from Thai pirates left hundreds of thousands, enslaved, raped, murdered or sent back. Much worse than the Somali pirates.

The United States took in 823,000, Australia 137,000, Canada 137,000, France 96,000, Germany 40,000 and Britain 19000. By the year 2000, 1.2 million Vietnamese lived with us.

During the war photographers and writers time after time witnessed deadly protests. Some they could have stopped, but they knew the victims wanted to burn themselves for their country.

When the war ended they became active in helping refugees through organizations like the Tolstoy Foundation. My family, then in New York City, took in a young Vietnamese woman, Thanh Ti Ho, and her small daughter, Jenny. We had two little girls of our own but plenty of room.

This story has a happy ending. The soldier who had fathered the girl tracked them down and they got married. We’d do it again if we had to, and we may.

We aren’t going to end the violence in Afghanistan. These are proud people just like the Vietnamese, and us. And what if the chaos expands even more than it already has into Pakistan.