The Plight and Survival of Vietnamese War Veterans
The article “We will be adrift again: War veterans, refugees face uncertain future with the sale of their Little Saigon mobile home park,” written by Michael Owen Barker and also the Los Angeles Times reading, “Behind Little Saigon’s riches, the poor pack into small rooms to survive,” evokes nostalgic memories of the Vietnam War that started in 1955 and ended in 1975 with the fall of Saigon. The world leaders have committed themselves to human freedom and world peace despite an increase in the number of dispossessed people in the world as are the result of forced evictions. Besides, economic deprivation and military conflicts in their homeland, people seek refuge outside their country of origin owing to religious intolerance, political, and discrimination on a racial and ethnic basis.
After the fall of Saigon on April 30th 1975, many Vietnamese refugees fled from Vietnam telling a horrible tale and reality of their desperation that took the world by a storm. Various forms of print and video media depicted the mass exodus. The pictorial and verbal accounts coming from South Vietnam highlighted unfathomable images of human suffering and misery and their struggle for survival and freedom. Decades later, refugees from Vietnam continue to adapt, survive and establish the future for new Vietnamese American generation, which has not received full attention from the public. The adjustment of Vietnamese Americans to the culture of American has gone unnoticed due to earlier religious conflicts, atrocities and famines in the world.
The untimely eviction of the Vietnamese refugees from the Green Lantern and village mobile homes is unwarranted since the landowners did not issue an earlier notice for the change of land use. The Vietnamese war veterans have settled for many years in mobile homes that offer cheap housing; therefore, displacing them does not only affect them financially but would lead to depression for many owing to a lifestyle change. The price explosion on housing markets at the Orange County is also a challenge for most Vietnamese refugees seeking relocation to a new home since the majority of them occupy eighty per cent of the Green Lantern Park’s unit.
The article reading on the sale of Saigon’s mobile home and the tale of survival despite having riches raises pertinent questions on the plight of Vietnamese refugees and veterans. For instance, are there provisions for protecting war veteran investments and properties in cases where a change of land use is applicable? Many war veterans have invested heavily on real estate, and as such, the state should involve them in making decisions before making any drastic changes on land use. Landowners should also give a fair market price for properties bought by war veterans. Since rental houses are expensive in Orange County, the state and federal government should subsidize the cost of renting homes to war refugees and veterans. Also, the Orange County government should widen the options for securing a home to Vietnamese war veterans and refugees in case of eminent relocations.