It was April 30th, 1975, forty years ago, that the last U.S. helicopter slipped over the horizon on the outskirts of Saigon and unceremoniously signaled the end of the Vietnam War. Within 24 hours, on May Day, as they'd planned it, the North Vietnamese flag went up over the Presidential Palace, and Saigon officially became Ho Chi Minh City.
But it took much longer for hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese to start new lives... Over the next four years, they clamoured onto boats headed for virtually anywhere.
When
the Americans lost the Vietnam War there were many who did not wish to
stay in Vietnam. Those with influence were airlifted out by the
Americans but many had to make do with crowding onto leaky boats and
making the journey from Vietnam to the gulf of Thailand. In doing so
they unwittingly wrote themselves into modern pirate history.
Conditions
were perfect for piracy. The local fishermen were poor and were looking
for an easy means to supplement their income. The Vietnamese government
did not care about them and the Thai government was not anxious to
receive large boatloads of refugees. No one cared about the fate of the
boat people so allegations of piracy were often ignored. It was only
when the incidents became more shocking that pressure was brought to
bear on the Thai government by maritime interests led by the Americans.
By then thousands had been robbed, raped and murdered
