April 30, 2023
WHEREAS, April 30, 2023, marks the 48th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war and the start of an exodus of several million Vietnamese out of Vietnam after the South Vietnamese’s capitol of Saigon fell to communists on April 30, 1975; and,
WHEREAS, for many Vietnamese and Veterans who were directly involved in the war and Vietnamese Americans who have settled in the United States the Vietnam war was a tragedy full of suffering and the loss of American, Vietnamese, and Southeast Asian lives; and,
WHEREAS, over 58,000 people were killed and 304,000 people were wounded out of the 2.59 million who served in the Vietnam War; one out of every ten Americans who served in Vietnam became a casualty of war; and,
WHEREAS, South Vietnamese armed forces lost 275,000 soldiers and many more were wounded, along with an unknown number of casualties among Vietnamese citizens; and,
WHEREAS, starting in 1975, and lasting through the mid-1990s, multiple waves of Vietnamese refugees began leaving Vietnam; nearly 800,000 people risked their lives on small, dangerous boats to travel to resettlement camps in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines before eventually being resettled in the United States; and,
WHEREAS, in order to serve their community and prosper in America, Vietnamese Americans founded well-established and thriving Vietnamese American commercial districts throughout the United States, including in southeast Oakland County and in West Michigan; and,
WHEREAS, more than 25,000 Vietnamese people now live in Michigan; and,
WHEREAS, we must teach our children and future generations important lessons from the Vietnam War, including how the plight of Vietnamese refugees following the end of the war serves as a powerful example of the values of freedom and democracy;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Gretchen Whitmer, governor of Michigan, do hereby proclaim April 30, 2023, as Fall of Saigon/Black April Remembrance Day in Michigan.
SOURCE:
No comments:
Post a Comment