‘That is where the similarity ends’: refugee policies, communities, and connections between Cubans and Vietnamese

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores US Cold War refugee policies toward Cubans and Vietnamese, as well as moments of connection between both communities in the United States. First, it identifies the legal and political scaffolding on which US government officials admitted and resettled Cuban and then Vietnamese refugees, since these bureaucracies often viewed Vietnamese refugees in light of, and in contrast to, their Cuban predecessors. Secondly, it explores diasporic connections, reflections, and refractions, highlighting where each community’s experience mirrored one another, differed, or directly crossed. These diasporic recognitions and misrecognitions demonstrate how Cold War refugee policy and politics played out on the ground through the often-unanticipated political actions of the Cuban and Vietnamese communities themselves.