Operation New Life

More than 111,000 of the evacuated 130,000 Vietnamese refugees were transported to Guam, where they were housed in tent cities for a few weeks while being processed for resettlement.

[1] To deal with the refugees, President Gerald Ford created the Interagency Task Force (IATF) for Indochina on 18 April 1975.

It tasked a dozen government agencies with the responsibility to transport, process, receive and resettle Indochinese refugees, nearly all Vietnamese, in the United States.

[2] Nearby countries in Southeast Asia declined to accept the Vietnamese evacuees, fearing that they would have them on their soil permanently.

However, Governor Ricardo Bordallo, agreed to grant the Vietnamese temporary asylum on Guam, some 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from Saigon.

Naval forces on Guam, was ordered to "accept, shelter, process and care for refugees as they were removed from South Vietnam.

That total included 2,600 orphans and abandoned children evacuated from South Vietnam under Operation Babylift who transited Guam on 3 and 4 April en route to the United States.

The Seabees constructed additional housing, including bulldozing 1,200 acres of brush to create "Tent City" for 50,000 people.

The military was tasked with providing transportation, operating refugee reception centers in the Pacific and the United States, and assisting civilian agencies in the resettlement program.

Expenses incurred by the military were reimbursed from the funds appropriated to the IATF of which the Department of Defense was a member.

[1] In addition to the Army run camp at Orote Point, numerous Vietnamese were housed at Andersen Air Force Base in an area known as Tin City.

This complex of pre-engineered metal buildings had previously served as housing for aircraft maintenance and other personnel supporting the B-52 bombing missions that flew from Andersen.

The Vietnamese navy had loaded up their ships with people during the evacuation and sailed out to sea, ending up in Guam.

Meantime, the refugees became more insistent in their demands to return, including staging demonstrations and threatening violence and suicide.

In September 1975, Julia Taft recommended that the Vietnamese be given the merchant ship Thuong Tin and allowed to depart Guam for Vietnam.

[10][3]: 69–71 The State Department was concerned that some among the potential returnees were being coerced by their colleagues into saying they wished to return to Vietnam.

Those affirming they wished to return to Vietnam were escorted directly from the interview to the Thuong Tin for departure.