| A Vietnamese refugee, with his belongings secured between his teeth, climbs a cargo net to the deck of the U.S. combat store ship White Plains on 30 July 1979 in the South China Sea. Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, thousands of Vietnamese fled political persecution and economic hardship. Many of the small wooden craft used by the refugees either capsized or were sunk by pirates. |
[National Archives and Records Administration] |
