History.com: How the End of the Vietnam War Led to a Refugee Crisis

The fall of Saigon in April 1975 marked the close of the war, but also the beginning of one of the largest and longest refugee crises in history. Over the next two decades -- from 1975 to 1995 -- more than three million people fled Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Countless thousands died at sea, victims of pirates or overcrowded, makeshift boats. The lucky ones made it to refugee camps in Thailand, Malaysia or the Philippines, and more than 2.5 million refugees were eventually resettled around the world, including more than a million in the United States.