Framing the Narrative of the Indochinese Diaspora: The Citizens Commission on Indochinese Refugees, Domestic Political Actors, and U.S. Foreign Relations

This chapter explores the evolution of the American response to the Indochinese diaspora from 1975 until the 1979 Geneva Conference on Indochinese Refugees. It foregrounds the efforts of the Citizens Commission on Indochinese Refugees (CCIR), a small NGO comprised of elite individuals with diverse experience and networks, in formulating U.S. policy. It argues that the CCIR played a pivotal role in securing a broad U.S. commitment to resettling refugees in March 1978 and in articulating and selling the series of policies that the United States pledged to undertake at the 1979 conference. The chapter places these developments within the larger context of the human rights movement, which redrew the boundaries of unacceptability and responsibility on the world stage. The CCIR reflected and propelled these larger trends. The Commission’s story also demonstrates the importance of domestic political actors to U.S. foreign relations, even when studying transnational phenomena and multilateral meetings.