<P> The war saw more than one million rural people migrate or flee the fighting in the South Vietnamese countryside to the cities, especially Saigon . Among the internal refugees were many young women who became the ubiquitous "bargirls" of wartime South Vietnam "hawking her wares--be that cigarettes, liquor, or herself" to American and allied soldiers . American bases were ringed by bars and brothels . </P> <P> 8,040 Vietnamese women came to the United States as war brides between 1964 and 1975 . Many mixed - blood Amerasian children were left behind when their American fathers returned to the United States after their tour of duty in South Vietnam . 26,000 of them were permitted to immigrate to the United States in the 1980s and 1990s . </P> <P> The experience of American military personnel of African origin during the Vietnam War had received significant attention . For example, the website "African - American Involvement in the Vietnam War" compiles examples of such coverage, as does the print and broadcast work of journalist Wallace Terry . </P> <P> The epigraph of Terry's book Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans (1984), includes the following quote: "I have an intuitive feeling that the Negro serviceman have a better understanding than whites of what the war is about ."--General William C. Westmoreland, U.S. Army, Saigon, 1967 . That book's introduction includes observations about the impact of the war on the black community in general and on black servicemen specifically . Points he makes on the latter topic include: the higher proportion of combat casualties in Vietnam among African American servicemen than among American soldiers of other races, the shift toward and different attitudes of black military careerists versus black draftees, the discrimination encountered by black servicemen "on the battlefield in decorations, promotion and duty assignments" as well as their having to endure "the racial insults, cross-burnings and Confederate flags of their white comrades"--and the experiences faced by black soldiers stateside, during the war and after America's withdrawal . Upon the war's completion, black casualties made up 12.5% of US combat deaths, approximately equal to percentage of draft - eligible black men, though still slightly higher than the 10% who served in the military . </P>

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