Fifty years ago, when the city of Saigon was read and the US military intervention in Southeast Asia ended, President Gerald Ford faced an election: Many anti-Communist South Vietnamese were forced to move home and looked at the US and looked at America. However, the American people were sharply divided into whether the American people would accept such large refugees. At that time, Lesley reported on the “excessive hostile” mail found on Capitol Hill about the Lesl Stahl issue; A letter from a nebraska material, “They simply bring diseases, corruption and apathy.”
The US unemployment rate was about 9 percent, higher after World War II. To many, it seemed unreasonable to bring the Vietnamese on the American shore.
New York Times
However, President Ford saw the issue in a completely moral condition: “We have a deep moral obligation to thousands of other Vietnamese intellectuals, professors, teachers, editors and opinions who supported the alliance with the United States,” he said.
Ford ordered several aircraft to lift the South Vietnamese refugees and asylum seekers. He signed the Act on a bill securing transfer assistance and financial support.
And he carried out a coalition to protect their housing and employment to a coalition of religious groups, southern democratic governors and labor leaders.
© through the Carbis/Corbis Getty Fig 
At first, many of the new refugees rely on public support and took a low -pay job. But in the years where most jobs were obtained and their dependence on government assistance has decreased. They have become the pillars of small businesses and communities … big and small contributors to American tapestries. Among them are: Federal judges, Pulitzer-winning November Panasic and even Oscar-winning actors.
“My journey started in a boat,” said “Everything at once at once” Star K Hui Quan. “I spent a year in a refugee camp and somehow I finished here, on the biggest stage in Hollywood.”
Ford’s decision to welcome these refugees was not just the right thing – it was smart. He realized that energy in a country like ours came to a larger part from the diversity. His leadership showed sympathy, political courage and moral precision … the qualities that our leaders can use more today than ever.
CBS News 
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The story produced by Robert Morton. Editor: Lauren Burnello.
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