Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
TOP SECRET – Sensitive
to Vietnamese, and where Saigon's communications with refugee relief operations in the field were at best tenuous. U.S. Department of State analysis in 1957 estimated the following composition and disposition of the refugees:
| Category | Number (Approximate) | |
| 1. Registered with GVN for refugee benefits | 640,000 Vietnamese | |
| 15,000 Nangs | ||
| 5,000 Chinese | ||
| 2. French citizens resettled or repatriated by France | 40,000 | |
| 3. Chinese absorbed into Chinese community in South | 45,000 | |
| Total | 745,000 | |
| (Remainder, 200,000 Vietnamese absorbed without aid, e.g., dependents of military, civil servants.) | ||
The GVN director of refugee programs reported that the refugees were composed, by trade, as follows:42
| Farmers | 76% |
| Fishermen | 10% |
| Artisans, small businessmen, students, government employees, professionals | 14% |
But it was religious orientation which ultimately assumed the greatest importance in South Vietnam's political life: an estimated 65% of North Vietnam's Catholics moved to the South, more than 600,000 in all; these, with 2,000 northern Protestants, were settled in their own communities.43
- 3. Causes of the Exodus
The flight from North Vietnam reflected apprehension over the coming to power of the Viet Minh. Institutionally, the Viet Minh were further advanced in North Vietnam than the South, and had in areas of the North under their control already conducted several experiments in social revolution.
