Reflections on a Movement - Mark Bautista - James Estillore - Paolo Garcia - Nadia Mohebati

The U.S.S. Midway is docked in Downtown San Diego at this very moment. Espiritu cites that in 2010, a special commemoration was given on Midway’s flight deck to honor the 35th anniversary of Operation Frequent Wind. Reportedly, Midway sailors rescued more than 3,000 Vietnamese refugees that were fleeing from the Fall of Saigon. This 2010 commemoration billed the Operation as a “remarkable rescue mission… where “untold lives were saved.… Espiritu claims “performances of gratitude,… on behalf of the Vietnamese refugees present. Her reasoning is that such military “rescues… are being met with praise as if racialized refugees were pursuing voluntary migration rather than forced, militarized displacement. Today, this is a relevant example of America’s tendency to frame events as if the rest of the world wants an American world police. The United States’ role in transpacific migrations was a result of the imperialism and militarization of the Asia- Pacific region. Their involvement in the Vietnam War created the refugee crisis in the first place, despite the narratives of humanitarian refuge and liberation.The Vietnamese diaspora in the Philippines, Guam, and the continental United States is linked to the displacement of indigenous Filipinos, Chamorros, and Native Americans, since many refugee centers were located on indigenous lands that resulted from the military colonialism in these places. The effects of the colonization and militarization of these islands are still present today. U.S. military maintains jurisdiction over approximately 39,000 acres, or one-third of Guam’s total land area., making it have the “highest ratio of U.S. military spending and military hardware and land takings from indigenous U/S/ populations of any place on earth.…

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