American Notes Refugees

During the Viet Nam War, the U.S. Special Forces relied on some loyal comrades: the Montagnards, mountain tribesmen who proved to be ferocious fighters. But after the fall of Saigon in 1975, the "Yards," as their Green Beret trainers fondly called them, were left to fend for themselves in their jungle homeland. Last week, following a dangerous eight-year odyssey across hostile territory in Laos, Kampuchea and Viet Nam, some 200 Montagnard men, women and children reached the U.S.

Resettled in North Carolina, they were welcomed at Greensboro airport by hundreds of Americans bearing flowers and gifts. Conceded Lieutenant Governor Robert Jordan: "It may take more than one generation for them to feel * comfortable with us." But many Americans agreed that resettlement in the U.S. was the least that could be done. Said a State Department official who processed them through refugee camps: "They had been allies."