Vietnamese Americans (Vietnamese: Người Mỹ gốc Việt) are Americans of Vietnamese descent.[4] They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese (Người Việt Hải Ngoại) and are the fourth-largest Asian American ethnic group and have developed distinctive characteristics in America.
Mass Vietnamese immigration to the United States started after 1975, after the end of the Vietnam War. Early immigrants were refugee boat people fleeing persecution or poverty. More than fifty percent of Vietnamese Americans reside in the states of California and Texas.[5]