How the fall of Saigon changed Houston

Flashback: About 1.2 million Vietnamese refugees were resettled in the U.S. from 1975 to 1988, including thousands in Houston.

• Southeast Texas was attractive to many Vietnamese immigrants thanks to its similar climate and proximity to the Gulf Coast and its fishing.

By 1990, Houston's foreign- and U.S.-born Vietnamese population reached 30,000 and was apparent in the city's booming Asian business parks in Midtown, the west side's Asiatown and Chinatown east of downtown, among other pockets of the city.

That number ballooned over the years to nearly 143,000 in Houston by 2019, according to Pew Research Center.

• Only Los Angeles has more people of Vietnamese descent — an estimated 346,000 as of 2019.

Go deeper: How Vietnamese immigrants in Southeast Texas took on the KKK