I've heard numerous older black and white people state the Vietnamese received money from the U.S government after the war. Yet, many of my Vietnamese friends tell stories of there families struggle from poverty when immigrating to the U.S. Can someone please clear this up?

public assistance - food stamps and a couple of hundreds of dollars for a limited time (few months to a year or more depending on the administration). only refugees were/are eligible. if you come via reunion programs - no assistance.

I see, can you please elaborate on government assistance for refuges.

it's varied from one administration to another, but the gist is that they give you some food stamp, housing, and a few hundreds dollars per month - just enough to cover the basic necessities.
let's take my family as an example. we came here as refugees (HO program - dad was imprisoned/*re-educated* for 8 years). we received about $250-value in food stamp for the whole family of five, about $500 for housing and were thrust into finding a job. pretty much same sorts of benefits as welfare moms. our public assistance lasted for about 6 months and nothing there after.

There has always been rumor about the Viet Vets receiving monetary payment by the US government once they arrived at the USA for their part in the Vietnam War. A kind of restitution payment depending on the rank of the officers. ( Only officers of certain rank and above were allowed to leave VN under the agreement between the USA and Vietnam government) That is not true. I heard that the agreement between the US and Communist government to normalize the diplomatic relationship including the provision that these former officers were allowed to leave VN, in return the US agreed to a sum of USD of aid to VN. This provision happened because of the lobbying efforts of the Viet refugee communities and the Viet Vet organizations around the country.

The Viet refugees didn't receive any more aid than any other groups of refugees.

In Australia the new arrivals from Vietnam received $AU1000 each, however there were rumours that the figure was $AU10000

which caused a bit of friction from the normal migrants at the time.

Did you recieve as refugees specific grants to attend collège ? Because i met a viet kieu in a Business School back in 1979 who said to me he was on scholardship since the beginning,all the way up to graduate school.

Did you recieve as refugees specific grants to attend college ?Because i met a viet kieu in a Business School back in 1979 who said to me he was on scholardship since the beginning,all the way up to graduate school.

Does this sum include 150M that VN has to pay to the US for the bullets that Nguy used to kill Vietnamese?