Vietgone is a love story set against the backdrop of the aftermath of the Vietnam War (1955-1975) through the eyes of Vietnamese refugees in the US. The war was a conflict over political ideology and the future organization of Vietnam. The US involvement in the Vietnam War was wildly unpopular in the view of most US citizens and was in many ways a result of Cold War tensions between the US and the USSR. Vietnam was freed from French colonial rule in 1954, but the country was split into two parts: A US-backed southern government, which relied largely on US military and financial support, and a northern government—the Viet Minh—a socialist coalition that wanted Vietnam to be entirely independent from Western powers. The Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 led to direct US involvement in the conflict between North and South Vietnam.

In the Gulf of Tonkin incident, US officials knowingly lied about an attack on US maritime assets by the Northern Vietnamese that never happened, prompting the US to enter an armed conflict with the Viet Minh. The US wished to maintain political and economic relevance in the region and did not want another communist country establishing itself in Southeast Asia. US involvement led to a protracted war and millions of deaths as the Southern Vietnamese government collapsed with the fall of Saigon (the southern capital) in 1975. With the fall of Saigon, the United States became a prime destination for refugees fleeing the Viet Minh for various reasons, often due to their collaboration with the US and the Southern Vietnamese government.