Juvenile Vietnamese and Chinese Vietnamese gang members in the United States are at the business end of a global "octopus" of crime and therefore merit close attention. They steal and deliver cars, money, and computer technologies; collect protection money on an increasingly grand scale; sell weapons imported from all over Indochina to school children; and led by "Dan Anh" or "Dai Ca" (Adult criminals known as "Big Brothers"), recruit new gang members daily. Vietnamese children are attracted to gang life because it provides an escape from unbearable cultural and social pressures and promises approval and access to sex, money, and drugs. Family pressures, school-related difficulties, and an array of distinct social problems drive them onto the streets and make it easy for "Big Brothers" to attract them to their gangs. Experienced counselors who understand both Vietnamese and American cultures, as well as involved parents, can persuade Vietnamese gang members to put down their guns, return to their families and schools, and leave their gangs. Ninety percent of the juveniles the author has counseled have left the gang life. To address school pressures, parent councils are working with placement officials to assign children to classes according to their abilities, not their ages, and they are provided the remediation programs needed to catch up to their peers. To address social pressures, community policing should be used to educate and befriend the Vietnamese community. 1 table and 4 references