Operation Babylift
Encyclopedia
Operation Babylift was the name given to the mass evacuation of children from South Vietnam
to the United States
and other countries (including Australia
, France
, and Canada
) at the end of the Vietnam War
(see also the Fall of Saigon
), from April 3–26, 1975. By the final American flight out of South Vietnam, over 3,300 infants and children had been evacuated, although the actual number has been variously reported. Along with Operation New Life
, over 110,000 refugees were evacuated from South Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War. Thousands of children were airlifted from Vietnam and adopted by families around the world.
With the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang
having fallen in March, and with Saigon under attack and being shelled
, on April 3, 1975, U.S. President Gerald Ford
announced that the U.S. government would begin evacuating orphans from Saigon on a series of 30 planned flights aboard C-5A Galaxy
cargo aircraft
.
Service organizations including Holt, Friends of Children of Viet Nam (FCVN), Friends For All Children (FFAC), Catholic Relief Service, International Social Services, International Orphans
and the Pearl S. Buck
Foundation petitioned the government to help evacuate the various orphans in their facilities in Vietnam. In their book, Silence Broken, Childhelp
(International Orphans at the time) founders Sara O'Meara and Yvonne Fedderson chronicle their request from Lieutenant General
Lewis William Walt
to help with evacuations and finding homes for the Asian-American orphans.
Flights continued until artillery attacks by North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong military units on Tan Son Nhut Airport rendered airplane flights impossible.
The operation was controversial because not all children on the flights were bona fide orphans, although many were earmarked for adoption and just waiting for paperwork to come through before the operation began. Documentation was often sketchy or inaccurate. In a few cases, birth parents or other relatives who later immigrated to the United States from Vietnam requested custody of children already placed. The hasty evacuation in the final days of the war also led to debate over whether the rescue operations were in the best interest of the children.
figures, 138 people were killed in the crash, including 78 children and 35 Defense Attaché Office
Saigon personnel.
When American businessman Robert Macauley
learned that it would take more than a week to evacuate the surviving orphans due to the lack of military transport planes, he chartered a Boeing 747
from Pan American World Airways
and arranged for 300 orphaned children to leave the country, paying for the trip by mortgaging his house.
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and other countries (including Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
) at the end of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
(see also the Fall of Saigon
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front on April 30, 1975...
), from April 3–26, 1975. By the final American flight out of South Vietnam, over 3,300 infants and children had been evacuated, although the actual number has been variously reported. Along with Operation New Life
Operation New Life
Operation New Life was the U.S. military evacuation of about 110,000 Southeast Asian refugees displaced by the Vietnam War out of South Vietnam....
, over 110,000 refugees were evacuated from South Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War. Thousands of children were airlifted from Vietnam and adopted by families around the world.
Overview
The end of the Vietnam War precipitated increased adoptions of Vietnamese children by American families. In April 1975, two years after the Americans signed a cease-fire accord with Vietnam, North Vietnamese troops spread through the South. The war's end caused hundreds of thousands of citizens to flee the country, fearing for their lives.With the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang
Da Nang
Đà Nẵng , occasionally Danang, is a major port city in the South Central Coast of Vietnam, on the coast of the South China Sea at the mouth of the Han River. It is the commercial and educational center of Central Vietnam; its well-sheltered, easily accessible port and its location on the path of...
having fallen in March, and with Saigon under attack and being shelled
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
, on April 3, 1975, U.S. President Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
announced that the U.S. government would begin evacuating orphans from Saigon on a series of 30 planned flights aboard C-5A Galaxy
C-5 Galaxy
The Lockheed C-5 Galaxy is a large military transport aircraft built by Lockheed. It provides the United States Air Force with a heavy intercontinental-range strategic airlift capability, one that can carry outsize and oversize cargos, including all air-certifiable cargo. The Galaxy has many...
cargo aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
.
Service organizations including Holt, Friends of Children of Viet Nam (FCVN), Friends For All Children (FFAC), Catholic Relief Service, International Social Services, International Orphans
Childhelp
Childhelp is a national non-profit organization dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect and at-risk children through advocacy, prevention, treatment and community outreach. Founded in 1959 by Sara O'Meara and Yvonne Fedderson, Childhelp is one of the largest non-profit child abuse...
and the Pearl S. Buck
Pearl S. Buck
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu , was an American writer who spent most of her time until 1934 in China. Her novel The Good Earth was the best-selling fiction book in the U.S. in 1931 and 1932, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932...
Foundation petitioned the government to help evacuate the various orphans in their facilities in Vietnam. In their book, Silence Broken, Childhelp
Childhelp
Childhelp is a national non-profit organization dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect and at-risk children through advocacy, prevention, treatment and community outreach. Founded in 1959 by Sara O'Meara and Yvonne Fedderson, Childhelp is one of the largest non-profit child abuse...
(International Orphans at the time) founders Sara O'Meara and Yvonne Fedderson chronicle their request from Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
Lewis William Walt
Lewis William Walt
Lewis William Walt , also known as Lew Walt, was a United States Marine Corps officer who served in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. His decorations included two Navy Crosses and two Distinguished Service Medals...
to help with evacuations and finding homes for the Asian-American orphans.
Flights continued until artillery attacks by North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong military units on Tan Son Nhut Airport rendered airplane flights impossible.
The operation was controversial because not all children on the flights were bona fide orphans, although many were earmarked for adoption and just waiting for paperwork to come through before the operation began. Documentation was often sketchy or inaccurate. In a few cases, birth parents or other relatives who later immigrated to the United States from Vietnam requested custody of children already placed. The hasty evacuation in the final days of the war also led to debate over whether the rescue operations were in the best interest of the children.
Plane crash
A C-5A Galaxy 68-0218 flew the initial mission of Operation Babylift to bring Vietnamese orphans to the US in the few remaining days before the Republic of Vietnam fell. The C-5 departed Saigon-Tan Son Nhat Airport shortly after 4 p.m. on April 4, 1975. Twelve minutes after takeoff, there was what seemed to be an explosion as the lower rear fuselage was torn apart. The locks of the rear loading ramp had failed, causing the door to open and separate. A rapid decompression occurred. Control and trim cables to the rudder and elevators were severed, leaving only one aileron and wing spoilers operating. Two of the four hydraulic systems were out. The crew wrestled at the controls, managing to keep control of the plane with changes in power settings by using the one working aileron and wing spoilers.The crew descended to an altitude of 4,000 feet on a heading of 310 degrees in preparation for landing on Tan Son Nhut's runway 25L. About halfway through a turn to final approach, the rate of descent increased rapidly. Seeing they couldn't make the runway, full power was applied to bring the nose up. The C-5 touched down in a rice paddy. Skidding for a quarter of a mile, the aircraft again became airborne for a half mile before hitting a dike and breaking into four parts, some of which caught fire. According to DIADia
Dia is free and open source general-purpose diagramming software, developed originally by Alexander Larsson. Dia uses a controlled single document interface similar to GIMP and Sodipodi.- Features :...
figures, 138 people were killed in the crash, including 78 children and 35 Defense Attaché Office
Military attaché
A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...
Saigon personnel.
When American businessman Robert Macauley
Robert Macauley
Robert Conover "Bob" Macauley was an American businessman who shifted from his paper company to create the charity AmeriCares, which he established in 1982 and which has provided billions of dollars of aid to needy people in crisis situations in countries around the world...
learned that it would take more than a week to evacuate the surviving orphans due to the lack of military transport planes, he chartered a Boeing 747
Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced...
from Pan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991...
and arranged for 300 orphaned children to leave the country, paying for the trip by mortgaging his house.
Further reading
- Anderson, Wanni Wibulswasdi; Lee, Robert G., Displacements and Diasporas: Asians in the Americas, Rutgers University Press, 2005. ISBN 0813536111
- Bass, Thomas A., Vietnamerica: The War Comes Home, Soho Press, Incorporated, 1997. ISBN 156947088X
- Emerson, Gloria, Winners and Losers: Battles, Retreats, Gains, Losses, and Ruins from a Long War, Random House, 1976. ISBN 0394484134
- Gronewold, Sue, Operation Babylift Through Film: Suggestions for Classroom Use of "Precious Cargo" and "Daughter from Danang" - Expanding East Asian Studies (ExEAS) program, Weatherhead East Asian InstituteWeatherhead East Asian InstituteThe Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University is a community of scholars affiliated with Columbia's Schools of Business, Law, International and Public Affairs, and Arts and Sciences, bringing together over 50 full-time faculty, a diverse group of visiting scholars and professionals,...
, Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the... - Herrington, Stuart A. Peace with Honor? An American Reports on Vietnam 1973-75, Presidio Press (1983). For an account of the day of the plane crash, see pp. 137–140.
- Williams, Indigo, Not Quite/Just The Same/Different: The Construction of Identity In Vietnamese War Orphans Adopted By White Parents, Master of Arts by Thesis. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney. 2003
Media references
- Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam is an award-winning documentary released in 2009 about the adoptees and volunteers as they examine their lives and the effects of this historic mission on their lives nearly 35 years later. - www.TheBabylift.com
- Daughter from Đà NẵngDaughter from DanangDaughter from Đà Nẵng is a 2002 documentary film about an Amerasian, Heidi Bub , born on December 10, 1968, in Danang in southern Vietnam, one of the children brought to the United States from Vietnam in 1975 during "Operation Babylift" at the end of the Vietnam War.Heidi's father was an American...
is a 2002 award-winning documentary film about an AmerasianAmerasianIn its original meaning, an Amerasian is a person born in Asia, to a U.S. military father and an Asian mother. The term has sometimes been used to describe a person in the United States of mixed Asian and non-Asian ancestry, regardless of the circumstances....
woman who returns to visit her biological family in Đà NẵngDa NangĐà Nẵng , occasionally Danang, is a major port city in the South Central Coast of Vietnam, on the coast of the South China Sea at the mouth of the Han River. It is the commercial and educational center of Central Vietnam; its well-sheltered, easily accessible port and its location on the path of...
, Vietnam after 22 years of separation and living in the United States, having been taken out of Vietnam as a child in Operation Babylift. - Precious Cargo - a 2001 documentary film on Operation Babylift and the return of eight adoptees twenty five years later
External links
- Air Crash Investigation Operation Babylift
- A website including several articles about Operation Babylift
- Vietnam Babylift website
- Page 6 has article written by pilot of Babylift plane crash
- Adopted Vietnamese International (AVI), based in Australia, has info on Babylift, particularly on where are the Australian adopted Vietnamese children today. Site managed and maintained by adopted Vietnamese
- Vietnamese Adoptee Network (VAN), based in the USA also has info on Babylift, particularly where are the American adopted Vietnamese children today. Site managed and maintained by adopted Vietnamese
- Vietnam Adoption Blog article about President Ford receiving Babylift Award of Special Recognition
- "Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam" documentary about the experiences of the adoptees raised in America.
- Operation Babylift Articles and Photos