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Vietnam War

This guide was created for the Viet Thanh Nguyen event on September 15, 2017.

Online Videos

Operation Babylift 
National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

In April 1975, in the closing days of the Vietnam War, more than 3000 babies were airlifted from Saigon orphanages and delivered into the arms of waiting couples in the US, Canada, Britain, Europe and Australia. It was the largest act of adoption in history. Although many Westerners saw Operation Babylift as a humanitarian necessity, many Vietnamese considered it kidnapping - particularly as some children were not, in fact, orphans. Thirty years on, this powerful documentary tells the stories of three of the 281 children brought to Australia. Who are they today? And how do they feel about themselves and their past? Their personal experiences are remarkably different; their answers likely to surprise you. Filmmaker Dai Le, herself a Vietnam War refugee, takes us on a journey of discovery that presents a human face to decisions made with "the best of intentions". 

Operation Babylift: Perspectives and Legacies Exhibit worth the visit

Người Việt Daily News
Published on Aug 4, 2015

Operation Babylift: Perspectives and Legacies opened this spring at the Presidio Officer's Club in San Francisco and runs until the end of the year. The exhibit gives an up close look at the people involved in the humanitarian mission that saved thousands of babies during the Vietnam War.

Operation Babylift - Survivor
AsiaLIFE Magazine
Published on Apr 1, 2015

In 1975, with the end of the war imminent, US President Gerald Ford ordered the evacuation of thousands of Vietnamese orphans.
This plan was known as Operation Babylift.
The first of these flight left Tan Son Nhat airport on April 4, 1975. It would end in tragedy.

Interview with survivor Landon Carnie

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