Forty years ago thousands of babies from orphanages and hospitals were flown out of Saigon to countries around the world, where they were adopted and raised by loving families. Operation Baby-Lift.
It is estimated that American soldiers fathered about 100,000 children in Vietnam during the war. Many of those children ended up in orphanages. After the evacuation of American troops, many of the children were abandoned. Mothers were being hunted down by the Vietcong in an effort to eliminate all evidence of American intervention. Birth records were destroyed, children abandoned, and lives turned upside down.
Adoptees are invited to return to Vietnam in April for a 10-day reunion which will include visiting the very orphanages and birthplaces of so many of them.
Many Vietnamese adoptees from the 1970s have looked for their birth parents for years. Additionally, many American war veterans have been looking for their children. Some success is being had with the DNA database in America. Others are finding success through social media, including Tricia Houston. She first found her birth father on Facebook, then authenticated the relationship through DNA testing. Houston will be one of the many adoptees traveling to Vietnam for the reunion and is excited to meet up with her birth father at that time.
