In April 1975, just before the fall of Saigon, the U.S. government
launched "Operation Babylift," a highly publicized plan to evacuate
nearly three thousand displaced Vietnamese children and place them
with adoptive families overseas. Chaotic from start to finish, the
mission gripped the world-with a traumatic plane crash,
international media snapping pictures of bewildered children
traveling to their new homes, and families clamoring to adopt the
waifs.
Often presented as a great humanitarian effort, Operation Babylift
provided an opportunity for national catharsis following the trauma
of the American experience in Vietnam. Now, thirty-five years after
the war ended, Dana Sachs examines this unprecedented event more
carefully, revealing how a single public-policy gesture irrevocably
altered thousands of lives, not always for the better. Though most
of the children were orphans, many were not, and the rescue offered
no possibility for families to later reunite.
With sensitivity and balance, Sachs deepens her account by
including multiple perspectives: birth mothers making the wrenching
decision to relinquish their children; orphanage workers, military
personnel, and doctors trying to "save" them; politicians and
judges attempting to untangle the controversies; adoptive families
waiting anxiously for their new sons and daughters; and the
children themselves, struggling to understand. In particular, the
book follows one such child, Anh Hansen, who left Vietnam through
Operation Babylift and, decades later, returned to reunite with her
birth mother. Through Anh's story, and those of many others, "The
Life We Were Given" will inspire impassioned discussion and spur
dialogue on the human cost of war, international adoption and aid
efforts, and U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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