Oregon adoptees reflect on 50th anniversary of Operation Babylift

Half a century ago, on April 3, 1975, then-U.S. President Gerald R. Ford announced the launch of Operation Babylift. Its goal in the final days of the Vietnam War was to transport orphans from besieged Saigon to the US, from where they were to travel to adoptive families in America and Europe. The event began tragically, with almost eight dozen children killed in the crash of the first flight. Another 3,000 Vietnamese infants, toddlers and schoo…

Oregon adoptees reflect on 50th anniversary of Operation Babylift

Shortly before the fall of Saigon in 1975, roughly 3,000 children were flown out of Vietnam in an effort known as Operation Babylift. The children went on to be adopted by families in the U.S., Australia and other countries. An initiative of the Ford administration, the operation was billed as a humanitarian effort to rescue Vietnamese orphans – many of them fathered by American servicemen – from advancing communist forces. However, the program …

Exactly fifty years ago, as the end of the Vietnam War approached, the then US President Gerald Ford launched an unusual operation. During Operation Babylift, about three thousand young children were evacuated from Vietnam to the United States and Australia in a few weeks. However, this seemingly noble operation was not so simple. The evacuation was supposed to mainly concern orphans and children in danger of death, but in reality this was often…