Two notable dates in adoption history were the 1955 adoption of eight Korean War orphans by Harry and Bertha Holt, who later facilitated the adoptions of many Korean children. Although later accused of automatically assuming life in America was better for the children and of not doing proper background checks or follow-up on their adoptive families, still the Holts were absolutely instrumental in publicizing the needs of children around the world, especially in Korea.
Another landmark date in international adoption was April 1975. At the order of U.S. President Gerald Ford, military planes and jumbo jets loaded with hundreds of children each took off from Saigon, Vietnam, just before it fell to the Communist North. Airline personnel, military personnel, and American medical personnel serving throughout Asia cooperated in this massive evacuation, known as Operation Babylift, volunteering at great personal risk. Operation Babylift took over 2000 children from Vietnam to the U.S.–and an estimated 1000 more to Canada, Australia, France and other countries–in just over two weeks.
A tragic crash of one of the planes brought even more media attention. After the crash, many Americans called offering to adopt the survivors, just as many Chinese did after the recent earthquake. However, most of these children were children whose adoptions had already been in process. They traveled with armbands bearing their waiting adoptive families’ names on them. Nonetheless, a few children were almost literally shoved on board by desperate orphanage staff or sometimes even birth family members as Saigon residents fled. These children were, for the most part, placed with families who had already applied to adopt from Vietnam but had not yet been matched with a specific child.
The crash accentuates the risks undertaken by the military and civilian personnel who participated in the airlift. One nurse recalls that she was told on the day she was to leave for Vietnam that another Babylift plane had crashed the day before, killing over half the children and adults on board, and that sabotage had not been ruled out. Nevertheless she and a dozen of her fellow nurses set out for Vietnam, “busying ourselves with setting up bassinets and supplies so as not to think about what might happen”.
The sheer volume of adoptions occurring through Operation Babylift was staggering and increased the visibility of international and transracial adoption in the U.S.
In recent years reunions have been held for Operation Babylift children and the adults who helped with the evacuation, including one reunion trip of Babylift adoptees back to Vietnam.
Please see this related blog:
A Sampling of Overseas Child Welfare Efforts by U.S. Adoption Agencies
For a link to a U.S. serviceman’s recollection of helping with Operation Babylift children during their stopover at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, click here.