
In
April 1975, the U.S. government evacuated nearly three
thousand displaced Vietnamese children just before the fall
of Saigon. Chaotic from start to finish, Operation Babylift
gripped the American public and was often presented as a
great humanitarian effort. Now, thirty-five years after the
war ended, Dana Sachs examines the rescue more carefully,
revealing how a single public-policy gesture irrevocably
altered thousands of lives, not always for the better.
With sensitivity and balance, Sachs
presents multiple perspectives: foreign adoption volunteers
trying to "save" children; birth mothers making the
wrenching decision to relinquish them; adoptive families
waiting anxiously to adopt them; 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
meet her birth mother. Through Anh’s story, and those of
many others, The Life We Were Given will inspire
impassioned discussion on the human cost of war,
international adoption and aid efforts, and U.S. involvement
in Vietnam.
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