Operation Baby Lift
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Operation Baby Lift was an operation to evacuate children from South Vietnam.
In 1975 thousands of children were airlifted from Vietnam and adopted by families around the world.
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[edit] Saigon crash
One of the operation's most well known events occurred on April 4, 1975, when a United States Air Force C-5A Galaxy (68-0218) crashed. The plane, carrying orphans out of Vietnam, was trying to make an emergency landing at Tan Son Nhut AB Saigon, after the cargo door blew off the plane. It crashed about two miles from the airport in a rice paddy, breaking into several parts. The crash killed 144 adults and children (including 76 babies) of the 305 aboard (243 children, 44 escorts, 16 crewmen and 2 flight nurses).
[edit] Overview
The end of the Vietnam War precipitated increased adoptions of Vietnamese children by American families. In April 1975, two years after the Americans signed a cease-fire accord with Vietnam, North Vietnamese troops spread through the South. The war's end caused hundreds of thousands of citizens to flee the country, fearing for their lives.
Some humanitarian groups working with orphans in Vietnam had planned their own evacuation for caretakers and children when President Gerald Ford announced his directive, known as Operation Babylift. According to his plan, military airlifts would fly several thousand children from orphanages to the United States. He allocated two million dollars for the 30 flights, some of which were cargo planes ill-equipped to carry passengers.
The first flight, a C-5A cargo plane, crashed due to a mechanical problem, killing almost half the 305 adults and children aboard the craft (These numbers vary according to which news articles you read as totals vary between 305 to 319 on-board). But evacuation efforts continued with other flights; some commercial airlines, in addition to the military aircraft, flew the children out.
At least 2,700 children were flown to the United States and approximately 1,300 children were flown to Canada, Europe and Australia. Service organizations such as Holt International Children's Services, Friends of Children of Viet Nam and Catholic Relief Service coordinated the flights.
The Babylift was controversial, because not all children on the flights were bona fide orphans, although many were earmarked for adoption and just waiting for paperwork to come through before babylift began. Documentation was often sketchy or inaccurate. In a few cases, birth parents or other relatives who later immigrated to the United States from Vietnam requested custody of children already placed. The hasty evacuation in the final days of the war also led to debate over whether the rescue operations were in the best interest of the children.
