Escape from Saigon (6 page)

The Steiners loved the people and culture of South Vietnam. But they knew life there was especially hard for Amerasian orphans and that as these children grew older, they often suffered increasing discrimination. Sometimes such children were called “half-breed” and treated poorly. Jim and Mary felt they could offer a home to one of them. Because the Steiner boys were in their teens, they decided to request an older child.

Long, in the photo sent to the Steiners

The Holt Foundation had sent them a photo of Long. “He looked kind of sad, like a little boy we wanted to help,” says Mary Steiner. “Our hearts went out to him. We couldn't choose anyone else.”

Through the months of January, February, and March 1975, the Steiners got to know Long through letters and photos. They told him about Ohio—that it was in the middle of the United States and had lots of trees and rolling hills. They said they lived in the country, where there was plenty of space to play. With Miss Anh's help, Long wrote back a few sentences in English and enclosed some drawings.

He often studied the family photo they sent him, memorizing each one of the Steiners. His eyes always went first to the mother. In the photo, she had short, curly brown hair, glasses, and a shy smile. She looked kind. Then he studied Dan, Doug, and Jeff, wondering what it would be like to have three brothers. It could be fun—older boys to play with.

Long had mixed feelings about the father in the photo. He looked nice, but could Long trust that? His own father had left him when he was still a baby. His stepfather had been cruel. Besides, if you had a mother, why would you need a father?

Having a father
sounded
nice. Maybe, just maybe, this time it would work out.

*   *   *

But as Long dreamed of his new family and the life he would have in America, the Vietnam War suddenly roared to life. In January 1975, the Communist army of North Vietnam began a major offensive against the South. To their surprise, they met little of the resistance that had stopped them in the past. Though some South Vietnamese army units fought back bravely, many others were fearful that they could not win because they no longer had American troops to assist them, so they did not try. Some South Vietnamese soldiers abandoned their military posts and went home to their families.

Suddenly everything was happening swiftly—so swiftly that all of South Vietnam was thrown into a state of panic. Each day came word that another city or province had fallen to the Communists. The North Vietnamese soldiers were ruthless, killing both soldiers and civilians in their path. Within weeks, the North Vietnamese controlled important strategic areas in South Vietnam and continued to push southward.

Instead of taking a stand, the president of South Vietnam ordered his troops to fall back to the Saigon region to defend the city and outlying areas. The retreat turned into a rush for safety. As frantic soldiers fled toward Saigon, so did hundreds of thousands of refugees, jamming roads, disrupting the military, and creating a withdrawal that became known as the Convoy of Tears.

Pursuing them was the army of North Vietnam.

Carrying her wounded child, a woman and other refugees flee from heavy fighting north of Saigon in 1975

5

N
O
W
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O
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By the end of March 1975, the war had reached Saigon. The North Vietnamese troops were still miles away, but they had the city surrounded. Soon they would break through the last South Vietnamese military resistance and march into the streets.

Within the city, everything had changed. People feared for their lives. The Communist takeover of Danang, the second largest city in South Vietnam, had been bloody and brutal. Many children were killed alongside their parents, most of them while trying to flee. The actual taking of Saigon could be worse. The Communists were sure to single out foreigners, especially Americans, and anyone who had worked for them. They would also target South Vietnamese soldiers, government officials, and their families. This meant hundreds of thousands of people were in danger, and with the city surrounded, there were only two ways out: by sea and by air.

To try to escape by sea was especially dangerous. Those who were desperate enough to try it had to motor or row small boats forty-five miles along the Saigon River past enemy troops and then out into the South China Sea. There, large ocean vessels, including American military ships, would pick up the lucky ones. The rest faced the open ocean as they tried to get to a distant, friendly port. Along the way, they could encounter pirates, who would rob and might murder them, as well as storms, sharks, and the blazing sun.

Some 17,000 South Vietnamese refugees crowd the deck of the SS
Pioneer Contender
trying to escape the war

By air was the best way out. But every seat on every outgoing commercial flight was booked. Desperate people jammed the offices of the airlines, begging anyone going in or coming out to help them. No amount of money could buy a seat.

From positions just miles outside the city, the North Vietnamese army began to fire randomly at the airport. Because of the extreme danger, commercial airlines stopped their regular flights. The only planes still landing and taking off at Tan Son Nhut Airport were private charter planes or military flights.

People looked to the U.S. government for help. Would it send last-minute aid, perhaps preventing a takeover? Would it undertake a massive evacuation of all the South Vietnamese who had worked for and helped Americans? Or would it leave these people to their fate? No one knew.

*   *   *

At Holt, Long knew something was about to happen. All the older kids did. Their teachers tried to keep routines normal, but the children saw the concern on the adults' faces, the sudden tears, and the increased activity at the Center.

At first Long didn't worry. The war had been going on since before he was born. If there were a serious problem, America would come to South Vietnam's defense. He was certain of that. Besides, he was going to leave in three to four months for his new home in America. Ky had already gone.

Then he overheard Lan, one of Holt's Vietnamese staff members, talking to another staff member.

“I try to stay calm,” she said softly, “but will the streets run with blood when the Communists arrive? I hear they will kill anyone with connections to foreigners.”

“That's just a rumor,” the staff member protested. “Nobody knows.”

“It has happened other places. They could punish me because I work for Americans or because my child's father was an American soldier. They might hurt my little Tai for being half American.”

“Can her father help you?”

Lan shook her head. “I don't know where he is. How can I save my daughter?”

As Long listened, he became frightened. He was Amerasian, too! Would the Communists try to hurt
him
?

The next day, Long and some of the other children witnessed a chilling sight. While they were playing outside, several mothers holding small children came to the gate of the wall that surrounded the playground and the Holt Center. They pleaded with staff to take their children and keep them safe. “You must get my baby to America!” cried one. “My family lived under the Communists in the North. He must not grow up that way.” Another tried to reach through the gate to grab a staff member's arm. “When the Communists come, I will kill myself,” she sobbed, “but please save my child!”

A young mother with her child seeks help from Holt

Miss Anh immediately moved the children away so they could not watch, but Long had seen and heard enough to suddenly realize how serious the war situation had become. But surely the American people would not let down the people of South Vietnam in their greatest hour of need.

What Long did not know was that in America, many people were pressuring the government to resist offering additional support to South Vietnam. For ten years, the United States had tried to help South Vietnam win the war. More than 58,000 American soldiers had already died in what the Vietnamese often referred to as the American War, and the Americans had finally withdrawn. The Vietnam War had created a rift in American society that would take decades to heal. The U.S. Congress was not going to vote any last-minute aid. This time, South Vietnam was on its own.

In Saigon, this was not yet known. At Holt's Saigon Center, staff members listened constantly to the American news station, trying to get the latest war information. Holt had already evacuated forty children from its care center in Danang before that city fell to the Communists. Those children and some from the Saigon center had left earlier when commercial flights were still available. But Holt had more than four hundred children still in Saigon. Most were Amerasian, and almost all of them were already assigned to adoptive families in other countries. No one questioned the necessity of getting the children out of the country. Under the Communist regime that would soon govern South Vietnam, their lives could be difficult, for in them flowed “the blood of the enemy.”

There was another problem. During the transition to a new Communist government, who would care for the children? The Vietnamese staff would not dare come to work, for that would reveal their association with Americans, leaving the children with little or no care. Although Long was healthy, many of the children were not. Some had been crippled by disease or war injuries and needed braces, crutches, or daily physical therapy. Many, many children needed daily medication. It was painfully clear that their very survival depended on getting as quickly as possible to families that could look after their needs.

*   *   *

As the days passed, the American staff at Holt frantically tried to locate a privately chartered plane to airlift the children to safety. Every day they talked to Holt staff in Oregon. Had they found a plane yet? Did they have any possibilities? As March turned into April, the situation in Saigon grew worse. Food prices escalated. Milk for the children was scarce. It was harder to get some supplies, impossible to get others. The North Vietnamese shelled the airport more frequently, increasing fears it would have to be shut down—and then
nobody
would get out. The American embassy checked daily on the Americans still in Saigon, but the U.S. government had not yet ordered an evacuation.