Resources
Where to read, watch and learn more
Articles, government records, books, films, and the policies that shaped what happened to the children after they arrived.
Know something that belongs here? Send it to devaki@operationbabylift.org.
Reading
Press and coverage
- The Children of the Vietnam War's Operation Babylift Have Turned 50 The Washington Post
- 50 Years After Operation Babylift, a Boulder Connection The Colorado Sun
- Operation Babylift Regis University Magazine, Spring/Summer 2025
- Stories from Wartime Celebrates its 30th Anniversary Regis University News
- Exhibit and Reception: Operation Babylift: New Perspectives OneRegis
- Plane Crash Survivor Looks Back on Evacuation from Vietnam FOX31/KDVR Denver
- Operation Babylift 50 Years Later: Crash Survivor Keeps History Alive KDVR Denver
- Remembering the Doomed First Flight of Operation Babylift NPR
- The American Experience: Operation Babylift 1975 PBS
- Remembering Operation Babylift 40 Years Later Americares
- Nửa đời tìm mẹ của những đứa trẻ Babylift VnExpress, in Vietnamese
- Những đứa trẻ U60 tìm nơi thuộc về VnExpress, in Vietnamese
Reading
Government and primary records
Official reports, histories and press material from 1975 and after.
- USAID Report, April 1975
- Last Flight From Saigon U.S. Air Force
- Wings of Hope: The USAF and Humanitarian Airlift Operations Air Mobility Command
- 1975: Operation Babylift and Frequent Wind Air Force Historical Support Division
- Operation Babylift and Operation New Life AMC Museum
- Operations New Life / New Arrivals Defense Technical Information Center
- Military Airlift Command report on Operation Babylift Military Airlift Command
- President Ford press release, April 4, 1975 Gerald R. Ford Library
- U.S. Marines in Vietnam: The Bitter End, 1973-1975 U.S. Marine Corps
- U.S. Provides Safe Haven For Indochinese Refugees Government Accountability Office
- The Heart and the Mind of the USAID's Vietnam Mission American Foreign Service Association
- The New York Times, front page, April 4, 1975 TimesMachine
- Adoption History Project University of Oregon
Reading
People and history
- Mary Nelle Gage: Answering the Call Loretto Community
- Mary Nelle Celebrates 50 Golden Years With Gratitude Loretto Community
- Sr. Susan Carol McDonald: A Life Lived for the Sake of the Other Loretto Community
- Lady Was a Tiger Regina Aune, Air & Space Forces
- Rosemary Taylor: Babylift Adoption Hero Vietnam adoptvietnam.org
- Operation Babylift: The Last Flights out of Saigon Cherie Clark
- Operation Babylift Australian War Memorial
- Operation Babylift and the White Savior Complex SNHU Academic Archive
Library
Books
New Land: Southeast Asian Refugees Finding Home in Washington
John C. Hughes and Edward Echtle Jr., Legacy Washington, Office of the Secretary of State, 2025
Fifteen oral-history stories from first-generation refugees and their descendants, written for the 50th anniversary of the first arrivals in 1975. Buy the book · Background
Every Sparrow That Falls: The Story of the C-5A Galaxy Operation Babylift Crash
Linda Boris, Self-published, 2017
Built from survivor and witness statements and interviews.
Operation Babylift: Mission Accomplished, A Memoir of Hope and Healing
Regina Aune and Aryn Lockhart, Pebbles Media, 2019
Two survivors of the first Babylift flight on their journeys and the bond they formed. More
Children of Reunion: Vietnamese Adoptions and the Politics of Family Migrations
Allison Varzally Connolly, UNC Press, 2014
Vietnamese adoption in the United States and the politics of family reunification.
For Children Cannot Wait
Rosemary Taylor, Hodder & Stoughton, 1972
By a key Babylift organizer, about her work with Vietnamese children.
The War Cradle: The Untold Story of Operation Babylift
Shirley Peck Barnes, 2000
Ordinary people who found homes in the West for Vietnamese children despite an unpopular war.
Fragile Delivery: The Operation Babylift Crash
Phillip R. Wise, CreateSpace, 2012
A memoir by a crew member who survived the April 4, 1975 crash.
Carried Away: A Memoir of Rescue & Survival Among Orphans of the Viet Nam War
Ross Meador
A memoir by a 19-year-old who went to Vietnam and was caught up in the evacuation as Saigon fell. More
Watching
Film and special features
- Operation Babylift: The 50-Year Journey 20/20 and ABC News Live. Follows the lives of Babylift children and the archive at the center of the search. Winner, 2026 News & Documentary Emmy Award.
- Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam 2009, directed and produced by Tammy Nguyen Lee. Adoptees, volunteers and parents on identity and lasting impact.
- The Historians: Operation Babylift Defense Intelligence Agency, with historian Lisa Temple.
- Operation Babylift: A Celebration of the Human Spirit April 24, 2022. A reunion of adoptees and three former Pan Am flight attendants.
- Operation Babylift: Flight to a New Future Nexstar Media.
- Operation Babylift Feature
Listening
Digital archives and first-person accounts
A pilot writes to Babylift adoptees that he is glad to share his insight about their new beginning.
- Pilot Remembers Operation Babylift 40 Years Later KFVS12
- I Was on the Plane That Crashed PBS American Experience, First Days Story Project
- Operation Babylift Tragedy: The Untold Story of Vietnam War Orphans Mayday: Air Disaster
Policy
Policies that shaped arrival and citizenship
The laws and decisions behind how the children and their families entered the United States, what status they held afterward, and how Washington State received them. Links go to the official text.
International
1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol
1951 and 1967
Defines who is a refugee and bars returning people to danger.
Re-education camps
1975 onward
Detention of former South Vietnamese officials. A detainee's record marked the whole family.
U.S.-Vietnam normalization and Clinton's Hanoi speech
1995 and 2000
Restored diplomatic ties.
U.S.-Vietnam repatriation agreement
2008
Allows deportation of Vietnamese non-citizens who arrived after July 12, 1995.
United States
Ford's statement announcing Operation Babylift
April 3, 1975
The President announced the airlift of orphans from Vietnam.
Legal definition of orphan, INA 101(b)(1)(F)
Counted a child as an orphan once a single parent had released them.
Parole authority, INA 212(d)(5)
1975
Admitted people without visas, so many arrived without a settled legal status.
Reception centers
1975
Camp Pendleton, Fort Chaffee, Guam and Wake Island.
Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act, Pub. L. 94-23
May 23, 1975
Funded resettlement and the sponsorship system.
Permanent residence for Indochinese refugees, Pub. L. 95-145
October 28, 1977
Let 1975 parolees become permanent residents, the first step toward citizenship.
Refugee Act of 1980, Pub. L. 96-212
March 17, 1980
Adopted the UN refugee definition and created the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Amerasian Homecoming Act, Pub. L. 100-202
1987 and 1988
Made the Amerasian child the family's anchor for immigrating, with age caps.
IIRIRA and AEDPA
1996
Expanded the offenses that make a non-citizen deportable, and applied them retroactively.
Child Citizenship Act, Pub. L. 106-395
In effect February 27, 2001
Gave automatic citizenship to adoptees who were under 18 on that date. It was not retroactive, so adoptees born before March 1983 were not covered.
Certificate of Citizenship, Forms N-600 and N-600K
How derived or automatic citizenship is documented.
Washington State and local
Governor Evans' open-door decision
May 1975
Washington volunteered to take refugees.
Resettlement plan and Camp Murray
May 20 to October 1, 1975
The state pledged 500 places and chose 518 refugees by card draw. More than 600 passed through Camp Murray.
Commission on Asian American Affairs, now CAPAA
1974 onward
Organized the 1977 refugee leaders' conference.
DSHS refugee programs
1970s to today
Bilingual staff in the 1970s. Today, the Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance.
Indochinese Farm Project
1982
King County land and support for Hmong and Mien farmers.
Trauma-informed child care, HB 2861
2018
Backed by Joe Nguyen through Wellspring Family Services. He was not a sponsor.
TANF time limits and police arbitration bills
2020 and 2021
SB 6478 and SB 5214 changed TANF time limits. SB 5055 addressed police arbitration.
Lunar New Year state holiday, HB 2209
2024
A recognized day, not a paid legal holiday.
Translated prescription labels
Rule effective January 22, 2027
HB 1852 died in 2022. A Pharmacy Commission rule now requires translated labels.
Little Saigon Landmark funding
2017 to 2024
Funded from several sources: the state, Congress, King County and Seattle's Equitable Development Initiative.
State trade mission to Vietnam
April 2024
Signed an agriculture agreement. Legislators My-Linh Thai and Joe Nguyen were in the delegation.
This is not legal advice. If you have questions about your own citizenship or immigration status, speak with an immigration attorney.
From the collection
From the archive
