This article, from NBC News, speaks to the experiences of those who were adopted from Vietnam to the United States, specifically Jared Rehberg and Kali Hauck. Rehberg was adopted in 1975 during “Operation Babylift” which sent thousands of Vietnamese childrens from their war-torn home to adoptive parents in Europe, Australia, and the United States. Rehberg recalls the journey from Saigon to the United States and the lack of documentation - stating that his name and the names of the other 218 children on the plane had been made up in order to get them out of the country.
The operation had its critics and “questions also emerged about whether many of the orphans were really orphans at all, or children unwillingly plucked from the homes of Vietnamese families, who felt forced to relinquish them.” Similar patterns occurred throughout the decades, culminating in the US ban of Vietnamese adoptions in 2008, which resulted from allegations that documents were being altered and families coerced into giving up their children, or else having their children taken away without their knowledge. The ban was lifted this year for adoptions of children with special needs, children over five years old, and sibling groups.
In the United States, Rehberg has encountered racism and long-held Asian stereotypes. Both Rehberg and Kali Hauck, a 16 year-old girl adopted from Vietnam and living with her adoptive family in the United States, recount experiences of social rejection and prejudice and struggling with their identities.
Despite these challenges of being Vietnamese adoptees in the US, however, both Rehberg and Hauck say they are grateful to have left Vietnam and to have been adopted by their current families. "I would love to sit down and say, 'Thanks for making me, and thanks for letting me go,’” said Rehberg of his birth parents.