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Out of the Fog

Fifty years after the fall of Saigon a generation of adoptees wrestle with Vietnam’s legacy of transnational adoption

This narrative has never been without its critics — Grace Paley, writing for Ms. Magazine at the time of the babylift, called it “a cynical political game” — but even those who acknowledged the alarming messiness of the campaign’s logistics thought of the adoptions themselves as a win-win. InterCountry Adoptee Voices became a lifeline for adopted people looking for legal advice, help with mental health problems, and information about how to find their birth families — none of which was provided by governments in the years after the babylifts. Her persistence at finding Hà and Liên — procuring interpreters, pursuing leads, and visiting Nha Trang in person several times — is a generous act, but it also makes clear how fully the adoptive family is in control of reunion.

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