Operation Babylift
On January 27, 1973, after years of strained negotiations, North Vietnam and the United States signed the Paris peace accords. As part of the agreement, the U.S. withdrew all of its combat units in the allotted 60 days. All that remained were 8,500 American civilians, embassy guards, and Defense Attaché Office soldiers.
For the next two years, North Vietnam steadily built its military into a superior force and in January 1975 - in total violation of the peace accords - began a powerful offensive against South Vietnam's military. 
Without the availability of American military support, the overstretched South Vietnamese military could not hold back the violent onslaught and began retreating toward Saigon. Although Nixon had given earlier assurances to the South Vietnamese government, no American airstrikes came to aid the beleaguered ally's military.
Within a couple of months of bitter fighting, South Vietnam had suffered over 60,000 casualties. So demoralized by defeat and fearful of the NVA, numerous soldiers tore off their uniforms and mingled with refugees heading south. Those brave enough to fight faced death or capture as their positions were overrun by the NVA and VC.
As the Communists advanced into South Vietnam, rumors about what they would do were rampant. Many South Vietnamese were desperate to escape. Children fathered by American soldiers were rumored to be in particular danger. For a mother desperate to protect her mixed-race child in the face of an advancing enemy, a chance to send the child to America was a ray of hope.
In the midst of the rapid defeat and retreat of South Vietnam's military, the U.S. government announced a plan to get thousands of displaced Vietnamese children (mostly Amerasian orphans) out of the country. Fearful of the looming discrimination or worse facing these children after American forces left the country, President Ford directed that money from a special foreign aid children's fund be made available to fly South Vietnamese orphans to the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. It came to be known as Operation Babylift.
The first plane to leave as part of that mission took off on a sparkling late afternoon on April 4, 1975, just 26 days before the fall of Saigon. Twelve minutes after takeoff, there was what seemed to be an explosion as the lower rear fuselage was torn apart. The locks of the rear loading ramp had failed, causing the door to open and separate. 
A rapid decompression occurred. Two of the four hydraulic systems were out. The rudder and elevator control lines were severed, leaving only one aileron and the wing spoilers. The pilot, Capt. Dennis "Bud" Traynor, wrestled at the controls, managing to keep control of the plane with changes in the engine power settings, and by using the one working aileron and wing spoilers. The aircraft descended to an altitude of 4,000 feet on a heading of 310 degrees in preparation for landing on Tan Son Nhut's runway 25L. About halfway through a turn to final approach, the rate of descent increased rapidly. Seeing they couldn't make the runway, full power was applied by Capt. Traynor to bring the nose up. The C-5A touched down in a rice paddy. Skidding for a quarter of a mile, the aircraft became airborne again for a half mile before hitting a dike and breaking into four parts, some of which caught fire. According to DIA figures, 138 people were killed in the crash, including 78 children and 35 Defense Attache Office Saigon personnel. Nurses, volunteers and crew aboard, many injured themselves, did all they could to save as many children as possible.
At the time of the crash, various groups had been working frantically to shuttle the infants out of the country before it fell to the invading NVA. With this tragedy, the mission was severely disrupted, but it continued. Reports differ, but in the 24 hours that followed, possibly some 1,200 children, including 40 of the crash survivors, were evacuated on other planes.
One American businessman alone, Robert Macauley, mortgaged his home, chartered a Boeing 747 from Pan Am, and flew 300 children to America when he heard of the crash. As the evacuation continued, the growing panic in the streets of Saigon and the constant rocket attacks turned the loading of the infants and children into a safety nightmare. Adult participants wondered if the plane they were boarding would get off the ground. And if it did, would it then be shot down?
The exact number for each lift was left up to the discretion of the individual pilot. The children were loaded aboard in any way possible until the plane was full. Often, Vietnamese mothers with Amerasian children were still attempting to get their children aboard as the paratroop doors were closing, trusting their children to an uncertain fate. On some flights, the babies were put into the cargo bays of Air Force planes filled with temporary cribs and empty crates, lined up corner to corner inside the aircraft. When available, the babies' birth records were stowed with them for the flight, documenting their short histories.
As for the older children, Babylift was the crucible that shaped their lives. Already they had seen more adversity in their short lives than most adults, and they seemed to be feeling a cloak of desolation settling around their shoulders. Some of the older children wanted to know when they could go back to Vietnam, possibly to grandmothers or foster parents who had been caring for them. Those who wanted these children to have a better future had taken them from the only life they had ever known.
Even though it was a force of goodwill that was propelling these children into an uncertain new life, the experts said that culture shock and conflicting identity would be normal for them. It was going to be up to their new parents to help them find a healthy identity, embracing cultures old and new.
As they moved toward the unknown future, the children were intensely aware, while still too young to understand. Excitement mingled with fear.
These children faced change the moment they were taken aboard the planes, and many more changes lay ahead. They would be gaining the security of unconditional love that would drive away their shadows, making something good rise from the ashes of war by finding a loving and understanding home.
For many children swept up in the evacuation from Vietnam, appropriate documentation was one of the casualties of Operation Babylift and its aftermath. According to a 1976 report recorded in the Des Moines Register: "A year after they arrived by planeload from embattled South Vietnam, hundreds of Operation Babylift children remain under murky legal status in this country. And, more importantly, the Americans who took the young refugees into their homes still are uncertain about whether the children are really theirs to keep and rear."
Operation Babylift saved more than 3,300 children but some Washington critics questioned the Ford administration's political motivation. Others criticized the government for assuming that the children would be better off in America. 
Still others wondered if many of the children were not orphans at all. A Bay Area attorney who became involved in litigation over the Babylift called it "One of the last desperate attempts to get sympathy for the war." A Congressional investigation suggested a total lack of planning by federal and private agencies. Newspaper headlines asked, "Babylift or baby snatch?" and "Orphans: Saved or Lost?" Some Americans asked whether fear made it right to take children from their homeland. Some felt guilt may have been the motivator.
Actress Julie Andrews and her late husband, director Blake Edwards, adopted two airlifted Vietnamese infants in 1975. The late actor Yul Brynner and his wife, Jacqueline, adopted a baby girl who had survived the downed C-5A.
A few weeks after the final Babylift aircraft had taken off from Tan Son Nhut, advanced elements of the People's Army of North Vietnam (NVA) entered Saigon. The following day, April 30, 1975, the South Vietnamese government capitulated.
In J June 2005, World Airways, the primary civilian airline involved in evacuating the orphans from Vietnam, sponsored a 30th-anniversary trip called Operation Babylift - Homeward Bound, in which 21 Babylift adoptees and their guests were flown to Vietnam. Once there, they were given a special greeting and tours inside the country of their birth. They found a country brimming with promise. For many, it was an extraordinary voyage to connect with their flesh and blood beginnings, their Asian ancestry.
The long war in Vietnam had finally come to an end.
'Operation Babylift' was one of the defining events of the Vietnam War and its legacy will continue for many years. Al Jazeera's Cath Turner was one of those orphans and in the following video, she discusses what it was like growing up in Australia, returning to Vietnam several times in search of her birth mother. It is 49 minutes long but well worth the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdPG5JqtHF0
This 10-minute video follows two Vietnamese orphans as they return home to Vietnam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iAWUliBy3E