Daughter from Danang
is a PBS documentary about an Amerasian daughter (Heidi) reuniting with her mother (Mai Thi Kim) many years after she had been airlifted out of Viet Nam in April 1975 through Operation Babylift. It was clear that the South had lost all control, and during that period, rumors began to swirl about what would happen to anyone associated with Americans, imperialism, and anti-Communism. During the panic, Operation Babylift airlifted approximately 2000 Vietnamese orphans out of Viet Nam and brought them to adopted families in the United States (Lamb). Due to a majority of factors, including the shame brought onto one's family by having a child by an outsider, fear of repercussions of being linked to American imperialism, and being associated prostitution or lack of chastity, many mothers of Amerasians abandoned their children to orphanages. In turn, a large majority of the children taken away during Operation Babylift were Amerasians. Like most fathers of Amerasians, Heidi's father left her mother for the U.S. just months after Heidi was conceived and choices had to be made. The film is a beautiful piece of work but it also brings to light a lot of cultural differences concerning money, filial responsibility, and interdependence vs. independence.
Daughter From Danang. Dir. Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco. PBS Home Video, 2002. Film.
Lamb, David. "Children of the Vietnam War." Smithsonian Magazine. 2/2/2011 <http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Children-of-the-Dust.html>
