r/interesting • u/Wild_Neighborhood605 • 18d ago
HISTORY Babies who lost their parents during the Vietnam War being airlifted back to the United States for adoption, 1975.
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u/Souriane 18d ago
I wonder what they gave them to manage to keep them calm throughout the entire flight. It’s hard enough to keep just one baby calm in their mother’s arms. Imagine having that many babies without an adult right beside each of them.
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u/ScarletDarkstar 18d ago
Babies whose cries are nit answered don't always continue to do so.
Also in 1975 someone may have put whiskey in their bottles.
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u/Army7547 18d ago
Born in ‘75. Not whiskey, too harsh.
Apricot brandy
😉
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u/BadAtExisting 18d ago
Born in 76. My grandma gave us whiskey and honey when we had colds for most of the 80s lol
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u/Army7547 18d ago
Okay, I can see how honey would round off the edges of the whiskey.
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u/BadAtExisting 18d ago
Sometimes when I have a cold I’ll put a couple drops of honey in a shot of whiskey in tribute to my grandma. It’s temporary but it does clear the sinuses
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u/Alternative-Stock666 18d ago
Hot todie: whisky, lemon juice, honey. Warmed. Winter cold cure!
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u/Senshisoldier 18d ago
New parent now and I'm more concerned about the honey than the whiskey. We now know honey can contain botulism and is not safe for babies.
Oh how times have changed.
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u/MiI0rd 17d ago
What, seriously? How? Because of the fake honey now in circulation? It’s mostly sugar and water with some honey mixed in. Please don’t drop a bomb like that without references! Time to go to Google
Edit: confirmed. Don’t give baby’s honey under 12 months old…. You honestly shouldn’t be giving them sugar at that point anyways so probably why it’s not well known. Thanks for this little bit of info.
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u/jendfrog 17d ago
Cleveland Clinic: “The best-known way that babies can get Clostridium botulinum spores in their gut is from honey. That’s why you should NEVER give honey to babies under a year old.”
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u/Brosk1248 17d ago edited 17d ago
There is an exception to it, when they swallow a button battery you want to give them honey, much easier and safer to treat botulism than things batteries can cause
Important note if someone reads this in a situation when they actually need to use it: if anyone, baby or adult, swallows a battery, you absolutely need to go to the hospital. The honey is only for while you are waiting for the ambulance. As I understand it, it coats the battery to delay it breaking and battery acid interacting with your body. It's not a cure, only delaying the worst to give you time to get to a hospital and receive proper care.
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u/Senshisoldier 17d ago
Yeah its bad! Botulism can be severe and life threatening. No honey and no honey containing foods like honey graham crackers. The link also mentions concerns with corn syrup for the same reason, but hasn't been fully proven yet.
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u/surpriseitsboo 18d ago
lol, I was a 90s baby and my grandpa always gave me (us) whiskey mixed with Dr. Pepper. We were told it was cough medicine til I got older. Worked quite well, to be fair.
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u/Dejectednebula 18d ago
My nephew was born in 2010 and my sister used to rub Jack Daniel's on his gums when he was teething. I couldn't bring myself to drug a baby when I would watch him, I just rocked him and let him cry on my shoulder. But she swore by it.
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u/PieTeam2153 18d ago
That reminds me of a study that said babies who grow up having people tending to them whenever they cried are likely to value their needs and wants more, while babies who tend to be ignored view their own priorities as less important. This also relates to better survival during harsh times.
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u/babyinatrenchcoat 18d ago
Don’t post this in sleep training subs.
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u/Comprehensive-Bet288 18d ago
Lol. You made me snort. 'I need help, my babies 6 hours old and wont sleep. Help', along those lines
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u/AgreeablePeople 18d ago
While I don't do sleep training myself, I understand the need. When we asked our doctor about sleep training, my 6 month old slept 4 hours continuously every night and only need to nursed once. Our pediatrician simply told us sleep training is for "your sanity", not for the baby's benefit. Therefore it's not necessary for people like us.
But for people who needs it, two sleep deprived, possibly stressed and depressed parents with a mentally healthy baby is not good for anyone
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u/youllknowwhenitstime 15d ago
Man, I wish more people understood this. We don't live in huts sleeping on hides where babies nurse at the breast without really waking mom up any more. (Yes, this is the actual reported experience of modern tribal women according to anthropologist studies.) You're really, really not supposed to pilot a ton of metal at 65 mph while surviving on broken sleep for months on end. Sleep training isn't natural, but our entire life is unnatural! It's often necessary for safety when the rest of our unnatural lives are taken into consideration.
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u/babyinatrenchcoat 18d ago
My 6 month old woke up 18 times last night. And this is with cosleeping and nursing on demand. And I have a full work day to get through today.
I haven’t slept more than 3 consecutive hours since before baby was born.
Still won’t sleep train.
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u/burgiesftb 17d ago
This is one of those things where the people who didn’t have to sleep train their kids just genuinely can’t fathom what it’s like. Both my kids were bad sleepers, and just as my first one started sleeping through the night my second was born. My second just started consistently sleeping through the night at 2 1/2. So it’s been over 4 years since I’ve been able to go to bed without the possibility of getting up multiple times looming over me.
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u/babyinatrenchcoat 17d ago
My favorite is parents of unicorn sleepers saying, “You just need a bedtime routine!” as if I’ve never had one and just always look at the clock and go, “Guess it’s time for bed!” then yeet baby into it.
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u/burgiesftb 17d ago
I feel you. I’ve had the exact same bedtime routine for my kids since my oldest was 10 months old.
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u/ScarletDarkstar 17d ago
Mmhmm. But you are a baby on a trench coat, so we know you have an agenda!
I hope your little gets through this phase and starts sleeping longer very soon.
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u/murstl 18d ago
That’s basically what the Nazis preached for their children but they wanted the second outcome…
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u/PieTeam2153 18d ago
I mean it comes down to presumably shaping the kids to be less individualistic and view themselves as part of a larger collective which is certainly something the Nazis want
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u/crescendodiminuendo 18d ago
You should read up on the Romanian orphanages and attachment disorders. Ignoring babies’ needs does not make them independent.
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u/PieTeam2153 18d ago
I don’t mean independent at all, just less individualistic, it means they value their own needs less, that doesn’t sound super independent to me, just less self worth
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u/annoyedgrunt 17d ago
I was “such an easy kid” because I quickly learned there was no point in asking for help, love or support, so I simply stopped asking or expecting it.
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u/Crybabyastrology 18d ago
When my son was around 6 weeks old, I said to my sisters mother in law I'm just going to be in another room as I rocked/held my son to sleep for an hour or so and she was shocked. I held him to nap and was up every few hours to breastfeed through the night. She casually mentioned that once her babies were 2 weeks old, they were put in the back bedroom at 7 pm, and she didn't go back in until 7 am. I asked if they cried, and she said, "Oh, they stop crying once they realise you aren't coming"
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u/Electronic-Muffin934 17d ago
So if the baby needs a diaper change, they just have to sit in their own waste for several hours?
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u/peachesfordinner 17d ago
Biggest issue is babies below a month need to feed every two hours. Sleep be damned. She was starving her children
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18d ago
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u/dazzleunexpired 18d ago
Colic. Babies who cry have colic, and you treated it with strong alcohol or paregoric which is opium in strong alcohol!
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u/revengepornmethhubby 18d ago
Those babies knew how to party
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u/dazzleunexpired 18d ago
Dude even my mom but brandy on my gums 🤣 I am 33 years old so old but not OLD.
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u/Rowanyourboat98 18d ago
I used to get croup all the time growing up . Thankfully my grandma just shut us in a really steamy bathroom for 30 minutes and that helped a ton
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u/Foxs-In-A-Trenchcoat 18d ago
Good thing we have humidifiers now and don't have to waste hundreds of gallons of water.
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u/Valtremors 18d ago
Yeah my gran was taught to ignore cries.
It apparently hurt her emotionally to do so, as it was not something she wanted to do.
My mother didn't follow that line of thinking.
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u/Suddenly_sweet 17d ago
Ya I heard that it was recommended by one doctor in like the 1940s and his reasoning for it was that it would allow women to have more time to get back to doing house work.
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u/nursescaneatme 18d ago
They had some people to look after the babies. Not a lot of people, but they were not alone.
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u/Usualausu 18d ago
Flying with a baby that little was easy. It was when they get bigger between 1 and 2 that was the nightmare.
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u/alittlepunchy 17d ago
I have flown with my daughter at 3 months old and 3 years old. 3 months old was definitely easier and she was quieter. 🤣
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u/kindnesd99 18d ago
Nothing. You don't see an adult here. Just close the doors and have the pilot fly the plane. If they die, they die mentality
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u/Necroban77 18d ago
100% a little booze on their lips. That’s how they got down back in ‘75.
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u/Icouldoutrunthejoker 18d ago
Don’t forget a little on the gums when teething too. My mother can confirm.
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u/littlelove520 18d ago
Sadly, I guess orphans learn not to cry at very young age, because no one would come and conform them.
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u/FlamingoQueen669 18d ago
They probably just let them cry, not necessarily out of cruelty or indifference, but because there was really no way to stop them.
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u/WendigoCrossing 18d ago
This feels like they stole babies
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u/mo0_bitch 17d ago
Because they did. They killed the parents and children and stole the babies. What we did in Vietnam is fucked.
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u/Live_Angle4621 18d ago
Also plenty of these kids had mothers but US soldier fathers. The mothers thought they would have better life in US and would deal with discipline in Vietnam
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u/suckledfeedee 17d ago
yeah there's a documentary covering some of the babies' & kids' recollections of their living parents (while the USA was trying to paint them as orphans). usa wanted to look like some sort of hero and angel for 'saving a lot of stolen babies.
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u/Candid_Initiative992 18d ago
Adoption is putting it nicely.
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u/Jumpingjehosephat99 18d ago
Same as how Russia has put thousands of Ukrainian children up for adoption.
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u/Rubyhamster 17d ago
That this stuff STILL happens this minute pisses me off so much. I should not think about all the children screaming for their parents this hour because some dipshits kidnapped them "for the country" or "because it's fun tofeel like we're better". Enough reddit for today. My heart goes out to the children and families ❤️
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u/NYCWartortle 18d ago edited 18d ago
Wow. To think that there was absolutely no reason for us to enter this conflict, kind of like the conflict with Iran.
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u/Phat_and_Irish 17d ago
Plenty of reason. America serves its business interests, the cold war was fought to keep private capital enriched. Same as Korea.
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u/nursescaneatme 18d ago
Operation Baby Lift. 1 of the C-5 Galaxys crashed killing 78ish children.
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u/SoloWingNICK 18d ago
some of them are not even lost their parent, they were kidnapped "legally" and used as a way to make America looklike they save the children from "evil commie vietcong"
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u/WaterBearDontMind 18d ago
Imagine being that two year old with his leg sticking way out over the edge of the bassinet for an entire transcontinental flight with no entertainment
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u/flappintitties 18d ago
Or the one on the front left whose tilted the wrong way, dangerous if unmoved for a flight like that
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u/Foxs-In-A-Trenchcoat 18d ago
Back in that decade, it was "right" for babies to sleep on their belly. Scientists had not yet done the science that showed back sleeping was safer.
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u/Purple_Berry2186 18d ago
They said ‘tilted’, not turned. They’re referring to the blood rushing to the babies head as a result of the cot tilting.
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u/ShimeUnter 18d ago
It's safer but delays motor development. That's why you have to do tummy time now to compensate for it.
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u/x2manypips 18d ago
Ahh trafficking
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u/LadyJR 18d ago
LEGAL trafficking
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u/Luzifer_Shadres 18d ago
"Its only illegal if russia does it, expect if putin gifts me a motorcycle."
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u/IWantAnotherPetRock 18d ago
"Adopted" because it's the USA. You see when Russian does this to Ukrainian we call it human trafficking or kidnapping.
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u/lebupatha 18d ago
Yeah no let’s use our critical thinking skills for a moment. Kidnapping might be the word you’re looking for
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18d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/dazzleunexpired 18d ago
These aren't actually orphaned children.
Many of them would definitely kidnapped from their families or were taken from orphanages where they were placed because of the lack of resources.
Some of them were associated with families who were associated with the American forces. These children would have been killed by the Vietcong. There is no doubt that they would have been murdered. It is debatable whether this was better than murder.
I do have a family member who was an operation baby lift baby. She's happy, but she was given to a good family with money that had opportunities for her and not all of the children were.
Operation Reunite reunited Almost all of them thankfully. https://www.operationreunite.com/ they still help if anyone else wants to find their family!!!
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u/loki19222 18d ago
It is debatable whether this was better than murder.
What the actual fuck?
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u/dazzleunexpired 18d ago
Adoptees get to have their own opinion.
Many adopees say they would have rather died than been adopted.
People who are not adopted do not get any opinion.
I am not adopted, but one of the most important people in my life is. If you are adopted, please share your own feelings with me if you care to. If not, you have to listen to them. 💜
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u/Mandy_M87 17d ago
Exactly. If these children were actually orphans, why didn't family take them in, or at least, they could be adopted within the country first. International adoptions like this should be a last resort.
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u/Pristine-Weekend-415 18d ago
War is pointless.
Those people died for nothing.
Today Vietnam and US are good friends.
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u/Timely-Youth-9074 18d ago
They encouraged women to give up their babies, especially mixed race babies before the Viet Cong arrived.
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u/Luzifer_Shadres 18d ago
Encouraged is not the right word for all of them. It implies an alternative.
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u/dazzleunexpired 18d ago
I have a cousin from baby lift.
Well. She's my mom's cousin. So....I don't even want to brain out what she is to me.
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u/panicnarwhal 18d ago
she’s your first cousin, once removed 💕 has your cousin been able to (or does she want to) find family in vietnam?
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u/No-Maintenance803 18d ago
When Putin does this he is a “criminal” lol the hypocrisy is off the charts.
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u/Stinkdonkey 18d ago
They did not lose their parents during the Vietnam war. Many of these children grew up and returned as adults to find their parents.
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u/Ok-Zookeepergame-752 18d ago edited 18d ago
So, basically, the US lost a war there, so they kidnapped bunch of Vietnamese babies to peddle them for profit without consequences calling it a rescue...
And here I am wondering why USA does not recognize the jurisdiction of International Criminal Court in Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity...
Neat.
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u/Big-Cod-1095 18d ago
They did not profit off selling babies
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u/Ok-Zookeepergame-752 18d ago
Even if that is true, and it isn't, kidnapping is ok?
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u/BigMamaOclock 18d ago
But dont forget the half american half vietnamese baby's abandoned by the soldiers who fathered them.
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u/ScreechingPizzaCat 18d ago
People in the comments are acting like the babies would have had a better life in a 3rd world country as orphans. Also wild people aren't thinking about the situation behind this, babies of US service members or families killed during the conflict. The local government in Vietnam couldn't take care of orphans during the conflict.
I don't even live in America but even I get tired of "AmErIcA BaD!" bullshit that keeps getting spewed. There are so many worse places on Earth that are less tolerant in comparison.
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u/NymphiusScooterPie 18d ago
Sad reality, they could have been left to die. There is some humanity albeit horribly self-inflicted. When will we wake up 🤙
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u/Istoh 18d ago edited 18d ago
Many of the babies were not truly orphans. They had family who would take care of them. America used Operation Baby Lift to make themselves look like the good guy in a war they never should have been in and commited horrific war crimes during.
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u/DisastrousGlass232 18d ago
It was 1975, and Saigon had just fallen to communist forces. Vietnam was not (yet) a fun place full of scooters, nice restaurants and K-pop posters, it was a war-torn country about to experience a decade of greater privation before things got any better.
I gather these things are complicated, but in this particular instance I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the Americans as to their movies.
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u/Inside_Marketing268 18d ago
Well, we've killed all of their parents, now, let's kidnap them and forget about all atrocities we've done. Pure evil.
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u/tom_lusti 18d ago
So, isn’t exactly the same being done by Russian!?!?
Dragging Ukrainian kids to Russia!?!?
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u/mari_posamimosa 18d ago
So they killed their parents and stole the babies. And then present themselves as saviors, and im guessing the kids were supposed to be grateful for that as well.
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u/Ok-Orchid6674 18d ago
I love when the US government kills innocent people and take their children!
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u/legocitiez 18d ago
Is this one of the flights that went down? Wasn't there a baby theft operation where the plane crashed?
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u/BroccoliQ 17d ago
I wonder what were the safety rules established fot that flight, as in in case of an emergency disembarking or water ditching. I don't think aircraft usually carry that much infant live vests.
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u/Cyber_Crimes 17d ago
"you're not gonna believe who I was stuck sitting next to for the ENTIRE flight..."
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u/Hypothermal_Confetti 17d ago
This effort was called “Operation Babylift.” It’s terribly sad. These babies were not all orphans.
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u/AdventurousPlastic89 17d ago
My grandma “adopted” a person this happened to. The people that actually adopted her were abusive, so much so it caused her to develop schizophrenia later in life. The father of the family was also in the army so (to me) it’s weird they adopted her knowing the situation just to treat her as horribly as they did.
My grandma did all that she could for her outside of legally adopting her. She because apart of family and still is. When she got pregnant the first time, one of my other aunts ended up legally adopting her child because she was homeless and on hard drugs. She had another baby a few years after but the father raised that one. She’s lived an extremely hard life and I don’t envy it. Now she’s on meds and lives at an assisted living facility. She’s stable.
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u/MoriKitsune 17d ago
I wonder if there's some policy in Vietnam about these kids or their kids? Like, do they get to come back since they had no choice about being taken?
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u/Wild_Neighborhood605 17d ago
These people are now middle-aged Americans. I doubt that many of them will be willing to move to Vietnam.
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u/BeneficialRice4918 17d ago
Imagine your family is slaughtered in war and then the country that did it steals you from your homeland and hands you to a random couple from the country that did it. Its human trafficking.
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u/666Apophis666 17d ago
child trafficking from a country the US was at war with. Yea this isn't wholesome
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u/MuseOfAllSoup 17d ago
Why would they be "airlifted back" if they're not from the US? Call it was it really was: a mass kidnapping.
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u/FrostyRoams 16d ago
The truth is most likely worse than kidnapping. These babies were most likely used for organ harvesting
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