Rejected Americans in Vietnam???

Question

I visited Saigon, Vietnam in January. There I met about 20 people who claimed that one of their parents where U.S soldiers that were in Vietnam during the war. This Vietnamese did look liked interacials and you can tell that they have either Black, or White race features. However, they told me the Vietnamese embassy never want them to leave Vietnam until their real fathers/mothers who were American soldiers claim them, which they never did. Does anybody know about these stories...?

Answer 1

Unfortunately the sad story continues. There was a law past in the 1980's and then revised in the 1990's to allow the children of American servicemen to get repatriated into the United States. In theory, all that is required is that you show "reasonable proof" that you were the child of an American and you will be granted a Visa to leave the country. However the implementation of the law is far more difficult.

First of all, many claim American lineage falsely making it hard for the US Embassy to decipher who is actually the child of an American.

Second, most of these children were severly mistreated by their country and live in tremendous poverty. They weren't allowed to go to school and they are not allowed to own property. The likelihood that they can get themselves to Ho Chi Minh city and fill out the application successfully (in english) is low.

Third, there are many criminals praying on the hopes of the American Bui Doy (literal translation is "half-breed" in Vietnamese.) They offer their services in helping them get their applications processed in return for a lot of money. Then they disappear after getting the money. The Vietnamese government is also rife with corruption and many applicants approved by the US Embassy are told that they can't leave until they pay a very high fee to clear up "passport issues".

Fourth, the people working at the US embassy in Ho Chi Minh are largely Vietnamese nationals. So the applicants have to come before their own countrymen (who hate them) and plead their case. Many are turned down even though it is obvious they are half caucasian or half black.

Basically, the life of these people is still horrible and it is very difficult for them to leave. This past November we visited three of these families while visiting Vietnam. They lived in very poor conditions but were some of the warmest and most generous people I have ever met.

To learn more of their fate, go to www.aahope.org. I know the Tinquists who run the foundation and they are wonderful people who can use any help you can give. (This is the family that we met -- www.aahope.org/loanstory.html.)

Answer 2

this is a very interesting subject. the US had a policy that these children of american soldiers could enter the United states at one time. I am not sure of the rules now. It is sad because many of these children were shunned by the Vietnamese after the war was over. I believe that many of them did enter the US as they became adults but many did not know of the rule. Check out the movie "The Beautiful Country" with Tim Roth, Bai Ling, Temuera Morrison and Damien Nguyen. It is a wonderful story about an orphan named Binh who is a young vietnamese man with a dream of being reunited with his birth father, an american GI who left Vietnam without a trace. It is an incredible story from Saigon to New York and finally Texas that addresses the hardships this fantastic young man faces in order to have a normal life here in America. I really dont think the vietnamese embassy did not want them to leave, these children just did not know enough about the policies.

Answer 3

I don't think so because I've seen some situations that Vietnamese whose parents are Americans but they were left in the orphanage when they were babies. Some nice hearted people had adopted them after that and when they were grown up, the American government had let them go to America and live there with their parents who adopted them before.

Answer 4

Mixed babies in Viet Nam were treated atrociously. Orphanages there sucked, but years ans years later, the US finally gave citizenship rights to these children, because as adults, they are still at the low end of the social ladder. At this end, they don't have to track down their American parent, just give a name. I don't know about in their country, what proof is needed.