Daughter from Danang

Transcript

You tell the the And I remember this for as long as I left, it was just so vivid. We were standing there and we holding hands.

They literally had to pry us apart to get me on that plane. How could you do this to me? How could you just give up a child like that? How could you just give up a child like that? How could you just give up a child like that? How could you just give up a child like that? I've always wanted to know about my birth mom.

I still had memories but as the years went, the picture of her face in my mind was fading. And that's why I had to find her and get ready to go over there and meeting her face to face for the first time in 22 years. Good morning ladies and gentlemen on behalf of Vietnam Online. We're going home. I hear those planes and so many memories, so many memories. I was born in Denang in 1968.

I remember here in the gunfire and every once in a while, you know, we'll be playing outside and somebody would rush us inside real quick. There were a lot of people in Denang. I remember when I was in the U.S. and I was in the U.S. I remember when I was in the U.S. and I was in the U.S.

I remember when I was in the U.S. and I was in the U.S. When I left, I was confused more than anything. I didn't understand what was going on and why my mother wasn't coming with me. But then I thought, well, it must have been me. I must have been a bad child, you know, for her to give me up and not want me. That's what I remember.

I have directed that money from a $2 million special foreign aid children's fund. He made available to fly 2000 South Vietnamese orphans to the United States as soon as possible. We didn't notice at the time but as a last desperate attempt of the White House to gain sympathy for the war and possible additional funding for the war. They backed what was called the orphan airlift. And they asked for Vietnamese to come to the Presidia because they were bringing over lots of little children.

So I went to the Presidia. I was one of the few Vietnamese living in the Bay Area at the time. I remember going into a room and there was some kids who were about seven or ten years old. I remember saying to them, you don't understand what's going on now. But this is very important. You have to remember who you are. Her friends volunteered to assist. One of them called her and said, you know, these children. Many of them are not orphans. They're talking about their families. And we immediately notified the adoption agencies and the US government that many of the children did not appear to be orphans. And they didn't respond. There was zero response. There was an adoption industry in Vietnam where people would be able to adopt cute Vietnamese children. Their courts were true orphans. There's no question about that. But often these adoption homes were places where children were placed by their families who couldn't take care of them.

What this whole business was doing was creating a situation where families were being induced to give up their children. If you can't help me, if you know people who are poor, you cannot take care of their children. If they are mixed children, I would like to help them. I am not taking them away from them. I send them a good family to tell them because I can take their children to send them to America. And it's better for everyone. If they can go with you, they can go with that. Let it go with me. Can I take him? Can I take him to the United States? No. You think about it because he saw me take other boy, other boy, very happy. Yes. Very happy. The government never had a complete list of the children. They were literally dumping them on the plane. They might recall that one of the planes crashed and about 100 children were killed.

The government never had a complete list of the children. They were literally dumping them on the plane. They might recall that one of the planes crashed and about 100 children were killed. The government never had a complete list of the children. They were literally dumping them on the plane. I saw her try for just a little while. From the time I left Vietnam, and I came over here, it all runs together to me. It's all blurb. Looks a little perplexed now.

Well, first of all, he doesn't speak the language, so he's not quite sure what everybody is doing here. I remember meeting my adopted mom. They put us in this little white room. You know, kind of like the rooms you go in when you go to the pet store and you go see the pets. That's what it felt like to me. And I remember talking to me. And of course, I didn't understand a word. She said, I used to ask her for my mother. And I would cry and cry and cry. Here we are. This is the first day we went there. This is hiding with a baby doll. That's hideous adopted mother, Anne. The way I found out about Anne was adopting hidey. I think I was talking to my mom. And she told me over the telephone. I said, what in the world is she doing that for?

And I was very perturbed. I said, you know, with all of the kids in this country that need homes. Why? And she said, because the government and its infinite wisdom has thrown up so many barricades to a single mom adopting a kid. I remember going to her house, not knowing what was going on and why am I here with this lady. I remember watching her one time doing laundry and she put it in this machine and I thought, wow! You know, so I noticed one day she said the cat was dirty and you were not believe what I did. I put that cat in the washing machine. And all of a sudden, you hear this miracle and this thing thumping against the machine like that. And my cat, my mom, comes running into the room. She says, cat, cat, you know, that's all I could do. She used to get cat and I pointed to the machine and she pulled that cat out and that cat was just, oh!

It was so beautiful looking. It's the first time we met hiding. She was just a little dark-haired urgent. She just cut his button and couldn't speak any English. And of course, you know how much Vietnamese I could speak. Good morning! How are you today? Now, Ben, you say, good morning, Quay. Quay says, good morning, Ben. How are you today? How are you, Quay? How are you today? How are you fine? Thank you and you. And we're fine. I remember going to private school to learn English. And then we moved to Tennessee and that's where I spent the rest of my years. Heidi was very shy at first and I remember that she spent an extra year in kindergarten

because she knows big of the English good, you know, she had to learn. We had black and white children that had been going to school together for many years. But at the same time, we had black children and we had white children and we had not ever had one like Heidi before. My adopted mom, she did everything she could to make me American as possible. She's strictly all American. She loved Bologna. I don't know if you want me to get started about that. We made a Southern or Southern, I have her real quick as far as that goes. On my honor, I will try to serve God in my country. Heidi's features and her complexion of a thing is just like an American that's had a son tan. When she was growing up and even to now, I still look at her as a white American because there's really not much Oriental in her.

She really looked Oriental then. It was really, she was short, long, straight, black, real black hair. Then when we got to high school, I didn't recognize her because she had a perm. She permed her hair all the time back then. See, nobody knew. We were good toying about Pulaski, the blacks and white get along great. They go to school together, they're allowed to eat together, so it's a little community that's spied together. The racism, they keep it hidden. It is, I mean, it is the place where the KKK originated. Every year they marched on the anniversary, they know downtown all that. I think a majority were against the KKK. But there are also people we knew that were part of the group.

It's like, you know, you find out your teacher is, aren't you? She takes you by the chair? Yeah. She takes you by the surprise. She told me not to tell anyone that she was having enemies. And at the time, I understood and being in Pulaski. My adopted mom, I'm not sure how she felt about me being Vietnamese, but she would always tell me I'm not supposed to talk about this. This is not something you tell anybody. You know, if anybody asks you where you're born, you tell them Columbia, South Carolina. If you're with me, I'm the girl out there. Don't worry about me, I've found the little one. Don't call me a grey star.

Trust or you know where I belong. I had a friend who was interviewing people who wanted to come to America in the orderly departure program. And he met a woman from Danang whose name was Mai Ti Kim. She wrote him a letter and she explained in that letter that she had had this daughter and that in the age of seven that she had sent her away. But it was just by coincidence that she interviewed. There were plenty of other interviewers, but he was my friend. He was able to send the letter to me. So I sent a letter to the whole adoption agency. I was probably 21-22 when I started looking for her and you know writing letters and calling people and looking on the internet.

It was through the internet that I found the whole agency. And they say, yes, we have a file on you. In fact, we have a letter from your birth mom. It was like, there's no way this lady could be my mom. And then when I finally got the pictures in the mail, it's like, yes, this is true. You know, and I looked at her and I even went to the bathroom. I held her picture right up to the mirror so I could see, you know, if there was every semblance. And I was like, yes, this is definitely her, you know. I get a message on my machine. The person with a very deep Southern accent calling me up. I don't know if I could even take the Southern accent, but it really called me. This new, my name is Heidi Bub. I have reason to believe you know who my mother is.

When I heard that Heidi was going to Vietnam, like I say, I was just really, really surprised. I just, you know, I wished her well and everything else and hope that she would find what she was looking for. But yet at the same time, I just really didn't know what to expect or what she would find. Yeah, I said, no, I'm not. You'll be. I think that they would have stamped it as unbelievable. I would never dreamed in a million years that, you know, I'd be doing this. I'm still pinched myself. And this for me also was the fulfillment of some kind of dream that I'd had hoping that even if it didn't work for a lot of people, it would work at least for one person. That they would be able to be reunited with their mother to be reunited with Vietnam. Just for the sake of some sort of justice, some poetic ending. I think I believe that many, many words from her mother, but I believe she calls herself, man, man, man.

It goes down, man, man. Or she might call herself, man. It would be hard. It would be quite hard. I don't have to remember this because you want to say I love you, right? And gone is I on T-H-U-O-N-G. I just hope they understand I have been a hundred and one percent Americanized and I have no earthly idea of their expectations. I just cook on the street.

Hello. I worry that we're going to hurt somebody's feelings or insult them. If I do something, I just hope they overlook and say, she's American. She doesn't know any better. I fear most of seeing her husband. I know he tells her that he accepts his own, but there's got to be that little bit of resentment maybe because he's not my father. This morning, I got up at 6 and I tried on like 10 different outfits trying to figure out what to wear.

I'm kind of real nervous. I mean, nervousness can be. And I've done my makeup. I put on the waterproof mascara that John bought for me because he just knew I would need it. I'm just trying to calm my nerves. This fight is going to go too fast for me. I mean, it's only an hour flight, but it's going to feel like a minute. I have to carry me off the plane. I just know they're going to have to push me. It's going to be so healing for both of us, you know, to see each other. It's going to make all those bad memories go away.

And all those lost years, you know, just not matter anymore. That's it. I love you. I love you.

I love you. I love you. I love you. I'm very happy. I love you.

I love you. I love you. I see you're beautiful. I love you.