How Little We Know of Vietnam
By Antoinette Bosco
(Reprinted with permission of the author)
Originally published in the
Catholic Free Press News Service, 2003

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More and more as the months go by and we are still at war in Iraq people begin worrying that this could become another Vietnam. This raises old myths, about how we were led to believe that the country and the people there harbored evil. It was one way of justifying the deaths of 59,000 of our fighters there, and the uncounted thousands who came home permanently damaged.

Yet, Vietnam was a nation with its own good history, customs and spirituality. Sadly, we ignored that. Now, the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan has done something to rectify that. They have a magnificent display called "Vietnam: Journeys of Body, Mind and Spirit" that will be on view until January 4.

I saw this great presentation recently and was surprised at all I learned about this country, which has undergone so much suffering in our generation because of war, and yet has recuperated so courageously. Today, Vietnam, smaller in size than California, is the 14th most populous country in the world, with 50 different ethnic groups maintaining their own languages. Over half the population is under 25. Admirably, the literacy rate is over 85 percent.

I learned about Lady Trieu, a 19-year old girl who led an insurrection against the Chinese in the year 248. She rode elegantly into battle, a symbol of resistance against foreign invaders--so long ago! I didn't know the sacred center of a home is the family altar, which is there to "welcome ancestors." I saw the "baby carriers," with colorful patterns designed to repel evil, so that a child cannot get sick. Children's hats are part of their cultural identity, reflecting ideals of beauty and spiritual beliefs. Every family keeps faith with the dead, believing that while death may end a life, it does not end a relationship. And ancestors, they believe, help protect a family.

During the Vietnam War, people in that country and ours did make special efforts to help save the children. My friends Byron and Lana Noone were one of the families that participated in the "Vietnam Babylift," the program begun to get adoptive parents in America for the young ones there left orphans because of the war. They adopted little Heather in 1975, who tragically died two months after her arrival. So many of the children were already harmed physically because of the destruction of their lives.

Lana and Byron immediately adopted another daughter, Jennie, who today is the Mental Health Coordinator for a homeless shelter in New York City. They soon after adopted Jason, a South Korean orphan, who now is a Social Studies teacher in Hempstead, New York. Byron, a dear friend, a teacher and poet, died two years ago, but Lana has kept up the work of inspiring families to consider international adoptions. In a new book she has written, called "Global Mom, Notes from a Pioneer Adoptive Family," (Gateway Press, 2003), she expresses her belief:

"Uniting families across continents and oceans is a powerful spiritual journey."

Lana maintains that the Babylift adoptees have been "reborn in the USA," but will always have a connection to Vietnam. "No matter what we do, how hard we have tried, there will still be moments of grief in our children's lives. Somewhere deep inside, they 'remember' another place. A part of their being will always mourn this loss and, as their parents, we mourn with them." The exhibit in New York became for me a special affirmation of the rich culture the Babylift adoptees carry with them.