John P. Riordan. They Are All My Family: A Daring Rescue in the Chaos of Saigon’s Fall. New York, NY: PublicAffairs, April 7th 2015. 256 pp.
5 out of 5
Purchase: Amazon
What an amazing story. The author of this book tells us the true story of how he helped over a hundred South Vietnamese escaped from their country in April 1975 when the Communist North Vietnamese militarily brought about the collapse of the South Vietnamese government. Again this is one incredible story and I am got to enjoy this story near the forty second anniversary of the fall of Saigon (the capital of South Vietnam).
The author John Riordan was one of the American managers in FSNB’s branch in South Vietnam. FSNB later became known as Citibank. While there were a few Americans in FSNB in Vietnam they did hire local Vietnamese nationals to work for them. As the Vietnam War came near to a close there was much uncertainty in the air about the future of the branch in Vietnam. Of course hind sight looking back the days were numbered but as the book pointed out most people in South Vietnam did not know the full grasp of what was going on given the government censorship. FSNB gave the orders for the Americans involved with the Vietnamese branch to leave because of the imminent danger but that would mean leaving behind the Vietnamese nationals. There is of course a big risk for those left behind as the Communists would not appreciate capitalistic bankers in their new order. While Riordan was temporarily waiting in Hong Kong the author decided to go back to Vietnam and helped bring his Vietnamese colleagues out of the country. But this was going against Riordan’s employer’s very own prohibition to him to not go back to Vietnam or else he and others like him would be on their own. As the author tells the story he is not one who is a maverick who breaks rules and protocol. But the author just could not abandon his fellow co-workers and friends behind. So he broke the rules and flew back to Vietnam to do the impossible: help save the Vietnamese employees of FSNB by coordinating the employees and their families out of the country. It is an incredible story filled with twists and turns. Somehow the author was able to assist over a hundred Vietnamese to flee.
I admire the author’s moral courage. This book was a good lesson that what is right is not always what is legal or according to what others have to say. I love how the author tells us he is not the kind of man to be brash or break rules. But here Riordan just couldn’t stomach the fact that people would be left behind and when he took off to go back to Vietnam he essentially made peace that it was worth losing his job and career over.
The book was very insightful of the last days in Saigon before the city fell to the communists. It also reveal how the American embassy and US government in Vietnam was so out of touch with reality. More outrageous to me is the fact that the American Embassy could have done more in the beginning to help coordinate an orderly evacuation; but the Ambassador in Vietnam was in denial.
A very very touching story. I admit I cried with this work. I’m a son of a Vietnamese War refugee and this work brought back memories of what my mom use to share about her family escape from the Communists. This work also made me sad. Sad to think of the betrayal by the United States to carry out her promise to her allies and supporters. Yet the work also left me very grateful. The end of the book feature letters and emails of those whom the author help fled from Saigon. It was touching to hear these people’s appreciation for what Riordan has risked and done to bring them out of the country. These Vietnamese sharing their appreciation for America also made me think of how grateful I am to be an American in the land of the free, home of the brave.
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Thanks for sharing this post on your blog
My pleasure Pastor Jim 😎
Thanks for the review. I grew up during the Vietnam era and nearly reached draft age before the US began pulling out. I’ll always remember the TV coverage of the South Vietnamese storming the US embassy in Saigon trying to get out as North Vietnamese troops entered the city with people hanging from helicopters as they evacuated refugees from the rooftop. How Americans view Vietnam is very strange. The only socially/politically acceptable way to view the war now is that it was wrong for the US to get involved yet we continued (and continue) to defend the South Korean border and we deplored the enslavement of the people of Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain.
Tom,
It must have been a crazy time which you lived during the US’ war in Vietnam. I was obviously not born yet. I imagine it must have been a time to live through even here in the States with so much going on, so much changing in so many fronts (civil rights, economically, morals, politically, etc).
Your comment that was most insight is this: “The only socially/politically acceptable way to view the war now is that it was wrong for the US to get involved yet we continued (and continue) to defend the South Korean border and we deplored the enslavement of the people of Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain.” I think I have always had mixed feeling with the commonly accepted narrative of the Vietnam War. I know many people have dismissed the domino theory of the time that if Vietnam fall, other countries follow. I don’t know why in college campuses I have taken courses in this is always chided; but the fact remain after Vietnam fell to communism other countries did fall to communism too, in particular Cambodia and Laos. You are right with how on the one hand most Americans think it is right to still defend South Korea and also believed Western Europe is worth defending. There’s so much mix emotions as I’ve grown to be less favorable of long stretch of wars but at the same time the Communists were really bad. Thank you Tom for your comment and your kind words.
You’re welcome, Jim. I could not imagine what your family had to go through.
It’s quite a “coincidence” that you mention the “Domino Theory” because I was going to include that in my earlier comment. I was in an American History college class around 1998 (night school) and the liberal professor was teaching on Vietnam. I mentioned the “Domino Theory,” how it was popularly pooh poohed in regards to Vietnam but validated elsewhere like in Eastern Europe. She just about laughed me out of the classroom! It was as if I had just claimed that the Jesuits had sunk the Titanic!
I need your perspective on a thought I’ve had about Vietnam. I know quite a bit about the situation in Eastern and Central Europe with regards to the Soviet military takeover. Relatively few Polish citizens for example welcomed the Soviet “liberation.” I have the sense that the situation in Vietnam was different. The country was a French colony and the French were replaced in the South by the Americans. There seems to have been much more support for the communists in South Vietnam than was the case in say Poland. Do you think many of the people of South Vietnam saw their government as a “lap dog” of the “foreign invaders?” Did the people of Vietnamese see support of the communists as an opportunity to assert their own national “independence”? If that were the case it would explain why “defending” the country proved to be impossible for the U.S.
Tom,
You said ” I mentioned the “Domino Theory,” how it was popularly pooh poohed in regards to Vietnam but validated elsewhere like in Eastern Europe. She just about laughed me out of the classroom!” That is crazy, so it wasn’t just only my own experience. I think the domino theory was true in Vietnam too and not just in Eastern Europe which you brought up a good point.
I wonder about the Vietnamese people in South Vietnam and their views as well. I know for sure most people saw their own South Vietnamese government as corrupt. My own family side is also bias because of their involvements with Americans. I imagine the early refugees to America from South East Asia after the communists take over do not necessarily reflect the rest of the general population since they fled their countries for multiple reasons. I imagine that many probably didn’t necessarily see America as all good either during that time. Still I can’t help but to think of people I know and also some of the people mentioned in the book who were originally from North Vietnam where the Communists rule and they escaped to South Vietnam for a better life. These people didn’t want what the Communists had to offer and prefer South Vietnam than a full fledged Communists government run by their own people so to speak. I think it would be interesting to see how the people lived and felt about the Communists and the United States after South Vietnam fell but of course that’s hard to reconstruct given how the Communists like to airbrush everything.
My own view over the years have been probably shaped more by the books I read than from my parents or immigrants from South East Asia. I think the US had some of the worst military and political leaders in it history during the time of Vietnam War. I have become deeply fascinated with counter-insurgency and military leadership for the last five years or so and I think the US military leadership really did our country a disservice during that time by not understanding counter-insurgency which was why we did not effectively win the people but at times even alienate them. I personally think that in our life time we had some of the best military strategists on counter-insurgency such as General Petraus, Mattis and McMaster who brilliantly understood that the metrics of winning such a war is winning the people and not just enemies body count, area being held, etc. While doctrines of counter-insurgency began in Vietnam, the leadership in the US Army as a whole hates it and even for most of the Iraq war they still hated it. Which is why the generals I mentioned were sometimes at friction with the regular establishment, more so with the Army than the Marines since the Marines have always had it within their instutional DNA for small wars and messy insurgency. I think a case could probably be made that the generals in World War 2 and other wars were better at understanding controlling an area and the people’s heart than the majority of the leadership during Vietnam.
What do you think?
I said a mouthful there, hopefully it wasn’t too much.
Thanks a lot for your perspective, Jim. My knowledge of Vietnam is pretty much only what was shown on TV so it’s pretty limited but it was obvious to all Americans that many of the South Vietnamese resented the American forces as demonstrated by the Viet Cong. I don’t remember there being a lot of discussion on TV regarding military tactics at the time. General William Westmoreland was THE face of the American forces. We now know he was always presenting a brighter picture to Johnson than the reality. It’s surprising Westmoreland lasted so long given his lack of results but there was always the threat of Chinese involvement if U.S forces pushed too hard.
Yes, the sixties were a very tumultuous time to grow up. Watching my very conservative father’s reaction to the news every night was entertaining. The world his generation knew was turned upside down in a very short span of time.
Also, I’m very sorry your family had to live through this tragedy.
Pastor Jim, like Tom I lived through the frightening years of our involvement in the Viet Nam war. The nightly news was shocking and sometimes horrific. It’s a long time since I’ve thought about it but the war became part of our national identity. Thank you for bringing this to us, for the reminder. Also, I’m grateful that your family is now part of our beloved country!
I can’t imagine what that must have been like to see the war “come home” to America on TV while one’s loved ones are off to fight there. It must have been a crazy time during those years in the States…