Chartering New Frontiers: Battling Oppression From Saigon to Sacramento

Commentary As flames engulfed Saigon’s skyline on April 6, 1975, a 4-year-old child boarded a plane, leaving behind a war-torn homeland. That child was me, and my journey—shaped by Operation Babylift, the name given to the mass evacuation of children from South Vietnam to the United States and other Western countries at the end of the Vietnam War—altered the course of my life forever. When the cabin doors of the airplane closed, I didn’t understand what was happening at the time. Still, my life would become one of resilience, determination, triumph, and an understanding that the fight for freedom is never over....