The School of Law is hosting a screening and discussion of the award-winning documentary “Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam” at 7 p.m. Monday, March 15, in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall. The event is free and open to the public but registration is required by March 10.
Operation Babylift was a $2 million U.S. initiative that airlifted more than 2,500 Vietnamese orphans out of a war-torn country in 1975 to protect them from the impending threat of the Communist regime. Called one of the “most humanitarian efforts in history,” it was plagued by lawsuits and political turmoil. One of the flights met with disaster when a C-5A Galaxy cargo plane transporting more than 300 passengers crash-landed after an explosion, and more than 130 died.
The documentary, released in 2009, takes a candid look at Operation Babylift as seen through the eyes of the volunteers, parents and organizations directly involved. It uncovers the lost stories of the adoptees and who they have become as adults, revealing their compelling struggles and triumphs and giving them the opportunity to finally share their journeys from their perspectives.
Following the film, a panel will discuss child rescue and inter-country adoption then and now, the meaning of cultural identity in an increasingly multicultural world, and litigation stemming from the plane crash.
The panelists, including several individuals featured in the film, are:
Tammy Nguyen Lee, “Operation Babylift” filmmaker;
Jim Zimmerly and Dan Bischoff, who as children survived the plane crash on their way to join adoptive families in St. Louis;
Wanda Zimmerly, Jim’s adoptive mother, who recently accompanied him to Vietnam to find his birth mother;
Sr. Susan McDonald, a Sister of Loretto nun who cared for the children before and after the babylift; and
Kent D. Syverud, J.D., WUSTL law school dean and the Ethan A.H. Shepley University Professor, who as a law clerk assisted the judge presiding over litigation arising from the crash.
Susan Frelich Appleton, J.D., WUSTL’s Lemma Barkeloo and Phoebe Couzins Professor of Law, whose scholarship and teaching focuses on adoption, will serve as moderator.
This event celebrates the 35th anniversary of Operation Babylift and joins conversations about child rescue and adoption that have intensified in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti.
The screening is made possible by support from the Burson Student Activities Fund. Additional support and assistance have been provided by the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA), the Family Law Society, the Immigration Law Society, the International Law Society, Appleton, Syverud and APALSA Co-President Mei Qi.
To register, visit law.wustl.edu/events/forms/babyliftscreening.asp.
For more information, call Jeanne Heil-Chapdelaine at (314) 935-7567 or e-mail her at jheil@wulaw.wustl.edu.
More information about the documentary is available at thebabylift.com.