They Are All My Family: A Daring Rescue in the Chaos of Saigons Fall
Autor John P. Riordan Cu Monique Brinson Demeryen Limba Engleză Hardback – 7 apr 2015
Published
for
the
fortieth
anniversary
of
the
final
days
of
the
Vietnam
War,
this
is
the
suspenseful
and
moving
tale
of
how
John
Riordan,
an
assistant
manager
of
Citibank's
Saigon
branch,
devised
a
daring
plan
to
save
106
Vietnamese
from
the
dangers
of
the
Communist
takeover.
Riordan—who had served in the US Army after the Tet Offensive and had left the military behind for a career in international banking—was not the type to take dramatic action, but once the North Vietnamese Army closed in on Saigon in April 1975 and it was clear that Riordan's Vietnamese colleagues and their families would be stranded in a city teetering on total collapse, he knew he could not leave them behind. Defying the objections of his superiors and going against the official policy of the United States, Riordan went back into Saigon to save them.
In fifteen harrowing trips to Saigon's airport, he maneuvered through the bureaucratic shambles, claiming that the Vietnamese were his wife and scores of children. It was a ruse that, at times, veered close to failure, yet against all odds, the improbable plan succeeded. At great risk, the Vietnamese left their lives behind to start anew in the United States, and now John is known to his grateful Vietnamese colleagues and hundreds of their American descendants as Papa.
They Are All My Familyis a vivid narrative of one man's ingenious strategy which transformed a time of enormous peril into a display of extraordinary courage. Reflecting on those fateful days in this account, John Riordan's modest heroism provides a striking contrast to America's ignominious retreat from the decade of conflict.
Riordan—who had served in the US Army after the Tet Offensive and had left the military behind for a career in international banking—was not the type to take dramatic action, but once the North Vietnamese Army closed in on Saigon in April 1975 and it was clear that Riordan's Vietnamese colleagues and their families would be stranded in a city teetering on total collapse, he knew he could not leave them behind. Defying the objections of his superiors and going against the official policy of the United States, Riordan went back into Saigon to save them.
In fifteen harrowing trips to Saigon's airport, he maneuvered through the bureaucratic shambles, claiming that the Vietnamese were his wife and scores of children. It was a ruse that, at times, veered close to failure, yet against all odds, the improbable plan succeeded. At great risk, the Vietnamese left their lives behind to start anew in the United States, and now John is known to his grateful Vietnamese colleagues and hundreds of their American descendants as Papa.
They Are All My Familyis a vivid narrative of one man's ingenious strategy which transformed a time of enormous peril into a display of extraordinary courage. Reflecting on those fateful days in this account, John Riordan's modest heroism provides a striking contrast to America's ignominious retreat from the decade of conflict.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9781610395038
ISBN-10: 1610395034
Pagini: 256
Ilustrații: B/W photo insert
Dimensiuni: 165 x 241 x 25 mm
Greutate: 0.45 kg
Editura: PublicAffairs
Colecția PublicAffairs
ISBN-10: 1610395034
Pagini: 256
Ilustrații: B/W photo insert
Dimensiuni: 165 x 241 x 25 mm
Greutate: 0.45 kg
Editura: PublicAffairs
Colecția PublicAffairs
Notă biografică
John
Riordanis
a
former
vice
president
of
Citibank.
He
served
in
the
US
Army,
landing
in
Vietnam
at
the
end
of
the
1968
Tet
Offensive,
and
then
went
on
to
a
career
at
Citibank,
with
a
focus
on
the
bank's
branches
in
East
Asia.
Riordan
now
owns
and
runs
an
environmental
farm
in
Wisconsin.Monique
Brinson
Demeryearned
an
MA
in
East
Asia
Regional
Studies
from
Harvard
University
and
is
the
author
of
Finding
theDragon
Lady:
The
Mystery
of
Vietnam's
Madame
Nhu.
She
lives
in
Chicago.
Recenzii
"A
nail-biting
account
of
one
man's
quiet
heroism
in
the
face
of
impossible
odds."-Kirkus
Reviews
“The book provides lots of details, replete with lots of reconstructed quotes, of Riordan's against-the-odds mission. And it has a string of happy endings—a rare and good thing for a book about the American war in Vietnam.”-VVA Veteran
"John Riordan is a quiet, gentle man who defied his bosses and in many ways his own nature when he rescued 106 of his Vietnamese colleagues and their families in the closing days of South Vietnam's collapse. He did it in a plot so devious and ingenious, I doubt even Graham Greene could have thought it up. Now he is telling the story in a book masterfully written with verve and heart. So hats off to John Riordan for his astonishing act of derring-do and for writing a great book." -Lesley Stahl, correspondent for60 Minutes
"John Riordan has provided a moving testament to the redeeming power of human decency even in one of the darkest chapters of American history. Bravo for what he accomplished and for this riveting book." -Craig R. Whitney, former Vietnam bureau chief ofThe New York Times
“The book provides lots of details, replete with lots of reconstructed quotes, of Riordan's against-the-odds mission. And it has a string of happy endings—a rare and good thing for a book about the American war in Vietnam.”-VVA Veteran
"John Riordan is a quiet, gentle man who defied his bosses and in many ways his own nature when he rescued 106 of his Vietnamese colleagues and their families in the closing days of South Vietnam's collapse. He did it in a plot so devious and ingenious, I doubt even Graham Greene could have thought it up. Now he is telling the story in a book masterfully written with verve and heart. So hats off to John Riordan for his astonishing act of derring-do and for writing a great book." -Lesley Stahl, correspondent for60 Minutes
"John Riordan has provided a moving testament to the redeeming power of human decency even in one of the darkest chapters of American history. Bravo for what he accomplished and for this riveting book." -Craig R. Whitney, former Vietnam bureau chief ofThe New York Times