t
Portland Observer
Vietnamese mother seeks child’s return
by Itaxa Guataitia
SAN FRANCISCO. (PNS)
Hao Thi
Vo searched for months through bureau
critic mazes before she learned that her
three year old son was in the rare of one
of the "orphan Baby lift" agencies. But
when at last she found him, she was told
she could not have him: He might be
better off with his new American "pa
rents."
Vo is one of more than a dozen refugees
in this country known to be seeking
return of children shipped here in the
panic of the last days of the war. She is
one of several who must fare court action
if she expects to be permitted a reunion.
Like many other Vietnamese mothers
with half American children, Vo feared
for the lives of her three sons when the
Saigon regime was collapsing and sent
them to the U .S. for their safety.
Through a friend, she said, she met an
American named Dick who agreed to
lake her oldest sons, Vo Huy Khanh,
seven, and Vo Anh Tuan, five, if she
signed a release for them. She did.
A neighbor bound for the U.S. agreed
to take Vo Huy Tung, then two, as her
own son, under an assumed name. For
him Vo signed nothing, she said.
Vo herself managed to fly out shortly
thereafter. From Travis Air Force Base
she called Bill Popp, a Flying Tiger pilot
she'd met in Saigon. He had offered to
help if she managed to get to this
country. Popp derided to sponsor Vo, her
twenty year old sister, a cousin and the
cousin's six year old. All came to live in
his home near Los Angeles, found jobs
and, together, put a down payment on a
house. (In Saigon, Popp said, Vo had
been head of household for an extended
family of thirteen.)
With Popp's help, Vo sought her sons.
After many expensive long distance
phone calls, Popp said, they learned
through the International Bed Cross
where the two oldest boys were and
discovered that the youngest was with
Friends of Children of Vietnam. The
neighbor who had brought him, Vo said,
had given him to the agency, expecting
that he'd be cared for until his mother
could claim him. But the agency, armed
with a release paper Vo never signed, had
placed the youngster in a home for
adoption.
A Letter And A Viaii
Through FCVN, a letter arrived for Vo
from "Bob and Joan." who had had her
child for ten months. It told Vo that her
son was not Vo Huy Tung now but Bruce
Donovan, that he loved going fishing
with his "daddy." that his good behavior
"still gives us great pride," that "he can
count to nine, he knows all the basic
colors."
"We think you should see Bruce," the
couple wrote. “That way we both could
see his feelings. If by chance he does not
remember you, we think it would do him
great harm to leave us. We can't help but
feel that he would think we had rejected
him. Then, on the other hand, if he did
remember you. we feel it would be wrong
for us to keep him from you even though
it would hurt greatly."
Vo flew to Denver and was taken to a
room where five strange adults fared her,
with her child. After a few minutes in a
highly tense situation, the authorities
now in charge of the boy decided he did
not recognize his mother.
"They don't give him to me," Vo said in
an interview. "I ask, give me a chance to
see the boy. A few minutes. To play with
him. They say, maybe the kid get hurt. I
say, I don't hurt the boy."
She was not permitted to hold him, she
said. "They say. he has good home now,
good mother, good father. I have good
home, g<Mxl mother. Not father, I say that
I don’t have," Vo said. "They say. birth
mother mean nothing."
“I ask, 'When they tell the boy that he
has a mother?' They didn't answer."
Vo said she was shown a paper saying
the boy was declared an orphan April
16th. She said she then showed the
FCVN officials a photograph of her
holding her son April 19th.
Vo left alone, with the advice that she
seek a lawyer if she wanted to fight for
her son.
Agency Policy
FCVN officials refused to comment on
Vo's case. In explaining the agency's
general policy, case work supervisor
Marcia Schocket quoted from a book she
goes by, in which the authors maintain
that "It's the psychological parent, not
the biological parent" who is important to
the child.
"If there’s no recollection," she said,
"there can't be a continuance of the same
relationship. There could only be a new
relationship. It was obvious after fifteen
minutes to half an hour in two rases that
the biological parent was just another
person in the room to the child."
Agency procedure requires, she said,
that when a biological mother seeks a
child's return, a social worker be sent to
"assess her financial situation, living
situation." This information is given to
the adoptive family who may then opt to
return the child. If not, a court may have
to settle the issue.
"We feel confident we're observing
sound social work practice," Schocket
said. Asked if the authors of the books
she goes by considered cross-cultural
adoption, she said "not really," but
indicated that was not a currently rele
vant factor.
Ethnic Identity
Among those who think the issue of
culture is highly relevant is Dr. Joseph
John Westermeyer, a psychiatrist whose
experience with Indian children reared in
white homes taught him to expect great
turmoil for them not in the early years,
but later in adolescence, "when society
denies them the social and ethnic identity
to which they have successfully adapted.”
As teenagers, he explained, they are
punished or sought out because they are
Indians. Yet they tend to identify as
white.
Similar experience is reported by
Joyce Ladner, a sociologist, in her study
of trans racial adoptions.
Both Westermeyer and Ladner urge
that the Vietnamese children be reunited
with their families whenever possible, or
at least be placed in other Vietnamese
homes. They have submitted affidavits
to District Court here, where a suit in
behalf of Vietnamese children has been
dragging on for many months.
Tip Of The Iceberg?
Tom Miller, an attorney for the child
ren in that suit, says an unknown number
of Vietnamese refugee families are in
Vo's position. The dozen or so who have
made themselves known to him and the
Center for Constitutional Rights, which is
backing the suit, may be only the tip of an
iceberg, he said.
At the State Department, Frank Sie
verts, deputy coordinator for humani
tarian affairs, disagreed. He said the vast
majority of the children brought here as
orphans are, in fact, orphans.
One refugee woman who searched for
her son here managed to get him back
after a court fight that cost $4,500. Few
refugees can afford such sums.
A few older children were returned to
natural parents voluntarily by adoptive
parents who were moved by the child
ren's joy at seeing their families again.
Vo now hopes that the man named Dick
in Massachusetts, who has her oldest
boys, will permit her to see them and that
they, being old enough, can settle with
her. She is preparing for a court battle to
reclaim her youngest.
“There aren't many villians in this
story," commented Popp, who was echo
ed by others representing conflicting
points of view. It comes down to a choice
based on a value judgement: Who is
entitled to judge the children's best
interests?
As long as that question goes un
settled, these children and their families
will remain victims in the last battle of
the war that everyone wants to forget.
Black voters to the polls this year.
The drive will continue through May
2nd with rallies as well as canvassing.
Kick off for the canvassers will be at
Irving Park, N.E. 7th and Fremont at
10:00 a.m. Canvassers will attempt to
rover ten precincts in the northeast area.
Canvassing will continue on Sunday,
April 25th through Sunday, May 2nd.
Mayor,
Ivancie
Canvassing during the week will take
place in the evenings from 5:30 to 7:00
p.m.
Sites of the registration tables are:
Alberton's, 909 N. Killingsworth; Trade-
well's, N.E. 15 and Fremont; Neighbor
hood Bill's, W illiams Avenue; Dairy
Queen, Union and Lombard; More For
Less, Fremont and Williams Avenue;
Geneva's. Williams Avenue; McDonalds.
Union Avenue; all Fred Meyer stores;
Rub A Dub Car Wash, Union and
Wielder; Meier and Frank, Lloyd Center
and three banks in the northeast area on
Friday, April 30th from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.:
U.S. National Bank, Union and Killings
worth; First National. Killingsworth and
the American State Bank, Union Avenue.
The voter registration drive has been
endorsed by many of the various Black
organizations, including the NAACP, the
N.E. Coalition and the Black Justice
Committee.
Chairmen of the Albina Voter Regi
stration Drive are George Rankins and
James Loving.
On Tuesday, April 27th at 8:30 p.m.
KBOO will air a special program on slain
leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
Remembrance and rededication of the
life and work of the man assassinated
light years ago.
Norman Soloman presents recorded
excerpts from his speeches, music of the
civil rights movement as well as informa
tion and commentary on struggles in 1976
and beyond.
The show is entitled: Martin Luther
King His undying visions, our unfinished
tasks.....
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Your fellow Portlanders
of the Ivancie for Mayor Committee
4225 N E Sandy Blvd Portland.
Michael White freas paid for this message
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The United Negro College Fund Ore
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The an
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UNCF experienced its best year ever
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Page 3
K ing rem em bered
I Rosa Guataitia, now a freelance writer
in San Francisco, worked for ten years as
a staff reporter first for the "Washington
Post" and later for the “Herald Tribune."!
Albina voter registration drive begins
This Saturday, April 24th, the Albina
community will be the site of an all out
vote registration drive.
Registration
tables will be set up at various locations
throughout the community and canvass
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The voter registration drive is an effort
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Thursday. April 22, 1976
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