Born in 1966 to a Vietnamese mother and an American father, Long spent his early years living first in Saigon and then a rural Vietnamese village. His father left the family before Long turned two. After his mother’s suicide when Long was six, his grandmother cared for him. A year later, worried about her increasing inability to provide Long with food and shelter, his grandmother placed him in the Saigon Holt Center, an orphanage that specialized in finding children adoptive homes in the United States. On April 5, 1975, one day after the devastating crash of a C–5A cargo plane carrying 230 orphans and fifty adults out of Saigon, Long flew to America as part of Operation Babylift. He became the fourth and youngest son of the Steiner family of Ohio. Long’ story is placed within the larger picture of the fall of Saigon, the desperation of the Vietnamese families seeking American support, and the attempts of international aid workers to protect the children. The author, herself a parent of an adopted daughter evacuated from Saigon as an infant in 1975, writes about these events with compassion and respect. (Ages 10–14)

An unforgettable true story of an orphan caught in the midst of war

Over a million South Vietnamese children were orphaned by the Vietnam War. This affecting true account tells the story of Long, who, like more than 40,000 other orphans, is Amerasian -- a mixed-race child -- with little future in Vietnam. Escape from Saigon allows readers to experience Long's struggle to survive in war-torn Vietnam, his dramatic escape to America as part of "Operation Babylift" during the last chaotic days before the fall of Saigon, and his life in the United States as "Matt," part of a loving Ohio family. Finally, as a young doctor, he journeys back to Vietnam, ready to reconcile his Vietnamese past with his American present.
As the thirtieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War approaches, this compelling account provides a fascinating introduction to the war and the plight of children caught in the middle of it.