Author: John Riordan
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610395042
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
In the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War in April 1975, as Americans fled and their Vietnamese allies and employees prepared for the worst, John Riordan, a young banker, the assistant manager of Citibank's Saigon branch succeeded in rescuing 106 Vietnamese. They were his 33 Vietnamese staff members and their families. Unable to secure exit papers for the employees, Citibank ordered Riordan to leave the country alone. Safe in Hong Kong, Riordan could not imagine leaving behind his employees and defied instructions from his superiors not to return to Saigon. But once he did make it back on the last commercial flight, his actions were daring and ingenious. In They Are All My Family, Riordan recounts in a vivid narrative how the escape was organized and carried out. He assembled all 106 of the Vietnamese into his villa and a neighboring one telling them to keep their locations secret. A CIA contact told him that only dependents of Americans were allowed to escape on U.S. military cargo planes. Riordan repeatedly went to the processing area and claimed groups of the Vietnamese as his relatives—his wife and children—somehow managing to get through the bureaucratic shambles. Eventually he went back and forth to the airport 15 times. Filling out papers in groups, using false documents and even resorting to a bribe, he succeeded in rescuing the group. For the last round, the group drove the bank van to the airport pretending they had bundles of money to transport. Miraculously, all these gambits worked and the Citibank group made it to Guam and the Philippines, eventually reuniting at Camp Pendleton in California. All the while, Riordan assumed he had been fired for ignoring orders but once the mission was completed, his extraordinary commitment and resourcefulness won him widespread praise from senior officials. Citibank spent a million dollars to resettle the Vietnamese, offering jobs to some of the staff and their spouses. Decades later, Riordan has located the Vietnamese and reconnected with them, sharing accounts of those frantic days and the derring-do it took to get them out to safety. John Riordan is now a farmer in Wisconsin. His story of those fateful days decades ago and their aftermath provides a compelling insight to the courage of individuals when all seemed lost. For all the tragedy of the Vietnam War, this saga is an uplifting counterpoint and a compelling piece of micro-history.
Author: Robie H. Harris
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0763636312
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 40
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Book Description
Nellie and her little brother Gus discuss all kinds of families during a day at the zoo and dinner at home with their relatives afterwards.
Author: Lisa Bullard
Publisher: Millbrook Press
ISBN: 146776292X
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 28
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Book Description
Makayla meets her friends' families. She notices some families have many children, but others don't. Some friends live with grandparents or have two dads or have divorced parents. How is her own family like the others? How is it different?
Author: Missy Robertson
Publisher: Freedom Island
ISBN: 9781955550307
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
BRAVE Books partnered with Missy Robertson to write "Because You're My Family," a Christian children's book that teaches kids about the importance of family and unconditional love.
Author: Joan Sweeney
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 1524768502
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 32
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Book Description
Where am I on my family tree? A beloved bestseller that shows children how to understand their place among their relatives, now refreshed with new art from Emma Trithart. Who is part of your family? How are they related to you? In this edition of Me and My Family Tree, with new art by Emma Trithart, a young girl uses simple language, her own childlike drawings, and diagrams to explain how the members of her family are related to each other and to her. Clear, colorful, detailed artwork and a fill-in family tree in the back help make the parts of the family--from siblings to grandparents to cousins--understandable to very young readers.
Author: Helen-Alice Dear
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780753194713
Category : British
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The extraordinary true story of how one British woman was trapped in Eastern Europe for 50 years, first by the Nazis and then by Communism.Helen-Alice Dear was only 15 when she went to Bulgaria on a family holiday in 1937. Just weeks after her arrival, she found herself prevented from leaving. Her marriage to a Bulgarian man bore her four children, but they were often homeless, cold and hungry. Helen refused to give up hope and bravely managed to protect and raise four happy children. When the Berlin Wall fell, Helen was finally able to fulfil her dream of returning to her homeland.
Author: John Riordan
Publisher: Public Affairs
ISBN: 1610395034
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259
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Book Description
In the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War in April 1975, as Americans fled and their Vietnamese allies and employees prepared for the worst, John Riordan, a young banker, the assistant manager of Citibank's Saigon branch succeeded in rescuing 106 Vietnamese. They were his 33 Vietnamese staff members and their families. Unable to secure exit papers for the employees, Citibank ordered Riordan to leave the country alone. Safe in Hong Kong, Riordan could not imagine leaving behind his employees and defied instructions from his superiors not to return to Saigon. But once he did make it back on the last commercial flight, his actions were daring and ingenious. In They Are All My Family, Riordan recounts in a vivid narrative how the escape was organized and carried out. He assembled all 106 of the Vietnamese into his villa and a neighboring one telling them to keep their locations secret. A CIA contact told him that only dependents of Americans were allowed to escape on U.S. military cargo planes. Riordan repeatedly went to the processing area and claimed groups of the Vietnamese as his relatives—his wife and children—somehow managing to get through the bureaucratic shambles. Eventually he went back and forth to the airport 15 times. Filling out papers in groups, using false documents and even witnessing a bribe, he succeeded in rescuing the group. For the last round, the group drove the bank van to the airport pretending they had bundles of money to transport. Miraculously, all these gambits worked and the Citibank group made it to Guam and the Philippines, eventually reuniting at Camp Pendleton in California. All the while, Riordan assumed he had been fired for ignoring orders but once the mission was completed, his extraordinary commitment and resourcefulness won him widespread praise from senior officials. Citibank spent over a million dollars just to resettle the Vietnamese, offering jobs to some of the staff and their spouses. Decades later, Riordan, who has stayed in touch with the Vietnamese, has located and reconnected with all of them in order to share their accounts of those frantic days and the derring-do it took to get them out to safety. John Riordan is now a farmer in Wisconsin. His story of those fateful days decades ago and their aftermath provides a compelling insight to the courage of individuals when all seemed lost. For all the tragedy of the Vietnam War, this saga is an uplifting counterpoint and a compelling piece of micro-history.
Author: Mandy Dos Santos
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780648100003
Category : Dinners and dining
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Author: Maya Tatsukawa
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 052555582X
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 34
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Book Description
An overbearing older sibling can really be a bear, but the child in this understated, gently humorous story finds out that they can have their advantages, too. "I live with a bear," the story's young narrator declares. The bear is loud, messy, uncouth, and very strong (too strong!). For some reason, his parents treat the bear like family, despite his protests. Why can't they see? Then he runs into some bullies on the playground. When the bear ROOAARS with all her might and scares them away, he realizes that there are advantages to having a bear in the family. In a delightful twist, the narrator's older sister (the bear) appears, telling him that she is NOT a bear. But if she is, HE is too--because two bears are even better than one!
Author: Emma Carlson Berne
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 151583378X
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 25
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Book Description
Families come in different sizes, but everybody needs people to care about them! How Are We Alike and Different? Find out in My Family, Your Family, Our Families.
