They Are All My Family : A Daring Rescue in the Chaos of Saigon's Fall

John P Riordan

ISBN 10: 1610395034 / ISBN 13: 9781610395038

Published by Hachette Book Group USA Apr 2015, 2015

About this Item

Neuware - 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 Family is 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.

Seller Inventory # 9781610395038

Bibliographic Details

• Title: They Are All My Family : A Daring Rescue in the Chaos of Saigon's Fall
• Publisher: Hachette Book Group USA Apr 2015
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1610395034
• ISBN 13: 9781610395038
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 244W x 159H x 32D millimeters 244 millimeters width by 159 millimeters height by 32 millimeters depth
• Weight: 458 grams

About this title

Synopsis

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 Family is 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.

About the Author

John Riordan is 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 Demery earned an MA in East Asia Regional Studies from Harvard University and is the author of Finding the Dragon Lady: The Mystery of Vietnam's Madame Nhu. She lives in Chicago.