In April of 1975, a 32-year-old man stood in a Saigon military airport and claimed to officials at 70-year-old woman was his child. She was one of 106 people John Riordan would claim as his dependents that day.
The United States was leaving Vietnam. The South was falling to the North Vietnamese, and many South Vietnamese who worked with American companies feared they would be punished.
Riordan had been working for Citibank running the Saigon Branch. He had been evacuated ahead of the American military pullout, but his Vietnamese employees and their families remained in country. After weeks of being told by American officials that they would be removed, it became clear that unless something was done they would be left behind.
For that reason he would violate company orders and go back to South Vietnam to attempt save his coworkers and their families.
Guest:
- John P. Riordan, author of the memoir "They Are All My Family: A Daring Rescue in the Chaos of Saigon's Fall"
