European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 02, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine tt7.fl/r totters Are american after Mot Fiers we namese. The cameras ans dream of going to America in Hopes of finding a better life and their fathers. Hoping for a ticket to America by George Esper associated press the War was Olill raging thai Day 15 year Sago when vietnamese nuns heard the cries Ola baby boy slotted in a garbage can and look him inside their orphanage to , Nguyen Thanh Binh the son of a Black american who wont Home and a vietnamese Mother who abandoned him. Shares the plight of thousands of amerasian youths languishing in the decay of Vietnam desperately trying to gel out and find their lathers my circumstances arc miserable says Lam Anh Hong 18, whole Molher gave her away to a relative i always live with Hopo i Don t give up Hope like Binh and Hong Many of the amerasian born of american lathers and vietnamese mothers wore abandoned by Bolh parents left in orphanages or with relatives or friends often to lend for themselves Many of the  car ins Are of ass homeless uneducated unwanted barely Abla to speak  they sleep at night in the sideways and in the paid s some turn to prostitution to slay alive Blacks like Binh also arc victims of a vietnamese caste system White  May be at the boil in in to Clannish  0 society but the Are at tin lop within the amerasian society. The Black amerasian Are Al the Bottom. All suffer the taunts of their vietnamese Peers amerasian no c 1 0. To Amanca Charlie Brovan it Al i one of the Okur amerasian was i a  Lije abandon co a i iut mothers she Don i i i be her son he Sas Phuong was a ivc i a roman  orphans in Danang bul Tan a a when he was 11 and by Nick a an evacuation ship to  of my City As North vietnamese forces r,.m it southward to conquer Slu h Vietnam in 1975 now he Sells newspapers cigarettes and bread arid sleeps in a Park nobody helps us he says lock l my  Aie very old because i work very Haid but some get Lucky Nguyen Thi thu Huong an 18 year old wearing a Blue Obbon in her Brown hair and Pink slippers on her mud caked feet was found one Day Selling postcards Lor Nickels and dimes washing herself in a Fountain in the Center of the Oty. Her lather left Vietnam when Sho was 2. Only foreigners help she says. I feel lonely i Leel sad. I want to be in the . To study work and have friends i go i have a Job and a Good  then a Short Lime later she is a Cinderella on her Way to America with her Mother one hand carrying a suitcase the other affectionately wrapped around her 8-year-old vietnamese half brother. A Small group of amerasian Street kids vent to Tan son Nhul Airport to Sec them Oil . Officials say hop is also on the Way Lor the 10,000 amerasian they estimate still remain vietnamese authorities put the esl Imale at 10,000 but that s hard to pin Down because no official census Lias amerasian Nguyen Thanh Binh 15, was abandoned and raised at an orphanage. Been taken More than 6,000 amerasian and 11.000 of their relatives have loft Vietnam legally since the snarl of the . Orderly departures program in 1980 Bruce a. Beardsley director of the orderly departures program in Bangkok Thailand has Cut much of the bureaucratic paperwork and persuaded the vietnamese to do the same i have been pushing the Best i can to gel departures to go at a much More rapid  he says. We re trying to expand the transportation  at one Point Early this year 5.500 amerasian and their family members already approved for resettlement in the United states were awaiting transportation. Some of the amerasian Camp out in a Park next to the foreign ministry awaiting the Roll of the Dice the anticipated approval that will be their ticket to America. In the interim they hang out in front of the hotels clinging to american tourists begging not Only for Money but for affection. Some amerasian carry the physical scars of War As Well As the mental pain of rejection. Pham Thi Lan. 22, never knew her lather. Her Mother died of heart disease when she was 8. When her Stepfather remarried he throw her out of the House and she went to live with her grandmother. Her neck and Chest Are scarred by napalm. Vuong Thanh Hai 20, has a Hole in his head and Only one Arm. His lather left when he was born his Mother died when he was 6. Shrapnel irom a 155mm artillery Shell Cut away his right Arm. The amerasian Are the legacy of some 2 7 million americans who served in Vietnam until the last were withdrawn in 1973. Other americans including military and civilian employees of the . Embassy remained until the .-supporled Saigon government of South Vietnam fell to communist North Vietnam in 1975. Many amerasian and their fathers have been trying for years to find each other. But some amerasian were ejected by lathers who want nothing to do with them. Some of the lathers already married went Back to their american families. Others returned and married american women after the War and started new families. Some May be unaware that they loll offspring behind. But for some who do know the wrenching memories have driven them into Post traumatic stress disorder and counselling unable to resolve the guilt of leaving their child in the streets. Tuesday May 2, 1989 the stars and stripes Page 13