Mom Kicked Disabled Son Out On Streets at 10: Children of the Dust

Le Van Minh was born to a Vietnamese mother and an American father, an Army sergeant. His mother, 19 years old at the time, endured constant ridicule, name-calling, and bullying as the parent of a mixed nationality child.

Left Behind

When the last U.S. military personnel evacuated Saigon on April 29 and 30, 1975, they left behind a war-torn nation with a population of people uncertain about their future. Thousands of their own children were also left behind. These children, known in Vietnam as Amerasians, faced discrimination and extreme poverty in post-war Vietnam, seen as unwelcome reminders of the terror caused. They were called “Children of the Dust,” and rejected by both Americans and Vietnamese.

Mothers of Amerasian children were viewed as impure because they engaged in premarital sex and were labeled as prostitutes, despite some women marrying soldiers or being involved in long-term relationships with them. Some of the Vietnamese women were prostitutes true indeed, but more were not.

The Vietnamese society viewed the children as outcasts, left abandoned by their mothers and mistreated by others in the community. No one wanted to be labeled as a collaborator of the enemy, which Vietnamese women with Amerasian children were.

"The care and welfare of these unfortunate children...has never been and is not now considered an area of government responsibility," the U.S. Defense Department said in a 1970 statement. "Our society does not need these bad elements," the Vietnamese director of social welfare in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) said a decade later.

Minh lived with his mother, Le Thi Ba, in a poor community just outside of the city then known as Saigon. At age 3, polio-stricken Minh could only walk on all fours like a crab due to his twisted spine and legs.

Le felt pressure caring for a disabled son, coupled with fear for her safety as the mother of an Amerasian child. She received death threats and constant harassment from the community, who viewed her as a trader. Le eventually married a Vietnamese man and birthed three more children.

One Word: Leave

Fast forward a few years, and Le unexpectedly called 10-year-old Minh to the front room of their home one day. She opened the door and said one word, “Leave.” With that word, Minh walked out the door, a disabled Amerasian child, into the cold wind and the streets of Saigon.

A young boy living on the streets is difficult. Add Minh’s nationality and his disabilities, and street life presented more challenges.

He survived by begging strangers on the street, typically foreigners he hoped would be swayed by his American features. He did well for himself, all things considered. He’d buy food from a shop called Bar Five on Dong Khoi Street, although if he happened to fall short that day, the owner would give him food.

Without an education, Minh barely spoke and got passerby's attention by tugging at their pants leg. He endured harassment and bullying as a street kid and sometimes, people would beat him up. At night, Minh’s one friend, a fellow street kid named Ti, would carry his friend on his back to a dusty hotel alleyway where the boys slept.

A Photo Changed Minh's Life

In October 1985, an American photographer for Newsday named Audrey Tiernan was on assignment in Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City, when she felt a tug at her leg.

“I thought it was a dog or a cat,” Tiernan recalled. “I looked down and there was Minh. It broke my heart.”

Minh held out his hand, offering Tiernan the flower in his hand. The heartbroken photographer snapped a photo that would go on to change Minh’s life forever.

Published in newspapers across the world, the photograph eventually reached a group of high school students from Huntington High in Long Island. The photograph touched their hearts. Helping Minh become their life’s mission. So they did.

Minh didn't know how his life would soon change.

The students started a petition to bring Minh to the U.S. to get rehabilitative surgery, a task not as simple then as it is today when we can easily spread the word about any cause that touches our hearts via the Internet. Within a few weeks, the teens initiated the help of Congressman Robert Mrazek and gathered 27,000 signatures on the petition.

The congressman didn’t lie to the kids. He told them the U.S. and Vietnam were enemies and that getting Minh into the country would be difficult. Determined not to disappoint the kids, Mrazek began writing letters and making calls.

Welcome to America, Minh

In May 1987, Congressman Mrazek flew to Ho Chi Minh City to bring Minh to America. He found an official in Vietnam who persuaded the government to allow Minh to leave the country with Mrazek.

Minh thought the government workers who came to pick him up were there to haul him away to jail, a common occurrence for street people. He showed little emotion after arriving in America, likely unaware life was about to change.

Approximately 200 students gathered to welcome Minh into the country when he landed at Kennedy Airport in NYC. Gene and Nancy Kinney, neighbors of Mrazek, were also present. The couple had agreed to be Minh’s foster family.

“Home” Minh said when told he had a family, a place to lay his head a night, and most importantly, people to care about him.

He lived with the Kinney's for 14 months before heading to San Jose, CA, to start a new life. Minh needed time to adjust, but eventually ‘grew up.’ He received surgery and rehabilitative services, and although atrophy in his legs was so severe, it was irreversible. Minh earned his education and found a career as a newspaper distributor. He is now a married father of two.

Minh maintained contact with the Kinneys throughout his life, and told reporters he called them Mom and Dad.

Amerasian Homecoming Act

After rescuing Minh from Vietnam, Mrazek worked to pass the Amerasian Homecoming Act, which went into effect in December 1987 with a signature from President Ronald Reagan. The new law allowed Amerasians to immigrate to the U.S. as immigrants, not refugees. Anyone in Vietnam with even the slightest Western appearance could gain entry into America under the law.

SOURCES:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/children-of-the-vietnam-war-131207347/