02/09/2015
Timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the April 1975 end of the Republic of Vietnam (and event known in the U.S. as “The Fall of Saigon”), this breezily written memoir, filled with reconstructed dialogue, relates how Riordan, a former assistant manager of Citibank’s Saigon branch, successfully rescued 105 South Vietnamese Citibank employees and their families before the Communist takeover. Riordan had served as an Army officer in Vietnam in 1968, working for the Studies and Observation Group (SOG), a covert special-operations unit, though he downplays his role as a minor one: “a noncombatant in charge of the medical supplies for interdiction missions.” His real story begins on Apr. 18, 1975, when he disobeys his bank superiors’ orders and flies from Hong Kong to Saigon. The heart of the book details Riordan’s relentless efforts to get his former coworkers and their families on evacuation flights, making it out four days before the “revolutionary flag went up over Saigon’s presidential palace.” Riordan focuses on a tiny slice of the big story: an elite bank manager and his well-off employees who feared for their lives and fortunes in the face of the imminent takeover. B&w photos. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM Partners. (Apr.)
Published for the fortieth anniversary of the final days of the Vietnam War, this is the suspenseful and moving tale of how John P. 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 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 that 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.
They Are All My Family is a vivid narrative of one man's ingenious strategy that transformed a time of enormous peril into a display of extraordinary courage.
"1120177200"
Riordan-who 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 that 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.
They Are All My Family is a vivid narrative of one man's ingenious strategy that transformed a time of enormous peril into a display of extraordinary courage.
They Are All My Family: A Daring Rescue in the Chaos of Saigon's Fall
Published for the fortieth anniversary of the final days of the Vietnam War, this is the suspenseful and moving tale of how John P. 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 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 that 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.
They Are All My Family is a vivid narrative of one man's ingenious strategy that transformed a time of enormous peril into a display of extraordinary courage.
Riordan-who 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 that 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.
They Are All My Family is a vivid narrative of one man's ingenious strategy that transformed a time of enormous peril into a display of extraordinary courage.
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They Are All My Family: A Daring Rescue in the Chaos of Saigon's Fall
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Product Details
BN ID: | 2940171302733 |
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Publisher: | Tantor Audio |
Publication date: | 04/29/2015 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |
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