After WWII, the Russians and the Americans attempted to divide up the world both ideologically and militarily. The Domino Theory was soon coined to justify using the Korean and Indochinese peninsulas as proving grounds for injecting American influence around the world. The U.S. government poured millions of dollars and thousands of combat troops and support personnel into the wars in Korea and Vietnam to preempt any more countries from falling to the Communists.
A healthy dose of paternalism and ideological hegemony led to the guiding principal that the U.S. government knew what was in the best interests of the inhabitants of Korea and Vietnam. As a result, many Americans came to distrust the ability of these countries to save themselves from the scourge of communism and thus thought them incapable of self-determination.
Korean and Vietnamese children who were adopted by Americans during and after those wars were particular targets for the “better dead than Red” rhetoric.
In fact, we contend that Holt International Children’s Services and Operation Babylift are the natural outgrowths of that Cold War mentality which reduced the complexities of the world down to simple black-and-white choices.
This is the legacy that the first generation of transracial adoptees has been saddled with.
