White digital clock6/23/2023 ![]() "Getting out of Saigon: How a 27-Year-Old Banker Saved 113 Vietnamese Civilians," by Ralph White, Simon & Schuster, 320 pages.Īnother stand-out quality in the book is your sharp observation. Twice in the book, I mention how many places things could have gone differently, starting at the beginning when they picked me instead of the guy who they originally offered the assignment to, who very likely would’ve evacuated the four officers and considered it a job well done. I just kept poking away at the embassy and the Defense Attaché. When somebody tries to keep me from doing something that I think I ought to be able to do, I get very obsessive about finding a way around them. Madison at the Defense Attaché Office, I would say they were really the key success factors.Īs far as my own qualities, there’s a term: willful. Embassy, and Ken Moorefield, who was operating as the ambassador’s aid at the Evacuation Control Center, the two of them were absolutely vital to my success. I think the foreign service officers who sided with me – Shep Lowman, the political officer in the U.S. ![]() His story is one of courage, resolve, and determination born from challenge. Ralph White was given a daunting mission: To save scores of Vietnamese civilians during the war. I was knocking around in Southeast Asia when, all of a sudden, history started happening. I was only 10 years out of high school and, I think, immature for my age. I often hear “tenacity,” and I think that played a role. Does that ring true to you – and what were some others? The success of your mission seemed to hinge on several key behaviors, including taking responsibility. The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity. ![]() White chatted with Monitor contributor Erin Douglass. What it doesn’t give away are the overwhelming barriers he faced and the smart, often heart-stopping ways he overcame them. White’s recently published book promises, he succeeded. troops withdrew from Vietnam, Chase Manhattan Bank senior executives asked Ralph White, a Bangkok-based junior officer, to accept a daunting mission: serving as the exit strategy for the Saigon branch’s 53 Vietnamese employees. In early April 1975, after the final U.S. That is an awesome responsibility and a revolutionary opportunity. Even when the world is unkind, we can be unmoved in our determination to love, to build, to seek credible hope. ![]() Never to excuse or ignore cruelty or crime, but to recognize that how we view the world shapes the world. What is the media’s responsibility?Author and anti-apartheid activist Alan Paton once said of the Monitor, “It gives no shrift to any belief in the irredeemable wickedness of man, nor in the futility of human endeavor.”In addition to reporting acts of kindness, perhaps a next step is to see the world through a lens of kindness. But can this elevation only happen with stories of kindness? Must the rest of the news abandon us to despair?The world is asking us to consider that question deeply. She defined kindness and heroism as “moral beauty,” which “triggers ‘elevation’ – a positive and uplifting feeling” that “acts as an emotional reset button, replacing feelings of cynicism with hope, love and optimism.”The study suggested this happens when one watches a news story about kindness after watching ones about bombings, cruelty, and violence. They support “the belief that the world and people in it are good.” And they provide “relief to the pain we experience when we see others suffering.”It was her fourth point that stuck with me. A week ago, a British researcher published an article titled “Stories of kindness may counteract the negative effects of looking at bad news.” As you might imagine, I was intrigued.Kathryn Buchanan of the University of Essex shared four main takeaways from her research: Stories of kindness remind us of our shared values.
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