After four decades, a Vietnamese woman reunites with the daughter airlifted to America

Nguyen Thi Dep arrives at her home in Thu Duc district, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam November 15, 2019. REUTERS/Yen Duong

HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters) - They wondered about each other over the decades, the Vietnamese mother constantly and more acutely than the 3-year-old daughter she gave up in April 1975, just before Saigon fell to Communist North Vietnam.

As U.S. troops exited Vietnam after twenty years of conflict, thousands of South Vietnamese who had fought alongside them or otherwise opposed the North were terrified of what lay ahead. As some fled, more than 3,000 children were flown to new families overseas in what became known as 'Operation Babylift'.