Customer Reviews

Operation Newlife: The Untold Story

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I was just a teenager, but I remember Operation New Life. I helped moving bags, and delivering food to the refugees just after they stepped off the planes. I visited Orote Point, too.

This was interesting from a public health perspective. A member of my immediate family was also there and is now a public health officer. I am interested in his take on this pamphlet. (No, it's a stretch to call this a book.)

Mackie shows an obvious distaste for the military, and seemingly views America as imperialistic in its possession of the Marianas Islands. Local government (GovGuam), though, shines in Mackie's eyes. I found it hard to keep from stumbling over these tonal qualities as I read the narrative.

Overall, though, I did enjoy reading this. How quickly we forget our own history.

It is a little known story that the 130,000 Vietnamese evacuated from Saigon in April 1975 went first to Guam, a small mid-Pacific island, and there were processed for the onward journey to the United States. I don't know of any other book about the Vietnamese in Guam. Thus, this brief account is unique.

Richard Mackie has turned out a 61-page pamphlet -- "book" would be an exaggeration -- on Guam and the Vietnamese refugees. He writes of his life as a public health official on Guam and of his work with the refugees, their living conditions, the problems they caused for the islanders, and of the well-founded fear that a hurricane might wipe out their tent cities. Scattered amidst the text are many reproductions of photos of the refugees and their camps.

The Vietnamese now in the United States who spent a few weeks on Guam in 1975 will find this account of interest, as will their children who are looking into family history. I'm not Vietnamese but I also found the book to be worth the read as will others interested in Guam, refugees, and the Vietnam War.

Smallchief