Document Group: DG 111
Provenance: Donated by Morgan Sibbett and Jack Sutters (AFSC Archivist), 1978, 1979, 1982
Size: 4.8 linear feet (1.5 meters)
Restrictions: None
Microfilm: None
Finding Aids: Checklist prepared by Martha P. Shane, April 1982
These records were processed under NEH Grant No. RC
20111-81-1655
This checklist is the property of the Swarthmore College Peace
Collection
Historical Introduction
Friends Meeting for Sufferings of Vietnamese Children (MSVC) had its begin the Friends General Conference, held in June 1966 at Cape May, New Jersey. The escalation of fighting in Vietnam, particularly the bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong and the plight of the Vietnamese civilian population, led a group of Friends attending this conference to convene and discuss ways in which action might be taken. Twenty-five members of this group, led by Dutch author Jan de Hartog and his wife Marjorie, gathered at Pendle Hill in Wallingford, Pennsylvania in July of 1966 and formalized the Friends Meeting for Sufferings of Vietnamese Children, "a group of individual Friends of various nations, united by a common concern." This concern was directed specifically "towards helping those burned, injured, and orphaned children who cannot be treated or adopted in Vietnam or a similar culture, and who, without our intervention, would probably not survive."
The emphasis of MSVC was on finding family foster care for children undergoing treatment in the United States, facilitating permanent adoptions of orphaned Vietnamese and Amerasian children, and exploring ways to help finance treatment. Rachel de Leeuw, the recording clerk, wrote in 1968, "We are a private voluntary group of individuals, mostly Quaker, who simple felt the need to do something to alleviate the suffering of Vietnamese children, the most innocent victims of this war."
Headquartered in Media, Pennsylvania, during its three year existence, MSVC was neither a political organization nor an official adoption agency. It established a working relationship with Welcome House, an official adoption agency that worked especially with children of mixed race. Welcome House located in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, is part of the Pearl Buck Foundation. MSVC also worked cooperatively with the Committee of Responsibility (DG 173), the American Friends Service Committee, International Social Services, and Physicians for Social Responsibility (DG 175).
In May 1967 MSVC received from the government of South Vietnam a list of Vietnamese children available for adoption. Morgan Sibbett of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania travelled to Saigon as the MSVC representative and remained there approximately six months, working both with agencies in Vietnam and with Welcome House to make the necessary arrangements for some of these children to be sent to American families. Finally, in January 1968, seven children successfully completed the voyage to this country. Five more followed in May. All were placed for adoption with MSVC families.
Welcome House, with whom MSVC had worked so closely, did not wish to pursue further adoption arrangements for one year until it could determine how the first group of twelve children had adapted. This delay and the failure to find another adoption agency with whom to work caused MSVC to decide in May 1968 that "as an amateur agency with small resources, we should now leave the operation of adoptions in the hands of professional agencies," and it further decided to center its efforts on "Education and Rehabilitation of school-age homeless children" in Vietnam. In its final Newsletter of October 1969 MSVC announced that it had resolved to "lay down the meeting,"dissolving the organization. The balance of funds was turned over to the AFSC to be used for its rehabilitation projects in Vietnam.
Morgan Sibbett of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania father of three adopted
children, was the official representative of MSVC in Saigon during
the last six months of 1967 and into early 1968. He worked with
Vietnamese officials to complete procedures and provide suitable
documents which enabled twelve Vietnamese orphans to be adopted by
U.S. families.
The records (1966-1969) of Friends Meeting for Sufferings of Vietnamese Children found in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection contain the organization's minutes (1966-1968), newsletters (1967-1969), and other mailings. The bulk of the collection is correspondence, much of which deals with adoption and finance. There is also staff correspondence, both domestic and with Morgan Sibbett, the MSVC representative in Saigon, as well as correspondence with Welcome House.
There are adoption documents including one received by MSVC from the South Vietnamese government in May 1967 describing 60 Vietnamese children. The collection also includes reference material about adoption and samples from the card files.
Correspondents include Barbara Burr, Jan de Hartog, Marjorie de Hartog, Rachel de Leeuw, Carla Dietze, Dawn B. Fulford, Wendy Grant, Mary L. Graves, Ruth Hartsough, C. Frank Ortloff, Morgan Sibbett, Phyllis B. Taylor, and Robert Wilson.
The papers of Morgan Sibbett were donated in June 1982. There is considerable material by and about Sibbett in the MSVC records, and there is doubtless some duplication found there with his own papers. The bulk of his papers are dated 1967 and 1968, the time period when he served as MSVC's representative in Saigon. The reference and clipping sections span the following years as well since his interest in Vietnam and adoption continued.
Some of the MSVC material has been left as arranged originally by the staff, such as files of folders for Prospective Adoptive parents and Friends Meetings who supported this group. Minutes, newsletters, and mailings were collected by the processor and placed together. A history section, including a small amount of correspondence, was created which contains significant information not necessarily found in minutes or newsletters. Any overview of MSVC provided by this history section can obviously be amplified greatly by the minutes, newsletters, and mailings.
All correspondence was arranged in chronological order. When several letters were found fastened together, they were kept that way and arranged according to the date ont eh top letter. Correspondence was sorted between that within the staff and that of the staff with others. When an individuals
s correspondence was found collected in one place, it was left that way if the subject content was consistent- I.e. Morgan Sibbet's correspondence deals with his work in Saigon, Phyllis Taylor's with adoption inquiries.
It would appear that the records of MSVC found in SCPC are incomplete. There is, for example, no completion of correspondence with the five families who adopted Vietnamese babies in May 1968.
The papers of Morgan Sibbett will be found in Series VIII. His correspondence is found in the first two sections and is arranged in chronological order. Reproductions of newspaper clippings are also found chronologically arranged.
Contents of the Collection
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