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When is an Orphan not an Orphan?

— Don Carson

When the tall tales of horror of 'communist massacres' came out of liberated areas in Indochina and still come out of Cambodia, it is very often difficult to refute them. The liberation forces themselves are not usually accepted as reliable sources and so a few ostensible first-hand reports pass on through many hands to become Nelson Rockefeller's prediction of a million killed by a 'Communist takeover' in Vietnam:

Two recent articles have however at least shown one story to be untrue. On the 8th May 1975 the Wellington 'Dominion' front paged a story from the New Zealand Press Association. It used bold type and a large photo to highlight a story about 'war orphans', Peter, Paul and Mary, brought into New Zealand by the nun, Sister Mary Dorothy. The story said, "They were found abandoned in a war field) left to die by the Communists who had killed their parents and the rest of Montagnard tribes near the Cambodian border. "This reinforces the myth of blood baths in Indochina and provides Further ammunition for people like Allan McCready who on the 8th of April 1975 was frothing in parliament about the 'thousands of helpless women and children being massacred by the North Vietnamese'.

This story may have gone unrefuted except for an article in the 'Dominion — Sunday Times' of June 8 1975. This article is one of a series by Tony Farrington interviewing Sister Mary Lawrence, a fellow worker with Sister Mary Dorothy in Phuoclong.

Sister Lawrence's version of the orphan's story is more detailed, being hidden in a two page plus article; and is quite a different account. The 'orphan' Peter was brought in by his mother a year ago to the mission station. The mother had no husband and she wanted to work in the rice fields and was going to accept the child back when he was old enough. So we have an orphan with a mother and no communists have anything to do with it. The 'orphan' Mary was apparently really an orphan but in Sister Lawrence's story the 'communists' had again nothing to do with her [unclear: being] brought to the-mission. In [unclear: Pal's] father brought him to the Mission because his mother had died during childbirth.

In the '[unclear: DeMihion]' article the mention of the 'rest of Montagnard tribes being killed' besides the parents of the bogus orphans isn't even grammatically phramed It attempts to purport that every Montagnard (or Montagnard tribe) in the area (or along the entire border) has been eliminated.

There is no attempt to authenticate or clarify such a massive allegation. It is typical of the days of cold war jingoism and should have no place in the press of today.