Lionel A. Rosenblatt worked for the U.S. Foreign Service, a diplomatic corps that analyzes foreign events and promotes peace. Two percent of applicants are accepted into the USFS. Obedience is the fundamental high bar for foreign service officers.
When the United States abandoned South Vietnam, Lionel Rosenblatt knew that many South Vietnamese who had worked with him would suffer fatal retribution.
Rosenblatt sensed the indifference our government had to these natives who aided the United States in its 8-year attempt to counter Soviet and Chinese communist influence in Southeast Asia.
On April 30, 1975, Rosenblatt and co-worker Larry Johnstone defied State Dept. orders and smuggled some 400 Vietnamese, who had been instrumental assistants, out of Saigon. They risked their careers on principled insubordination. A feeling.
Henry Kissinger was presumed to be furious, but instead he helped create refugee reception centers on military bases, including in Arkansas.
Rosenblatt died last month. Scared might be how they felt, but swashbuckling is what Rosenblatt and Johnstone were.
Watercolor from World Hunger Education Service