Reflecting on 35 Years of Operation Smile in Vietnam with a Commitment to Expanding Care 

Kathy Magee, co-founder, president and CEO of Operation Smile, sits in the back of a sedan in Hanoi. She’s retracing the journey she made 35 years ago to the Viet Cuba Hospital – the first clinic where Operation Smile held a surgical program in the country. 

Vietnam is a country of vibrant landscapes, bustling cities and resilient communities. 

It is within this landscape of hope and resilience that Operation Smile has provided surgery and comprehensive care to tens of thousands of patients and trained thousands of health care providers. In a country where more than 3,000 newborns are born with a cleft condition each year, Operation Smile is committed to bringing health care closer to home for patients in need of care. And it all began with a series of connections more than three decades ago. 

A Surprising Chain of Connections 

More than a decade after the conflict between Vietnam and the United States ended in 1975, tension between the two countries remained. To find roughly 2,500 American soldiers who were still missing in action, U.S. President Ronald Regan ordered his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John William Vessey, Jr., to open lines of communications with the Vietnamese government on this issue. General Vessey succeeded, offering humanitarian aid to the Vietnamese. 

This set General Vessey on a path that connected the administration to a high school friend of Bill Magee, D.D.S., M.D., then-CEO of Operation Smile. Bill and Kathy had worked to expand Operation Smile’s reach since they founded the organization six years earlier and were eager to help. 

“It wasn’t a feeling that we were going to change the world,” Kathy recalled. “If we could do something to make a difference, to help people, that would be something we certainly wanted to be a part of.” 

A New Venture 

It was a difficult task to plan the first Operation Smile surgical program in Vietnam. The planning was mired in political discussions, with comments from members of the President’s administration, members of Congress, veterans’ groups and more. But Bill was determined to help and began contacting medical volunteers, including veterans. 

“The very fact that you could get vets to go back to Vietnam to provide humanitarian assistance to the Vietnamese 15 years after the war was incredible to many Americans,” General Vessey reflected. 

After months of preparation, Operation Smile became the first U.S. nonprofit to be welcomed into Vietnam after the conflict. A 38-member volunteer medical team arrived in Hanoi in 1989, building a bridge between the two countries. The team was there for a week, providing surgery to more than 200 children. 

The following year, Operation Smile again returned to Vietnam further solidifying the partnership Operation Smile and Vietnam. 

“The power that children have to bring us together is remarkable. And today, here we are working together to make our world a better world,” Bill said of the partnership in 2019. 

Lives Transformed 

That week-long program evolved into a decades-long relationship, changing tens of thousands of lives. One of these lives is Thanh’s. Born with a bilateral cleft lip, Thanh was originally named “Sut” — a derogatory name for a cleft lip. He refused to go to school until his condition was treated. 

At 9 years old, Thanh and his mother, Can, traveled about 50 miles by bus to reach Operation Smile’s surgical program at Le Loi Hospital in Vung Tao. There, he received long-awaited surgery for his cleft condition. 

After surgery, Can renamed her son “Thanh,” meaning blue sky. When Operation Smile staff caught up with Thanh again after surgery, they found him smiling and surrounded by friends from school. 

Strengthening the Health System 

Since 1989, Vietnamese doctors have worked side-by-side with Operation Smile volunteers, learning new techniques and procedures. These efforts are part of Operation Smile’s global medical education programs — including our boldest initiative yet, Operation 100 — which increase access to care around the world by training more health care providers. 

Operation Smile’s partnership with the government of Vietnam has expanded the organization’s impact and raised health care standards across the country. In 2019, Operation Smile and Vietnam’s Ministry of Health co-created eight new guidelines for patient safety. The guidelines are available for adoption at 1,450 medical facilities in 63 provinces, potentially affecting up to three million surgeries per year. 

“We are so excited about the implementation of safe surgical care that we have collaborated with the Ministry of Health of Vietnam,” Kathy said at the time of the announcement. “It is a momentous occasion for all of us because, over these 30 years, we’ve been able to enhance the health policy across that nation.” 

A Blueprint for the Future 

While celebrating this partnership and the decades of care in Vietnam, Operation Smile is looking forward, seeking new avenues to reach more patients. With surgical programs and partnerships in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Son La, Nghe An, Quang Ngai, Gia Lai, Hue and Quang Nam, Operation Smile continues to bring care closer to home for patients across Vietnam.