CONFIDENTI AL
SOUTH EAST ASIA: SOME LEADING QUESTIONS
1.. Can we do anything to limit or reduce Soviet influence/
presence in South East Asia?
2.
What would be the implications for South East Asia of
improved Sino/Soviet relations (likelihood of a post-Brezhnev
thaw?) or of a Sino-Vietnamese accommodation?
3.
What are Vietnam's real objectives: -
(a) within the Indochinese peninsula?
(b) elsewhere in the region?
4. Can we see Vietnam being pressured or persuaded to withdraw
from Cambodia?
5. Does ASEAN have a strategy for coping with Vietnam or
are they simply improvising their approach to each phase as it
comes?
6. What function do ASEAN governments envisage for Cambodian
resistance coalition post General Assembly? Will coalition hang
together? How serious are problems within KPNLF?
7.
What are prospects for increased Chinese influence in
South East Asia; where would this be beneficial to our interests
and where the reverse?
8. Has outflow of boat people and other refugees stabilised?
Are resettlement countries going to go on responding adequately
to keep overall numbers in decline? What to do about hardcore
in Hong Kong and elsewhere?
9. Will ASEAN continue to develop or is there any risk of
What scope for intensifying co-
regression/disintegration?
operation?
Enlargement?
CONFIDENTIAL
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