18
Amerasian Children
NO. 179
Vietnam's actions leading to suspension of interviewing for
the ODP have resulted most immediately in a halt to the
departure of Amerasian children and their mothers from
Vietnam. Over 8,500 children of Vietnamese mothers and
American fathers and their immediate relatives have come to the
U.S. under this program. In 1984, I expressed the hope that
all the Amerasian children and their close relatives would be
able to come in a three year period. Two years of that have
passed and the program has had substantial success, but the
majority of the children remain in Vietnam.
At the working-level meeting last month in Hanoi, the
Vietnamese produced a long-promised list of Amerasian children
and their families numbering some 2,600 people, which we are
now reviewing with the hope that interviews for this group can
begin soon. Although specific procedures still need to be
worked out, we hope the discussions we have had will lead to
the early resumption of Amerasian departures from Vietnam.
Political Prisoners
No aspect of the refugee program has caused us greater
disappointment than Vietnam's refusal to live up to earlier
pledges to release for resettlement in the United States
"re-education camp" prisoners, pledges made by their Prime
Minister and reaffirmed by the Foreign Minister and other