work the programme much better more effectively. Vietnam had
recently been releasing from the re-education camps thousands of
prisoners and had pledged that they could leave the country.
However the authorities had backed off every time the US who were
willing to take these people under the ODP, made an approach on
this. The problem was that the Vietnamese had never allowed former
re-education camp prisoners to take part in the ODP because they
were not the kind of people who would be able to provide large
amounts of foreign currency for Vietnam once abroad and this was one
of Vietnam's major considerations in selecting people for the
programme. The USA were prepared to organise some kind of selection programme themselves if the ODP could not accommodate these people.
The US side hoped that HMA Hanoi be prevailed upon to put in a work
with the Vietnamese authorities in support of this American bid.
5. Mr Adams said that the UK had a constant dialogue with Vietnam
over the ODP and took special cases of voluntary repatriation to
them. Their recent acceptance of the return of a group of four was
an encouraging sign. He said that the idea of a joint ASEAN
approach to the Vietnamese had been discussed on the Secretary of
State's recent trip to Malaysia; Hong Kong were also talking to the
ASEAN countries about this.
6. Mr Sigur concluded that the key to the problem was for the
Vietnam to INDECIPHERABLE from Cambodia. Mr Adams said that even
though it would take 10 years or so for the economoc consequences of
a troop withdrawal to filter back such that potential economic
migrants would be dissuaded from leaving, the psychological
consequences would be immediate and beneficial as talks could begin
almost immediately.
**Apologies for nonsensical typing but handwriting was impossible to
read.**
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