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May 6, 1975 - Ford, Kissinger, Dean Brown, Republican Congressional Leadership
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May 6, 1975 - Ford, Kissinger, Dean Brown, Republican Congressional Leadership
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File scanned from the National Security Adviser's Memoranda of Conversation Collection at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
MEMORANDUM
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
SECRET/SENSITIVE
MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION
SUBJECT:
The President's Meeting with the Republican
Congressional Leadership.
DATE AND TIME:
Tuesday, May 6, 1975
8:05 - 9:23 a. m.
President: There are two major matters today -- the farmbill veto and
refugee aid. Let's do the farm bill first.
Butz: [Discusses farm bill veto.]
President: Dean Brown and Dan Parker are here to discuss the refugee
details. There has been some criticism of how the evacuation was
handled. Just a week ago we had gone through a most difficult night
determining when and how we should conduct the evacuation. We could
have ordered it earlier, but we could also have triggered a panic and
jeopardized the lives of the 6, 000 Americans there. So we chose to draw
down the Americans in an orderly way, without triggering a panic. Maybe
we were a bit lucky in retrospect, but we got all the Americans out and a
larger number of Vietnamese than we expected. We had earlier anticipated
we would get about 40,000 of the 200, 000 we had figured fell into the
jeopardized category. Imagine the difficulty of managing the evacuation at
the DAO compound and the Embassy. It was an excellent demonstration
of military dedication and competence. There are critics, but they are
not those who had the decision to make. These are Monday-morning
quarterbacks, but they never had to play the game. It was a damn good
operation and I am proud of it. Martin is a difficult guy, but he got them
out. It burns me up that these great humanitarians now want to turn their
backs on the Vietnamese. We didn't do it with the Hungarians and the
Cubans, and we won't do it here.
Bartlett: I think you did a great job and I support you in this.
DECLASSIFIED
Turner: Texas is with you
E.O. 12958, Sec. 3.5
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD RALD
NSC Memo, 11/24/98, State Dept. Guidelines
By ut
, NARA, Date 1/24/00
SECRET/SENSITIVE
ASSIFIED BY: HENRY A. KISSINGER
- XGDS (3)
SECRET/SENSITIVE
-2-
Scott: I am with you. I am getting no adverse mail. These people with
every last name in the world who scream about immigration make me
sick.
Brown: About 20,000 have come to the U.S. so far and there are about
120, 000 in the pipeline. But we don't know how many are on the seas
now, though it looks like less than we thought a few days ago.
We have a three-phase operation: (1) First we pick them up and
move them to Subic, Wake and Guam. (2) They move to three processing
centers in the United States. (3) Here is where the U.S. responsibility
meshes with the volunteer agencies who resettle them.
We are also working on international settlement with the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees and ICEM. We are getting good cooperation
with ICEM but not at all with the UN. We have approached 100 countries.
The result is not very good. The Canadians will take a minimum of 3, 000.
Some West African countries will take a few.
President: What is the educat ional level of most of them?
Brown: The educational level is quite high generally. Seventy percent
of the males speak good or fair English. These are the people who were
involved with us. They are the community leaders and I think they will
make good citizens. We are only talking about 50, 000 heads of families.
President: I got two special pleas -- one from Pope Paul who wanted us
to maximize our effort, and one from George Meany, who had worked for
a free labor movement in South Vietnam.
Scott: It would be good if those two could be a little more visible.
President: Can we release the Pope's letter?
Scott: Can't we get something on television? A little humanitarianism.
Tower: The press is saying there is no proof that these people would have
been liquidated. Can't we talk more about the atrocities?
Parker: To put the number in perspective, we had already registered
700, 000 refugees in South Vietnam and then there were another 650, 000
we didn't have time to register. The Asians are good long-term haters --
North Vietnam took four years to liquidate 50, 000 people after '54.
SECRET/SENSITIVE
RALD GE R. FORD BRART
SECRET /SENSITIVE
-3-
Case: Who do you want to introduce the bill?
Scott: I think you and Sparkman should.
Hutchinson: We introduced it in the House yesterday.
Fish: There has been vocal opposition in my subcommittee on thi S
issue -- about lack of cooperation from other nations, and the economic
cost (unemployment). I think what you said this morning should be
repeated tonight. These people are responding to what they think is
public opinion around. I am sure you will get a response.
Bartlett: How many are children? They won't take jobs.
Brown: About 60 percent.
President: I will get a question tonight and I will try to get this word
out.
Hutchinson: I hope you will resettle these people in areas which don't
have high unemployment.
Devine: There are reports that many of them want to go back to South
Vietnam.
Brown: There were 45 picked up by mistake in Thailand.
President: Another question is will any of this money be used to help
Cambodia and South Vietnam. The answer is no.
Edwards: I think you shouldn't even get into this tonight. Let's stay out
of that aspect.
Devine: If you can say these funds can't be used for Cambodia and South
Vietnam, it would help.
FORD & LIBRARY RACE 30
SECREE/SENSITIVE -
May 6, 1975
COMEDENTIAL
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
PARTICIPANTS:
President Ford
Vice President Rockefeller
Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Secretary of State
and Assistant to the President for
National Security Affairs
Earl Butz, Secretary of Agriculture
Republican Congressional Leaders (List attached)
DATE AND TIME:
Tuesday, May 6, 1975
8:10 - 9:20 a. m.
PLACE:
The Cabinet Room
The White House
SUBJECT:
Farm Bill and Refugee Assistance
(The first part of the meeting was taken up with a presentation by
Secretary Butz on the Farm Bill and a discussion of the likelihood of
sustaining the President's veto. The Farm Bill discussion ended
about 8:45 a. m.)
The President: I would like to turn our discussion now to the problem
of the Vietnamese refugees. We have with us this morning Ambassador
Brown and AID Administrator Parker. I have noted criticism of how the
evacuation was handled. Just a week ago, today, we had gone through
a very difficult night in which we decided to undertake the full evacua-
tion effort that turned out to be a very complex military operation. We
could have ordered the evacuation earlier but our best judgment was
that an early attempt at evacuation would have triggered precipitous
panic among the South Vietnamese and would have, in fact, jeopardized
the very American lives we wanted to save. We did, however, move
out in a very calm and orderly fashion some 5,000 Americans without
jeopardizing their lives by triggering a panic. I think, overall, we were
also lucky. We did get out all Americans who wanted to leave and a much
larger number of refugees than anyone had anticipated. At the time of
DECLASSIFIED
E.O. 12958, Sec. 3.5
FORD
NSC Memo, 11/24/98, State Dept. Guidelines
By ut
, NARA, Date 1/24/00
CONFIDENTAL XGDS
TOR SECRET XGDS (3)
CLASSIFIED BY: HENRY A. KISSINGER
LIBRARY
-2-
the evacuation we had moved out about 45, 000. Today, the number is
over 125, 000, a great number of Vietnamese leaving by a variety of
means we had not anticipated. Nevertheless, I'm sure there are still
a great many South Vietnamese who had worked with, and helped,
Americans who were not able to make it out when the country fell.
I can imagine how difficult it must have been to assemble all these
people to be evacuated. The problem became especially difficult once
a final evacuation by fixed-wing aircraft was precluded. The helicopter
evacuation was a superb military operation and an excellent effort on
the part of our people in Saigon. We just have to ignore the Monday
morning quarterbacks who, as you know, don't win any games. In fact,
they don't even play any games. All in all I consider it a very successful
operation under the most difficult circumstances, and I think we owe our
military forces a sincere vote of thanks for their courage and dedication.
I would also include in this gratitude, Ambassador Graham Martin, who
did a fine job, although he has a reputation for being a difficult person
at times.
Looking at this large number of refugees, I have no doubt that if we
distribute them around the country in some equitable fashion, we can
handle these numbers. I want you to know that it just burns me up that
these great humanitarians all want to turn their backs on these refugees.
We didn't do this to the Cubans and to the Hungarians, and damn it,
I don't want to see us turn our backs on the Vietnamese.
Senator Scott: We are with you, Mr. President. I see all this criticism
as just a media creation. The American people and public opinion are
on your side in this matter.
The President: (to Ambassador Brown) Dean, do you have something to
give us this morning?
Ambassador Brown: We must see this operation as a flow of people.
We now have about 120, 000 in the pipeline. We really don't know how
many are on the ships which have fled South Vietnam; we only have
estimates.
U.S. Navy and private cargo ships may have picked
up as many as 75,000 people.
We have been working on a three-stage operation. The first stage was
to round up the refugees and move them to Subic and Clark Air Force
Base in the Philippines, but as you know we received considerable
opposition from the Philippines Government. We then started a second
FORD & LIBRARY Q7YH 30
-3-
stage of moving the refugees to Wake and Guam, but Wake and Guam
can only hold about 58, 000 people, so we set up three camps in the
United States for a third stage in the relocation process. These camps
will act as staging areas for the resettlement activities conducted by
voluntary agencies and church groups.
The voluntary agencies receive the refugees only after processing by
the Immigration and Naturalization Service and after a health clearance
by HEW. The voluntary agencies are receiving large numbers of calls
from Americans who are calling in volunteering to take in refugees.
The President: Are we also trying to get other countries to accept
some refugees?
Dean Brown: Yes, we are, Mr. President. We are working through
ICEM, the International Commission on European Immigration, which
is working especially to place refugees in Latin America. We have also
received fairly good cooperation through the UN and other international
organizations, but quite frankly, we are not doing as well as we would
like to. The results of our requests to over 100 nations have not been
good, except for Canada which has agreed to take 3,000 refugees and
for some of the small West African countries which have agreed to take
small numbers, in view of the fact that they already have Vietnamese
emigre communities.
The President: What have you found about the educational levels of
these people?
Ambassador Brown: We have done a survey; 70 percent of the heads
of households already speak English at the excellent or good level.
The educational level of all of these people is quite high. We have to
remember that the high risk or endangered people were the better
educated. I am quite confident they will rapidly make effective tax-
paying citizens. I also want to point out that we are talking about
35,000 heads of households, and this figure should be compared to the
400, 000 legal immigrants who come into this country every year.
The President: I have received two special appeals--one from Pope
Paul, asking us to do everything possible for the refugees, and another
from George Meany. As you know the AFL-CIO had developed a strong
labor movement in Vietnam. In response to Meany's appeal, we made
a special effort to get the top labor leaders out because, as you know,
it is the leaders of the mass social movements the Communists try
RALO to FORD JBRART
-4-
eliminate first. What we need now is more public support. I wonder
if we can release the Pope's statement?
General Scowcroft: We'll look into it, Mr. President.
Ambassador Brown: Meany plans to make a public statement on this
subject. We are also undertaking a survey of job qualifications. We are
putting refugee skills on a computer. We are also setting up a telephone
clearing house system, with a toll free number for Americans to call in
to volunteer to take refugees.
Senator Tower: Some reporters are saying that these refugees would not
have been executed if they had not fled. We should get out publicly any
atrocity stories for which we have evidence.
The President: That's a good PR aspect we ought to push.
Ambassador Brown: We are doing that but the hard evidence is only
coming in slowly.
The President: The treatment given the French in Cambodia was dis-
graceful. Their evacuation caravan suffered terrible, terrible treatment.
Dan Parker: I'd like to make a few additional points which provide some
perspective. We had already on our hands 700, 000 who had fled the
Communists plus another 650, 000 who fled from the Northern Provinces
which we had not yet registered when the government fell. I would also
point out that in the four years following 1954, Ho Chi Minh executed
55,000 people. To anticipate potential criticism about the lack of
selectivity in the evacuation effort, we should point out that a large
number fled on their own from off the coasts of South Vietnam, but
even within this group, my guess is that these are indeed high risk
people who had been earlier refugees from the North. Thus, even the
unplanned part of the evacuation probably had a high proportion of high
risk people. As you know, AID has had an unfortunately long experience
dealing with refugee problems, and we are now involving our experienced
refugee affairs people from Cambodia and Vietnam in the current relo-
cation and resettlement effort.
The President: Which committees will this refugee legislation be
referred to?
Senator Case: To the Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Sparkman
is ready to start work on it.
LIBRARY
-5-
Congressman Hutchinson: We introduced this legislation in the House
yesterday.
Congressman Fish: We had hearings in our subcommittee yesterday.
We've had a lot of opposition in the subcommittee, mostly due to concern
over the potential impact on the economy. I want to point out that it was
the most liberal members of the House who had the most reservations
about the refugee effort. Much of this is a residual distrust of the
Executive Branch. There is also considerable concern over the failure
of other countries to do very much. Ambassador Brown made an
excellent presentation yesterday, and he made a good record on the job
impact of only 35, 000 heads of household. I also agree that we should
use the AFL-CIO as much as possible. It will be very important to
change public opinion on this issue. Your press conference tonight
can help a lot if you repeat the same remarks you made to us. The
American people will respond very well if they know the facts.
The President: I will hit this very hard in my press conference tonight
and I plan to weave in the comments I have heard around this table.
Ambassador Brown: You should also point out that about 60 percent of
the refugees are children.
The Vice President: Why are we using the term "parole"? It seems to
have a bad connotation and it is not understood by the people.
Congressman Fish: The parole authority is merely a provision to
expedite the entry of people into the U.S. It is a technicality that lets
people in without having legal immigrant status. As you will recall,
Congress later passed laws to give the Hungarians and the Cubans full
immigrant status.
Congressman Hutchinson: I do hope we will do everything possible to
resettle these people in areas not heavily plagued by unemployment.
As you know, this is a very sensitive point in Michigan.
Ambassador Brown: We have been addressing this very point, and
the voluntary agencies have agreed to avoid the depressed areas.
Question: What about the reports that some of the refugees want to go
back?
Ambassador Brown: Yes, we have only 45 on Guam and the UN is arranging
for their return to South Vietnam. These were people who were swept up
in Thailand when the Thais simply pushed them on the plane heading for
Guam. We are asking every refugee if they want to return to South
LIBRARY
-6-
Vietnam. If any do, we will turn them over to the UN.
The President: We may be asked if any of this money will be used in
South Vietnam or Cambodia. I want to make it clear that the answer
is an unequivocal no.
Question: What about the private voluntary agencies still working in
South Vietnam?
The President: We have no requests for such assistance and we have no
plans to provide any. My judgment is to leave that aspect of assistance
to other countries.
Dan Parker: Mr. President, I think I should point out for the record
that there are a few Americans who chose to remain in Vietnam working
with certain volunteer agencies that may still be using funds and material
provided by AID.
The President: That's a useful clarification but I want to make it clear
that none of this new money will go into South Vietnam or Cambodia.
Question: Another point you might make, Mr. President, is the striking
figure that we accept 400, 000 immigrants in a normal manner every year.
This is especially striking when compared with the 35,000 figure of
potential job holders.
Senator Scott: I put all those numbers in the Record yesterday.
FORD & LIBRAR BRAD
PARTICIPANTS
The President
The Vice President
SENATE
Hugh Scott
Bob Griffin
Bob Stafford
John Tower
Cliff Case
HOUSE
John Rhodes
Al Cederberg
Bob Michel
John Anderson
Sam Devine
Jack Edwards
Barber Conable
Jim Quillen
Guy Vander Jagt
Bill Broomfield
Ed Hutchinson
Ham Fish
Bill Wampler
STAFF
Secretary of State Kissinger
Secretary of Agriculture Butz
¹⁴Don Rumsfeld
7 Bob Hartmann
11 Jack Marsh
2Phil Buchen
3Jim Cannon
SMax Friedersdorf
5Bill Seidman
6Alan Greenspan
12 Ron Nessen
10 Jim Lynn
REGRETS
13 AID Administrator Parker
16 FEA Administrator Zarb
Rep. Lou Frey
/ Dean Brown
Sen. Carl Curtis
?Dick Cheney
Sen. Ted Stevens
9 Vern Loen
Sen. Bob Dole
8 Bill Kendall
Sen. Milt Young
LIBRARY FORD
FOR
3082X
308
MEMORANDUM
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
ACTION
CONFIDENTIAL
May 7, 1975
MEMORANDUM FOR:
GENERAL SCOWCROFT
FROM:
LES JANKA for
SUBJECT:
GOP Leadership Meeting May 6, 1975
Attached for your review is a Memorandum for the Record from
my notes of the President's meeting with the GOP leadership
yesterday.
Also note on page 4 your agreement to look into public release
of the Pope's appeal to the President.
RECOMMENDATION
That you review and approve the Memo for the Record at Tab A.
DD Approve
Disapprove
DECLASSIFIED
CONFIDENTIAL XGDS
E.O. 12958, Sec. 3.5
FORD & LIBRARY RALE
NSC Memo, 11/24/98, State Dept. Guidelines
we
By ut , NARA, Date 1/31/2000
DOC
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DG NBR
INITIAL ACTION O
NSC CORRESPONDENCE PROFILE
MO
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HR
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7503082X
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SUBJECT:
ApparenTly meno for record
Gop Laadership mtg on MAY 6 1975 - LA
INTERNAL ROUTING AND DISTRIBUTION
REC
ACTION REQUIRED
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ADVANCE CYS TO HAK/SCOWCROFT
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UNITED NATIONS
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DUE DATE:
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INTELLIGENCE
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SUBSEQUENT ACTION REQUIRED (OR TAKEN):
CY TO
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koweroft
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Approve meno for record
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Sconcroft approved recom
SUBSEQUENT ROUTING/ACTIONS
FORD & LIBRARY RACE
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CY RQMTS: SEE ABOVE PLUS:
MICROFILM & FILE RQMTS:
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WH
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(NBC-74-21
)
Leadership 2nty
may 6-75
P
2 major instans Today farm bill into F up nger aid
hits do the farm will first
at
- (Deacease farm will wets)
P
Brown & Pasher and have to drs who estail Then
hus bun from critine a L race aroo lindlol.
just a auch a yo and had gone this a smort
di wight determing when t honor C was as & cauld
home ordered it earlier, but we could have triggered
a paine of propardized 6 orr am. So are chock
draw down c arms in an orderly away w/o
tripping a pani. monghe are mere a but lucky
in setrospect, but inc got all ams ant &
a larylr # of Vilue them we expected. we had
earlin antripotict we would yet about 40,000 of
C 2 us, ores are had fugined full into - progonitist
athonge Imagine. dy of inamaging C was at
DAO Compound & c E intury. It was are excellent
dimastration of mil claim & congreture There our
critis, butther an not there who hade diasin
C moha, There and would morning
but they when had aplaye give. It was
a dmn good of lunn prould it, martin
is a this ging, but he got thront, It hums
The my that three grent who
now cuart To turn their buth, one Vense. are
chiritals it w/c H unge & Cubone X am amit to
it have.
Bantet
I think you did a grent joh and I sepport
your in this,
FORD LIBRARY 2700 30
Can ane Rahase letter from Pope ?
Time
Tisas is w/yon
Scott
I an/you I getting no advise mail, These
people. every last name inc would who occurr
about make the sick.
Brown
about 20000 home must us 10 for K there an about
are in the propible. But and don't hum how
many one on C was now, the it borths like
less than we that a few Day ago
We have 3 3 phose qur (1) Pr hurg x usere to Sahi
Was & Guare (2) more the proving untrus
inc US, (3) Here is whose US resp meshes w/ e not
agenists who resettle then
weare also working on into settlement 05/UNHER
+ ICEM. we getting europ w/ ICEMENT not
at all us/ UNNSR. we & have approached / as emetricis.
Results not very good. Paraties will tahn memin
of Zoro, Sorn West african countries will tnl. ofm
P
what is c educational had.
Burner
of make
Ed. Level is givte high jenlly. 70 york your or
fair Eng. These are involved or/
no. They are - centy backs + 2 think they and
make feed cetizens. 3 e only talky about 50 orra
heals of functive
P
I got 2 you pleas- Pope Paul who cranted us to
inaference one effort, and Cauge mary orho had
world on ca fee laba invorvement we
Scott
It word the yood if theye 2 could hr a bittle more
P
Can we Poper letter?
RAL GERALDY OFF
Scott
Cun't an get sourthing an almissin? Q little
humani rians
Turner
Puss is pooging there no pmf that these perpermant
atrositis have been liquilated Cant we (wh more Nont -
Panher
To put c # in propertive, an had already creatived
7 od ors myngers in S V14 x then wen amount 5's, SSD
me oh int hometiments register asims and good long
term haters - NUN took 4 yes to lequidate 50 see after
54.
Cose
whode you want to interence - live
(?) Scott
8 think you + Sparkson chould
w & entroted it in < (House yesterling.
Fish
Three has been vocal of portun on my subsents cre this
issue - lak of evapuation from orther nations, KC
scon est Commployment. I think what you smil
this having should be repeaced Tornight Tukes people
are responsing X whittery think is part funine which
8 this can he turned anound. Bisides C hind issue,
and and party to a# of into ufugee protocods which bird
no on these maths. If m turn fuh opinion
around, I on send you will yrta usponse.
Barlteth
How may on children? They won't tahe job.
Bromer
about 60 %.
P
I will get a goverting tringht and I will try t
get this word out,
I hope you wire sestle there in one which
don't home high imerrplayment.
Describe
Truse an upouts that many writ of gobale to VM
BRARY
18
Bromn
Then aren 45 pribed by by instate in Tharland
P
another prestion is will any of this horry he used
to help Constration & SVN. answer is no.
Edwards
I think you shouldn't loen get inathis tright, Lits
stay ant of that arpect.
Drive
of you can 10g Chen funds unit he used for
Controline + SV/V it world telp.