VIETNAM AD HOC WORKING GROUP MEETING, JANUARY 29, 1971

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: Library of Congress
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): LOC-HAK-240-8-5-1
• Release Decision: RIPLIM
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: January 11, 2017
• Document Release Date: October 31, 2012
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: February 8, 1971
• Content Type: MEMO

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MEMORANDUM
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
INFORMATION
corn''"`" S February 8, 1971
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MEMORANDUM FOR: THE FILES
Vietnam Ad Hoc Working Group Meeting,
January 29, 1971
Ambassador Sullivan opened the meeting by bringing up the POW
issue. He referred to the GVN's recent repatriation of 37 NVA
POW's, and said that he thought it went well under the circumstances.
He felt that Hanoi's response -- consisting of a mortar barrage and
a charge that the DMZ had been violated -- was worth emphasizing,
and he instructed Habib to take the DRV delegation to task for this
in the next Paris session. Sullivan also felt that Foreign Minister
Lam's new proposal for an exchange of all sick and wounded was a
welcome development. Sullivan noted that this initiative now needed
to be developed. He also announced that the VFW and American
Legion would both be in Washington soon, and felt that the POW issue
would certainly be publicized by them. Sullivan noted that he was
scheduled to speak to the American Legion during its visit here.
Sullivan said that the Candadians had recently been quite helpful in
refusing to allow a Vietnamese Communist delegation to make a radio
broadcast from Windsor, Ontario (the Windsor radio station is popular
in the Detroit area). Sullivan said that the Canadians were aware that
the Vietnamese intended to broadcast more to an American listening
audience than to Canadians, and therefore had decided not to allow the
broadcast. The Canadians had done this, Sullivan said, without any
prompting from the U. S. Sullivan. said that he had also learned that
the North Vietnamese were attempting to open an office in Ottawa, and
that State would talk to the Canadians about this.
Sullivan announced that the progress report on combating anti-Ameri-
canism which had been previously requested by Dr. Kissinger was
now complete and would be forwarded shortly. Engle then asked if
all comments had been received on the Ad Hoc group's final draft
regarding the GVN's administrative performance. Karhohs passed
some written comments to Engle, but noted that he was unaware that
this draft was the final version. Engle said that he certainly hoped it
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it was, and preferred to get everyone's final clearance later in the
day if possible.
Sullivan announced that Labor Leader Tran Quoc Buu would be
arriving in Washington on February 1, courtesy of the AFL CIO.
Sullivan had learned that Buu would like to have a complete medical
check-up at some military hospital here, as he had in past years.
Karhohs noted that the case load at Walter Reed and other facilities
in the area was too great to insure that BUU would get an appointment.
However, he said that Buu could easily have a check-up in Hawaii. on
his way to or from. Washington. Sullivan thought that this was best,
and asked Karhohs to make the arrangements.
Karhohs announced that Chuck Cooper would be in Washington on
February 1 for a round of discussions on the Vietnamese economy.
He said that he had scheduled a meeting at DOD on February 4 which
would be attended by Mr. Enke, one of Cooper's strongest and most
persistent critics. Karhohs gleefully predicted a rousing meeting,
even though the subject would be economics.
Sullivan announced that he had seen Sir Robert Thompson the previous
evening. He said that Sir Robert seemed especially well informed on
current developments in Vietnam, and had fairly well determined how
h,e would conduct his survey of the South Vietnamese police. Sullivan
said that Sir Robert had also agreed to discuss his recommendations
with us before presenting them to the South Vietnamese.
Carver noted that Life Magazine would run a story on U. S. POW's in
its next issue complete with a new set of photographs recently taken by
a Japanese film crew. Sullivan said that State had already seen the
pictures; he said that everyone looked healthy, but that there were no
new faces.
Carver then raised the question of North Vietnamese infiltration. He
said that a good deal of concern had developed within the intelligence
community during the past month or so over the infiltration rate. The
exceedingly low infiltration total during January was difficult to rationalize.
Although there were a number of possible factors and explanations,
Carver - said that the community frankly does not know what the real
state of infiltration is at the moment; or why. A number of people are
working on this problem, and Carver hoped to have some sound answers
by the middle of February.
Carver noted a recent article in the North Vietnamese press which
announced the jailing of a Hanoi rock band. Sullivan thought that this
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development deserved some attention on VOA musical broadcasts to
North Vietnam (i.'e., "we know you have lost your rock band, and we
will do our best to fill in for them").
Sullivan then discussed the editorial on the Vietnamese refugee re-
settlement program in the current issue of the New Yorker. He said
that it was based on an erroneous story in the New York Times and
had added a good deal of moralizing. The result was atrocious; it
compared GVN refugee programs to the massive population transfers
carried out under Stalin. Sullivan felt that we would have to make an
effort to set the record straight.
NSSM 99 was discussed briefly by those members who are working on
the project. Everyone was unhappy over the fact that NSSM 99 had
gathered new momentum, with the analyses' projection dates having
been extended. Karhohs expressed the fear that the paper would
develop a life of its own and would never end.
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