EXCERPT FROM:
Minutes of Washington Special Actions Group Meeting
Washington, April 2, 1975, 10:43–11:28 a.m.
Subject
Indochina
Summary of Conclusions
Secretary [Henry] Kissinger: We have spent millions of dollars over the past ten years so that the North Vietnamese could tear up South Vietnam. I think we owe—it’s our duty—to get the people who believed in us out. Do we have a list of those South Vietnamese that we want to get out?
Mr. Philip Habib [US assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern and Pacific Affairs]: There is one, but it’s limited.
Secretary Kissinger: Tell Graham Martin [US ambassador to South Vietnam] to give us a list of those South Vietnamese we need to get out of the country. Tell Graham that we must have the list by tomorrow.
Mr. Habib: The problem is that you have different categories of people. You have relatives of Americans, tens of thousands of people (Vietnamese) who worked for us. . . . One thing I would recommend is that the embassy destroy all personnel records when they leave.
Secretary Kissinger: The Communists will know who they are anyway. Let’s get a look at the different categories of people who need to get out. There may be upwards of ten thousand people.
Mr. Habib: There are ninety-three thousand already on the list.
Secretary Kissinger: Well, get that list. We’ll try for as many as we can.
Mr. William Stearman [member of the National Security Council]: It could reach a million people.
Secretary Kissinger: Well, that is one thing this Congress can’t refuse—humanitarian aid to get people out.
Mr. Habib: It depends on the nature of the collapse.
Mr. Stearman: One possible solution to the evacuation problem is to move some of the people to those two islands offshore.
Secretary Kissinger: Yes, that’s a possibility. Let’s get that list of people who have to get out and some ideas on where we should move them. We may have to ask Congress for military force to help rescue these people. I can’t see how they could refuse.
Secretary [of Defense James R.] Schlesinger: Yes, after a forty-five-day debate . . .