264. Minutes of Washington Special Actions Group Meeting1

SUBJECT

  • Vietnam Evacuation

PARTICIPANTS

  • Chairman
  • Henry A. Kissinger
  • State
  • Robert Ingersoll
  • Amb. L. Dean Brown
  • Philip Habib
  • Robert Miller
  • Defense
  • William Clements
  • Amos Jordan
  • Morton Abramowitz
  • JCS
  • Gen. George S. Brown
  • Lt. Gen. John W. Pauly
  • CIA
  • William Colby
  • Ted Shackley
  • William Christison
  • NSC Staff
  • Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft
  • W.R. Smyser
  • William Stearman
  • Col. Clinton Granger
  • James Barnum

SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS

It was agreed that:

  • —Key Congressional people would be contacted regarding the use of government funds to transport Vietnamese refugees from Travis Air Force Base to other parts of the country;
  • —Other Air Force bases such as Eglin, and Camp Pendleton would be designated as relocation centers in the U.S. to relieve the pressure on Travis;
  • —Announcement of a Presidential Commission on Vietnam Refugees would be made no later than Monday, April 28;
  • —The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees would be contacted immediately for U.N. help in resettling the refugees;2
  • —The Joint Chiefs of Staff would prepare a plan for using additional military facilities as refugee holding centers;
  • —Five ships carrying military supplies to Saigon would be held at Subic Bay.

[Omitted here is the discussion.]

  1. Source: Ford Library, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H–Files), Box 25, WSAG Meeting Minutes, Originals, April 1975. Top Secret; Sensitive. The meeting was held in the White House Situation Room.
  2. Telegram 97855 to USUN, April 27; National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy Files)