Collection of Assorted Newspaper and Magazine Clippings: Jfk Assassination, Conspiracy Theories, Etc

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

# CLA side's role in Viet

# evacuation raises mystery

## By Merton Nerdracke

Susan is no

WASHINGTON - And the country supporting the U.S. evacuation program in Vietnam, there is some mystery. For one thing, the No. 2 man in charge of the program here is a high-fanking Central Intelligence Agency official, Clayton E. McManaway Jr.

McManan, whose regular position is special assistant to CIA Director William E. Colby, formerly served in Vietnam with the title of associate director of the American and mission, and congressional sources said that was cover for his work in intelligence.

The reason for placement of a CIA official as deputy director of the government's evacuation task force could not be learned from the White House, State Department or CIA.

One possible explanation is that many of the Vietnamese on U.S. evacuation lists are intelligence connected.

Ambassador Dean Brown, task force director, said at a State Department briefing Thursday that 50,000 Vietnamese who may be admitted to the United States as so-called "high-risk" cases include persons who have served in the Salgen government's national police, intelligence services and the Phoenix program. the CIA's effort to eliminate Viet Cong cadres by assassination and other means. Brown said the number would also include Vietnamese employees of the U.S. government, former Saigon political leaders and Vietnamese intellectuals and their families.

But Brown could not clarify the basis for setting the high-risk a figure at 50,000, a decision Brown said was made by President Ford. White House spokesman simply explained, "This was the figure that was arrived at for now."

Better answers to these and other questions will be sought Friday by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) at a hearing of his Senate subcommittee on refugees. Kennedy is reported to

he faces at what angles called the evocation "mess" and at lack of communication from Brown's task force.

Namely is also said to be assert that the administration apparently has not instituted reservations with North Vietnam and the Viet Cong to assure intervention by the United Nations and other international agencies to protect Vietnamese who are not evicted.

"There ought to be a diplomacy of reconciliation going on, a Kennedy aide said, "so that tens of thousands of Vietnamese can stay in Vietnam and not think they have to flee."

Congressional sources and others who are in touch with the Provisional Revolutionary Government (Viet Cong) in Paris assert that the United States has made no direct approaches to the Communists, yet secret talks might be under way.

The fact that Communist forces have not yet tried to cut off Ten Sea Nhuat airport and other evacuation routes has fueled reports of a secret understanding. Administration officials said the subject of negotiations was "too delicate" to talk about.

Abruptly late Monday night, the sources said, the administration announced to Congress that it wanted to exercise special parole authority to admit as many as 120,000 Vietnamese to the United States.

After a secret briefing Tuesday by CIA, State Department, Pentagon and Justice Department officials, the Senate Judiciary Committee agreed to endorse the administration request, which sources said was "presented to us, not in consultation, but as a fact accomplish."

At the briefing, federal Immigration Corr. Leonard Chapman reportedly declared, "We have to do something before these people are beheaded."

So far, according to Brown, 12,600 Vietnamese have been evacuated to Guam and the Philippines, of whom the "great majority" are relatives of Americans and resident aliens.

Brown said that there is sufficient airlift capacity to bring out 5,000 or more persons a day, but that the U.S. Embassy In Saigon is processing only 5,000 a day. Brown said embassy personnel were having a "Godawful problem" processing that many daily.

It is possible that a still unreported number of Vietnamese, perhaps in the thousands, is leaving Saigon by sea. There were six or seven U.S. Navy contract freighters in Saigon harbor Monday morning. By Tuesday the number was five, by Wednesday morning four and by nightfall Wednesday reportedly down to three. Pentagon officials will not discuss whether refugees are aboard the departing ships. It takes five to seven hours to sail down the river from Saigon to the sea, and much of that passage is vulnerable to North Vietnamese action.

Brown said, State Department officials have enlisted private charity organizations to help establish temporary settlement centers throughout the United States so "no one part of the country will be inundated with refugees." The U.S. officials also were contacting international refugee groups and individual countries, urging them to join the effort to find new homes for the refugees, Brown said.