Office of the Historian

141. Memorandum From the Executive Secretary of the Department of State (Tarnoff) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski)1

Washington, October 26, 1979

SUBJECT

  • Kampuchea Working Group Designation

The Department has decided to form an interagency working group in the Operations Center to coordinate efforts to meet the special situation of the relief of displaced persons inside Kampuchea and of Khmer refugees crossing into Thailand. We have placed this group under the overall direction of Dick Clark who will extend his interagency responsibilities for refugees to cover this unfolding tragedy.

The group is charged with the implementation of the program already approved by the President which makes available $39 million for disbursement principally through the international organizations of ICRC/UNICEF, the World Food Program, and the UNHCR. The group will also direct, largely through the AID Disaster Relief and Food for Peace offices, government liaison with voluntary agencies in the United States, Thailand and Kampuchea which require special support in organizing the logistical elements of their various relief programs. The working group will also have the major function of coordinating responses to congressional, press and public inquiries.

[Page 487]

The Deputy Secretary has directed that this group be established effective at 1600, October 26, 1979.

Peter Tarnoff2
Executive Secretary
  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Staff Material, Global Issues, Bloomfield Subject File, Box 19, Kampuchea, 9–10/79. No classification marking.↩
  2. Seitz signed for Tarnoff above Tarnoff’s typed signature.↩