Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977–1980, Volume XXII, Southeast Asia and the Pacific

65. Memorandum From the Executive Secretary of the Department of State (Tarnoff) to Secretary of State Vance¹

Washington, October 25, 1979

SUBJECT

• Your Breakfast with the President Friday, October 26, 1979²

[Omitted here is information unrelated to Kampuchea.]

8. Kampuchean Relief. You could mention to the President that you taped yesterday an interview on the Kampuchean situation for showing on an ABC special this evening. The interview reiterates our deep concern and catalogues our record of action on this issue.

We are encouraged by the results of the Codel Sasser visit³ which focused attention on the Kampuchean famine and succeeded in raising with the Vietnamese the constructive “land bridge” proposal.

However, hostile rhetorical exchanges between Bangkok and Hanoi/Phnom Penh and incidents along the Thai-Khmer border pose a growing threat to both the land bridge proposal and relief operations already under way.

The Codel may press for a U.S. commitment of $100 million for relief efforts. While Congressional support for a major relief effort is certainly welcome, we will need to be alert to the uncertainties that still exist about Vietnamese intentions. We have also heard that the Senators will press for a more conspicuous U.S. role in the relief effort. The Vietnamese would probably reject this and there might be some danger of diminished interest in other countries.

There has been some foreign and press speculation that the Codel visit to Phnom Penh may indicate a softening of the U.S. position on the Vietnamese-backed regime. We, and the delegation, have reiterated U.S. rejection of both the Pol Pot and Heng Samrin regimes as unrepresentative of the Khmer people.

[Omitted here is information unrelated to Kampuchea.]

1. Source: Department of State, Office of the Secretariat Staff, Records of Cyrus Vance, 1977–1980, Lot 84D241, President’s Breakfast 9/1/79–12/31/79. Secret; Nodis. Vance’s initials are stamped at the top of the first page of the memorandum.
2. The breakfast meeting took place in the Cabinet Room at the White House October 26, 7:31–9:10 a.m. (Carter Library, Presidential Materials, President’s Daily Diary) No memorandum of conversation of this meeting has been found.
3. See Documents 67 and 140.