In 1988, President Reagan signed a decree permitting all Military, Citizens, Professionals and Government Officials of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN), all ranks and levels included (who suffered for at least 3 years in the VC concentration camps) and their families, could apply for settlement in America legally. Meaning, the political prisoners and their families didn’t have to escape by hiding dangerously and walking to Thailand or Cambodia, or by riding on a small boat resembling a fragile leaf and perishing on the sea waves.
Just one year before, in 1987, many US Congress members from both Republican and Democrat parties, along with former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. Robert Funseth, made great efforts as the main negotiators to present Resolution 212. When the diplomats traveled to Vietnam to talk with Vietnamese Communists to liberate prisoners of RVN, who were enduring torturous treatment in VC concentration camps with severe hard labor (that treacherous VC called “re-education” places), the VC argued against them roughly. They said: “No, we don’t let them free. If we free those political and military prisoners of RVN, they would stand up and rebel across the country. Then, how can we control the people? Does your America accept all the (dirty) prisoners if we let them free…?”
TRẦN THỦY TIÊN – M.S.
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