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Show 1 8A The Salt Lake Tribune, Friday, December 17, 19X2 to Join Fathers Mirny 22 Amerasians Head to U.S. for Yule John Laird Associated Press Writer HO QII MINH CITY, Vietnam -TAmerasian children wenty-two By flew out of Vietnam Thursday to a special Christmas present: a life in the United States and, for some, reunions with their American fathers. Le Minh Tuan Grad, 12, wore a hat decked with Christmas tinsel that he bought at the Ho Chi Minh City zoo the day before. He knows Christmas is a celebration but he will find out what its all about when he Joins his father in Boston next week. children of The Amerasians American personnel stationed in South Vietnam during the Vietnam left Ho Chi Minh City War (formerly Saigon) for Bangkok, the first stop on the way to America. It was the third Amerasian airlift in three months, the fruit of a new U.S. Vietnamese cooperation. Once in Bangkok, the children and 13 relatives were taken to the Phanat Nikhom refugee processing long-await- -- Thuy Duong Nguyen, one of 22 Amerasian children heading for U.S., gives yell as she arrives In Bangkok, Thailand. center, 60 miles southeast of the Thai capital, to await flights that should get them to Seattle on Monday. One joyful reunion came early. Five Reunited Reports from Bangkok said James Maxwell flew from his job in Singapore a day early and was at a special receiving center in Bangkok to meet his wife, Kim Phung son And Tuan Huynh, and daughters Kim Yen, 9, and Kim Phuong, 11. It was not immediately clear whether from Los Maxwell, Angeles, would take his family directly to the United States. A U.S. official, who flew from Bangkok to help with final paperwork in Vietnam, said he thought less than half the children would be reunited with their fathers. U.S. Embassy sources in Bangkok had said earlier that some American fathers would accept their children, but not their Vietnamese mothers. Other fathers have died. Da Thao Thi Nguyen hew out of Vietnam with her Amerasian son and three daughters. She said her husband died in 1970 in a motorcycle crash in Saigon, where he worked as a civilian radio technician. She was not sure where she would go in the United States. George Wagner of the U.S. Catholic Conference said his agency would find place for the family. Other Representatives Representatives from the Church , World Service and the Pearl Buck Foundation also made the trip to Vietnam. Agency personnel said Vietnam officials told them they had opened lists in southern Vietnam villages where Amerasians could sign up for resettlement in the United States. So far 7,000 Amerasians had signed the lists, the Vietnamese were quoted as saying. The American agency officials said Hanoi Foreign Ministry officials Cu Dinh Ba told them they thought at least Amerasians remained in 10,000 Vietnam, with perhaps candidates for resettlement In the United States. Vietnam has preferred to deal with private American organizations rather than U.S. officials on the issue. The two countries do not have diplomatic relations. York-base- d Douglas Beane of the New Church World Service, however, said that the Vietnamese now want to open direct negotiations with American officials on the resettlement plans. Immigration Law A new immigration law signed by President Reagan in October 16,000-20,00- 0 1 creates a new category for Amerasians to enter the United States with a minimum of proof of American parentage. U.S. officials say the law has no provision for accompanying relatives. The new law should be implemented in a few months, the sources said. Information on the Amerasians departing Ho Chi Minh City Thursday was incomplete. New MiG-2- 1 Russ Deploy MM SUP w Warplanes Near Japan Q 1 P.11. 1? SIM II AJM (g P.H. K g till 10; Sunday 10 PEE) island off the northern Japanese coast in an apparent response to American plans for strengthening the U.S. Air Force in northern sources MW It 10 4 By James Foley Reuter News Agency TOKYO The Soviet air force has deployed new warplanes on an Japan, military MID CHRISTMAS said Thursday. The sources said a squadron of 12 MiG-2- 1 delta-winge- d supersonic fighters landed at Tennei airbase on Etorofu Island last week and appeared to be on permanent assig-nemt- n. Although it first entered service with the Soviet Air Force in 1968, the MiG-2- 1 is vastly superior in. performance to the subsonic MiG 17s based until recently on Etorofu, 90 miles off the northern Japanese coast. U.S. Announcement The U.S. government announced earlier this year that about 50 6 advanced fighter bombers, which are capable of carrying nuclear weapons, would be deployed in northern Japan from 1985. Official media in Moscow responded by saying the Soviet Union would have to make a defensive response to neutralize a fresh threat from Japanese territory. According to the sources, the MiGs on Etorofu would be capable of striking at Misawa on the Pacfid which coast of Japan. The s, themselves will be to reach eastern Siberia, also are to be based at Misawa. The United States, linked with Japan through a mutual security treaty, keeps a force in this country. It said it was because of a deploying the continuing buildup of Soviet offensive forces in Siberia. F-1- 46,000-memb- er F-1- Backfire Bombers will be within range of major Soviet naval bases and military airfields. Some of these are bases for about 70 supersonic Backfire bombers now active in international airspace surrounding the Japanese archipelago. The sources said the Soviet air force until now had positioned only outdated fighters on Etorofu in an apparent effort to symbolize ownership of the island without presenting an undue threat to Japan. Japan claims that it owns the island, along with three others nearby, and has refused to sign a peace treaty with the Soviet Union until it gets them back. The F-1- 12,000 Soldiers Apart from its air force presence, Moscow maintains about 12,000 soldiers and a naval base on the islands, the southernmost four of the Kuril chain running between Japan and the Soviet Kamchatka Peninsula. The sources said that the more northern Kuril Islands, as well as nearby Soviet Sakhalin Island, are heavily defended with airfields and missile sites to protect eastern Siberia, home of the Soviet Pacific Fleet, from attack by sea or air. They said the Soviet Union also used the Sea of Okhtask, which is almost surrounded by Soviet or Soviet-hel- d territory, as a strategic sanctuary from which submerged submarines could fire nuclear-tippe- d missiles to almost anywhere in the United States. ,V fa pay. A nf Warning Time The sources said the arrival of MiG21s on Etorofu meant that the warning time available to Japanese the amount and American forces of notice they would receive before nearly any Soviet air attack would be cut in half. Ibis is because the M1G21 is capable of flying at about 1,285 miles per hour as compared to 711 mph and it has more than twice the rate of climb than the older air- LcGISTRY try C1 Rajhi ry r cf flvtoj. i '" L,:lrp lakes A to to (fatal Dept. craft. The M1G21 carries a variety of heatweapons, including the Atoll seeking or radar-guide- d missile, twin 23mm cannons J$nd K-1- Shop Crossroads Plaza, air-to-a- ir 524-296- 6 Shop Fashion Place, today through Saturday 10 263-666- 6 h I XT till 9. t f tfr |
