Aiding Amerasians

THE US government has taken an appropriate humanitarian step in agreeing to speed up the admission into the United States of children now in Vietnam who were fathered by US servicemen during the Vietnam war. The US has a moral obligation to these children, generally between age 10 and 15. Nearly all bring a mother, and some a sibling.

Generous support from individual Americans and private agencies is now required to aid the children and their families. Each family unit needs a sponsor, an income, and staunch assistance in acclimating to single-parent life in America.

The children are to be admitted as refugees, as fast as Vietnam will let them go and as US sponsors can be obtained. In five years they may apply for US citizenship; they are not now citizens because the identity of their American fathers is not known or acknowledged.