Forgotten Children, Old Allies

Among the saddest victims of war are the illegitimate children left behind by the soldiers who go home at the end of a conflict. There are thousands of such offspring of U.S. military men still in Viet Nam. Many of these youngsters are outcasts, shunned by their maternal families and living at a barebones subsistence level In an effort to help solve the problem, Secretary of State George Shultz presented to Congress last week a proposal to admit 8,000 so-called Amerasian children to the U.S. over three years. "Because of their undisputed ties to our country, these children and family members are of particular humanitarian concern to the United States," Shultz told a Senate judiciary subcommittee on refugees. He also asked that American doors be opened for an esti mated 10,000 to 15,000 political prisoners who aided the U.S. ef ort in South Viet Nam. The Secretary's recommendation called for a ceiling of 50,000 refugees a year from all of East Asia. In the past two years, 3,300 Vietnamese immigrated to America; currently, there are some 450,000 Vietnamese living in the U.S.

Though Hanoi has so far contradicted its vague assurances of cooperation in the new plan with a refusal to provide the names of either prisoners or children, the U.S. is optimistic that an agreement is possible. Informal talks may get under way as early as next week, when both Shultz and Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach plan to attend the United Nations General Assembly session in New York City.