A few weeks after writing to President Carter offering to double Iowa’s resettlement of refugees from Indochina, Amb. Quinn describes how Governor Ray appeals to his fellow governors to join him in this humanitarian endeavor. At the National Governor’s Association winter meeting, however, only two governors were willing to join him in lobbying the administration to re-open America’s doors. Their persistence, nonetheless, leads to a dramatic moment that would take place at the U.N. conference on the boat people refugees held in Geneva, Switzerland where the fate of the refugees would hang in the balance.
THE ARCHIVE OF AMBASSADOR KENNETH M. QUINN
FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE MEKONG