President Ford has appealed to Americans to accept Vietnamese refugees in the same way as they welcomed thousands of Hungarians and Cubans who have since been, he says, good citizens of the country.

The President was speaking to newsmen in Washington a few hours after he was quoted as being "damn mad" at the adverse reaction among Americans towards the migration of Vietnamese into the Country.

He said he was primarily upset because the United States has had a tradition of opening its doors to immigrants from all nations.

He then pointed out that although he understood those who said the country was facing severe economic problems, he left the Vietnamese would not aggravate the situation.

He said that of the 120,000 refugees, half of them were children of the rest only 35,000 were heads of families.