I should like to address myself to the point the distinguished Senator from New York has raised about the possibility of a common basis for understanding being reached because of what the leader of another government might tell some touring Senator. No one is more mindful of the limitations of such conversations than the junior Senator from Tennessee and the junior Senator from Wyoming. It would seem to me that in the facetoface question of the refugee question in that part of the world. the explosion of which could light fires that could spread to other parts of the world. we have the kind of difficult situation in which we must go one step further. and that is what happens before the bar of history as we look backward. and we perhaps discover that there was a moment. that there was a time. when there was a chance. and we did not have the courage or vision to treat that chance or put it to the test. This may not be the time. But no one has tried it yet. It has not been pressed on the level that. in the judgment of the Senator from Tennessee. it ought to be pressed. That is why it seems imperative that. given the experience we have just gone through over there. in the explosion which occurred only yesterday. it is time that. at least. we listen to the kind of experience which the junior Senator from Tennessee has tried to pass along. and to share with our colleagues. namely. that one of the difficulties of finding a common ground is that we turn to the negotiations in the past. and there is a sensitivity over the question of the level on which we are willing to talk. The second difficulty has to do with the kind of diplomatic approacha package deal or an individual problem of refugees. which is really controversial. That splits the diplomats. It splits our State Department.
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refugee refugees