Mr. President. the cruel logic of any military conflict carries in its wake a tremendous toll in human suffering. Nothing illustrates this more in South Vietnam than the mounting flood of refugees. Some 300.000 to 400.000 men. women. and children are crowded into five reception centers along the South Vietnamese coast. Several hundred thousand additional South Vietnamese citizens are uprooted *in the interior. Indeed. it has been estimated that the number of war orphans in South Vietnam is in the tens of thousands. My purpose today is to bring before this body some of the information and facts concerning the South Vietnamese refugee problem. and to stress our need to anticipate at this time an almost certain escalation of the numbers and the needs of these refugees. in the immediate future. The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Refugees and Escapees has been holding hearings during the past 10 days on Vietnam. During the course of these hearings. and from direct press reports from Vietnam. it is becoming increasingly clear that the mounting flood of refugees reflects a recent important change in emphasis in Vietcong tactics in the countryside. While terror has never been absent. earlier Vietcong tactics stressed the careful wooing of villagers and the winning of their allegiance. This. apparently. has in large part recently given way to allout tactics of calculated oppression. brutality. and terrorism.
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Refugees refugee refugees