Speech #890180585

The object of our program is to develop the resources of the country and to give the rural and urban population a feeling that there is a better life obtainable in the future and that their own government is better able to provide it than the Communists. Among other things. the United States is supplying agriculture extension services. fertilizers. pesticides. and medical care. building roads. schools. and hospitals. and helping develop local government administration in rural areas. In my opinion. we are not doing enough for the approximately 800.000 refugees that are currently in the South Vietnam Government controlled areas. I visited a number of camps where the conditions were very poor. Sanitation facilities are often nonexistent and educational opportunities for the children are totally unsatisfactory. A small vocational training course has been initiated to provide technical training for less than 1.500 persons. This is insufficient to have any real impact upon the refugee population. There is no question that South Vietnam is going to need an increasingly large number of trained technicians to support industrial growth. An effort should be made to train these refugees who sit in their camps all day without work. By doing so. many of these homeless people could be kept temporarily occupied and made productive members of the society. rather than charity cases draining off an inordinant amount of the nations limited capital resources to keep them alive. It is commonly pointed out by AID officials that most of the refugees are women and children who are waiting to return to their villages and to their agricultural way of life. This does not mean. however. that many of these refugees would not prefer an education and vocational training so that they could take up a new life in the urban areas. It has also been suggested by AID officials that if life is made too pleasant in the refugee camps that the refugees will not want to go back to their farms and work for a living. No one is suggesting that the refugees be made permanent welfare cases. What I am saying is that the refugee children should be able to receive as good an education as other children in the country. To date the children of the refugees are offered a substantially inferior education. with many refugee camps not providing any schools at all. Only an infinitesimal percentage go to secondary school upon the completion of primary school. This situation must be corrected. I am disappointed that of the $275 million requested for supplemental economic assistance to South Vietnam in a current fiscal year. only $11.6 million is allocated to refugee programs. What is more. $10 million of the $11.6 million is already obligated to pay past debts. This leaves only $11/2 million in fiscal year 1966 to finance programs designed to aid approximately 800.000 refugees. This is dangerously insufficient to ease their condition and to promote their allegiance to the Government of South Vietnam. It is significant that the refugees are made homeless by terrorist activities of the Vietcong. American. and South Vietnamese bombardment and combat In and around their villages. The refugees have made a positive commitment to come over to the side of the South Vietnamese Government. They did not go to the Vietcong secured areas. We must not allow this large population of tired. frightened. and homeless people to become so frustrated in their refugee camps by lack of concern for their wellbeing and inability to carry on productive lives that they become a force for sedition rather than a force in support of the South Vietnamese Government. There can be no excuse for failure to take positive action regarding the present condition and future destiny of the 800.000 refugees in South Vietnam today. I am voting in favor of this supplemental appropriation bill because I feel that it is needed. It is essential that an economic and social revolution accompany our military efforts in Vietnam.