Speech #900193560

After they struck. it fell to the U.S. forces to dislodge them and to bear the casualties in dead and wounded. The New York Times of February 1. 1968. reports that: The South Vietnamese police do not appear to have taken much of a role in the fight for the embassy or to have impeded the infiltration of guerrilla units into the downtown area. Senator KENNEDY reports that the Government of South Vietnam has been engaged in the systematic looting of its own people and that those who have been most defrauded are the ones who are in the most dire straitsthe war refugees who now total almost onefourth of the entire population of South Vietnam. He says: Let me detail some examples in the refugee field. We now have given South Vietnam $30 million a year for refugee relief. In my many conversations with the hardpressed American refugee personnel. it was estimated that only half of the supplies ever reached the refugee. The officials of the government of South Vietnam. and the province chiefs supported by them. have the keys to the warehouses. and they keep much of the goods for themselves. Each refugee is supposed to receive the equivalent of $45 for resettlement. It was estimated to me by a U.S. official adviser to the refugee program that 75 per cent of this amount is siphoned off before it reaches these people. Provincial officials are given a certain amount of money each year to spend on refugee relief. But instead of using it to provide for refugees. many of them lend this money at high rates of interest. collecting It back just in time to make the expenditures before the end of the budget year. In the field of refugee care and in many other fields. the government of South Vietnam has been engaged in the systematic looting of its own people. Many of its officials have. as their overriding concern. taking as much as they can. while they can. from the treasure of American wealth. When we in America are being asked to pay a surtax of 10 per cent to support this war. we have a right to demand that these practices in South Vietnam stop.