Speech #900246264

We see it in the shattered lives of the fatherless families who have been torn from their surroundings--from their homes. their fields. and the graves of their ancestorsfrom the ingredients of life which give them strength to carry on amidst great hardship. We see it in the forlorn spirit of the mothers and children who beg and sleep in front of the bars and establishments on the streets of Saigon and Danang. We see It in the sullen faces of thousands of refugees sitting idle in camps throughout the country. We see it in the squalor of makeshift huts built by squatters around the tombstones in cemeteries. and along Highway 9 just south of the demilitarized zone. We see it in the disruption of needed public services in Saigon and elsewhere. where refugees. for want of shelter. have taken over a school or dispensary. Humanitarian considerations alone should compel us to make every effort to meet the needs of the displaced personsto provide for their care and protection. But more than humanitarian considerations are involved. I believe that creative efforts to reestablish the refugees offers a clue to successful pacification. and progress in meeting the challenge of the socalled other war. But we have not faced up to the refugee problem. We have failed to appreciate its full measure and significance. We have moved from crisis to crisison an ad hoc basiswith little planning or motivationviewing the refugees more as a burden of conflict. rather than an opportunity to help win the allegiance of a significant cross section of the Vietnamese people. We have simply failed to give the refugee problem the priority It so urgently needs and so rightfully deserves. To cite these general conditions is not to belittle the work of the many brave and compassionate individuals who have gone to Vietnam to help the refugees. Our civic action teams in the military. our AID personnel. the doctors who volunteer their sevices. and the dedicated staffs of the private voluntary agencies. deserve the respect and admiration of us all. It is unfortunate. but true. that they labor under the most difficult of circumstances--in part because they are working in warbut also because they are trying to do a job without the full support of those we have entrusted with the effective direction of the military effort and the winning of the people of South Vietnam.