Chairman. I am not about to sug.gest that we ought to prevent every American business and agricultural firm from doing business with the Soviet Union. But I do intend to maintain that we should have no part of a scheme which grants so much in the way of cheap credit and special treatment to a regime which puts its dissidents in mental hospitals. and which either forbids emigration or allows it only on the most limited scale. The basic human rights which we so easily take for granted are unknown in the Soviet Union. and while we cannot simply march over there and demand that these rights be recognized. we do not need to reward such a policy with needless generosity on our part. If U.S. business wish to trade with the Soviet Union. fine. Let them demand cash or pay higher interest rates which are not guaranteed by the taxpayer. Let the Soviets divert a little of the enormous amount of money they are spending on military hardware into resource development or industrial production. On the other hand. if the Soviet finally relents and grants at least the right to emigrate. if we can at least get this concession in behalf of humanity from that totalitarian rqgime. then perhaps we can consider another policy. It may be. as some argue. that our action will never change Soviet policy. That may be true.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration