Speech #940042246

Rather. I would like to address myself very briefly to one of the lessons we should be learning as we watch hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of civilians flee from the Communist occupied areas into the teeth of the war itself. A few years ago the existence of large numbers of refugees was dismissed by those who criticized our role in Vietnam as evidence of nothing more than the fact that the threat of American bombing would result in the displacement of many innocent people. When some of us ask why these people were not fleeing the war to the north. we were always told that it was because of our bombs. Well. American bombs are not falling in Southeast Asia at this time and an objective outside observer unfamiliar with the reality of communism in that country would have to say that the safest place to go would be north. But the refugees are not moving north. they are fleeing south as quickly a6 possible and in everincreasing numbers. They are fleeing south not to escape the war but to escape the Communists advancing toward them. This has caused some of those who opposed our involvement from the beginning to reconsider some of their earlier assumptions.