Speech #940052185

Providing assistance is a necessity. We are not dealing here with a theoretical. abstract proposition. We are dealing with tens of thousands of refugees who actually exist. They are human beings who must find new homes in new lands and build new lives. It is not a theoretical question of whether these refugees should have fled their homelandthe reality is that they have. Nowtoday. tomorrow. and the next daythey must eat. they must have shelter. and they must be resettled. That is why I say the assistance provided by this legislation is a necessityit recognizes reality. Denying assistance to these refugees will not make the refugees or their problems magically disappear. This legislation also is the right thing to do. If we have any remaining obligation in Southeast Asia. it is to the refugees from that area. Much as we might like to forget it. the fact is that the United States intervened massively in the struggle in Vietnam in support of the Vietnamese Government. In the course of that intervention. tens of thousands of Vietnamese became closely associated with the United States and its Vietnamese policies and operations. That association placed many of them in the extreme hazard when the Saigon Government collapsed. President Ford is asking Congress to provide explicit authority for assistance to these refugees who have had to flee their nation. I strongly support President Ford in that request. With few exceptions. the refugees are persons who fled. not to seek a job or economic advancement abroad. but because they were justifiably afraid they would be killed if they remained in Vietnam. I propose this legislation to aid Vietnamese refugees as one who long opposed both Democratic and Republican administrations in the U.S. intervention in the disastrous Vietnamese civil war. I have long proposed that the United States phase out its involvement in Vietnam. And. in 1969. I recognized and stated publicly that the ultimate result might well be a Communist regime in all of Vietnam. I said then that we should face and accept the prospect and the responsibility of providing assistance to thousands of potential refugees from South Vietnam. I believe I was right 6 years ago. And although I opposed U.S. military intervention in Vietnam. I continue to believe today that we have a responsibility to these refugees. Our Nation committed an estimated $150 billion to the cause of preserving a divided Vietnam. with a nonCommunist South Vietnam. I would think that those who supported billions of dollars for U.S. military intervention on behalf of Vietnam would also now support humanitarian assistance for refugees from that area. And I would think that those who. like myself. opposed our military intervention would recognize the obligation our Nation has to provide refugee assistance. Indeed. after years of division among the American people over nearly every aspect of our policy in Southeast Asia. I would hope that the American people would come together and find a unity of purpose in seeking to write a final. humane chapter to the tragic epic of Vietnam. There are several additional points which I believe need emphasis in regard to this legislation. We have heard it suggested that many of the refugees. having fled in an initial panic. would now be better off if they returned to their homeland instead of seeking settlement in another country. I believe that any of the Vietnamese refugees who decide to return to Vietnam should not only be permitted. but encouraged to do so. However. such a decision must be voluntary and under no circumstances should the United States be a party to any forced repatriation of South Vietnamese refugees. Second. I am aware that a small minority of these displaced persons may be unprincipled opportunists who are seeking to advance themselves in the midst of tragedy. There undoubtedly are. among the thousands of refugees. some of whose association with the United States In interrogation and penal work we are not proud. But I know. too. that if we seek to exclude such persons from our assistance we will be punishing many tens of thousands of genuinely helpless persons who need and deserve our succor at this time. I am deeply aware of the cultural and economic problems that so many of these refugees will face in the United States and. for that reason. I am glad that this legislation includes an authorization of funds for transportation of these refugees to other nations to which they might wish to emigrate. Moreover. the lot of a refugee is not a happy one. Finally. I believe we must confront squarely the argument that we have too many problems here In the United States to contemplate receiving these refugees. or providing assistance to them. I know full well the political force of these arguments. In my own State of Rhode Island. unemployment has now risen to 16.2 percent. and many Rhode Islanders themselves face economic hardship and uncertainty.