Rather than a burden. the Cubans have been a tremendous asset. Indeed. we have been CXXI- 847Part 11 fortunate to have such people. many of whom were business. professional. and civic leaders before fleeing Castro. But now with thousands of refugees from the Vietnam conflict having nowhere else to go. our attitude seems to be changing even though. as in the case of the Cubans. many of the early arrivals are drawn from the business and professional community. Many Americans seem to be sayingdo not come here. we do not want you competing with us for jobs. we do not like the looks of you. What has come over some of us? How. in good conscience can we. as a nation of immigrants. say things like that? Where is our sympathy for those to whom freedom or even life would otherwise be denied? And what has happened to our belief in freedom itself? Furthermore. these Vietnamese will constitute only 12 percent of the immigrants who will be permitted to enter the United States this year. What sets them apart from the hundreds of thousands of new immigrants coming to our shores from other countries? Not only did we promise the South Vietnamese that we would help them maintain their independence through the Paris accords. and then fail to live up to our pledge. but now we seem to be saying that we do not want to help them even after they have nowhere else to go. Never before in our history have we ever contemplated turning our back on beleaguered allies. not once but twice in succession.
Keywords matched
immigrants refugees