Speech #940056115

I regret that Mr. HUGH SCOTT seems to have learned nothing from these tragedies. But I do not intend to let this longtimeadvocate of the killing in Vietnamthis bitterend apologist for Richard Nixons disgraceful conduct. distort my position with regard to the Vietnamese refugees. The truth is now coming out. Mr. President. More and more of the Vietnamese refugees are voluntarily expressing their desire to return to Vietnamjust as I had predicted. Yesterdays New York Times tells of six ships loaded with refugees returning voluntarily from Singapore to South Vietnam. Earlier about 45 South Vietnamese pilots requested permission to return to Saigon after reporting that they had been forced to fly highranking officers out of the country. The Times of yesterday also carried a report from Mr. L. Dean Brown. director of the U.S. Interagency Task Force on Refugees. that 48 refugees on Guam had expressed a desire to return to Vietnam claiming that they had been forced into planes during the evacuation. And the Boston Globe reported yesterday that a Vietnamese doctor with some 18.000 refugees at Camp Pendleton has said: If a plane were to leave for Saigon today. half of this camp would be empty. I understand. Mr. President. that scores of voluntary agency workers are reporting back the same findings. And yesterdays Washington Star reports that two Senate staff aides of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Refugees. Dale DeHaan and Jerry Tinker. have discovered in visiting the refugee centers that "substantial numbers" of Vietnamese are having "second thoughts" about leaving their homeland. Todays Washington Post carries a story by Lawrence Meyer relative to the findings of the Refugee Subcommittee chaired by Senator KENNEDY. The article quotes Senator KENNEDY as saying that: Many of the refugees fled in panic from conflict and violence . . . and many give the impression of not fully understanding where they are or why they got there. The article continues: Kennedy and representatives of private voluntary agencies helping refugees resettle predicted that thousands would choose to return to South Vietnam. Mr.. President. as I said to the Senate on May 5. a week ago Monday. we will see growing evidence that thousands of Vietnamese came to this country in hysteria to avoid what they believed would be a final bloody battle for Saigona battle that never materialized. Others left in terror after hearing predictions of a massive bloodbath at the hands of the new governmenta bloodbath as yet not in sight. Many of them are now having second thoughts and desire to be reunited with their country and their families. So let us have an end to Senator SCOTTs nonsense about the legislation I have introducedlegislation which simply authorizes our Government to pay the transportation back to Vietnam for any refugee who voluntarily requests such assistance in returning to his country. This is not a "peoplekilling measure" as the Senator from Pennsylvania would have us believe. It is a commonsense. humanitarian proposal designed to assist those refugees who wish to return to their countryassistance offered in the same humanitarian spirit as the aid we are prepared to give those Vietnamese who may decide to stay with us. I intend. when the refugee relief bill comes up for consideration. to offer my bill as an amendment. authorizing that part of those funds be available to the refugees who wish to return to their homes. An incredibly distorted interpretation of that proposal appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer of yesterday. written by a man by the name of John D. Lofton.