Of course we should receive them and make their reception here as decent as possible. But we should also recognize that just as God did not mandate us to idll the Vietnamese for 20 years in order to save them. neither did He mandate us to save them by scaring them out of their own land. All I have ever proposed is that we make a survey of the Vietnamese refugees to learn how many wish to return. provided we arrange their transportation and negotiate an acceptable basis for their return with the new government in Saigon. This commonsense proposal. which the Senate later approved unanimously. was first described by one Senator as a "people killing measure." And even a thoughtful. normally careful reporter. Bill Moyers. implied in Newsweek. May 19. that my statement was representative of the "hostility on the mainland to the coming of the refugees." Although I had painstakingly stressed that not one single refugee should be sent back who did not so request it. Mr. Moyers wrote: Sen. George McGovern has urged that the refugees be sent back to Vietnam "where they would be better off." If Mr. Moyers is the man of integrity I believe him to be. he will correct this misinterpretation in a subsequent issue of Newsweek. Meanwhile.
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