Speech #940095740

This issue occupied our attention and concern for many years. not only because we as a nation were responsible for the fate of prisoners captured by our Armed Forces and detained under South Vietnamese controlbut also because thousands of our own men were held captive by the other side. Consistently over the years the issue of brutality in South Vietnamese prisons. and the question of political prisoners. was downplayed by administration officialsand in testimony to the Congress it was denied to be a serious problem. In fact. in testimony on July 18. 1974. before the Subcommittee on Refugees. which I serve as chairman. high administration officials explicitly denied there were political prisoners in South Vietnam. Today we know the facts. and they tell us the contrary. We need not rake over the past. to also learn from it.