Should we not do the same for the thousands of living Americans who followed their conscience. and whose actions have been vindicated by events? Two months ago. this House dealt with the question of whether we should spend $400 million to assist those persons driven from their homeland by the war in Southeast Asia. I tried to persuade my colleagues at that time that we should at least offer the same relief in the form of amnesty to our own political refugees that we were prepared to offer to those Indochinese who had fled their countries because of their fear of persecution for their political beliefs. Although my efforts were not successful at that time. let us hope that it does not take a century for Congress to exhibit the same spirit of reconciliation toward our legally disabled war resisters that is now being advocated on behalf of a long dead rebel general. Rather than simply dwelling on the academic exercise of deciding whether General Lee is entitled to hold office today. let us rather deal with the urgent issue of restoring full citizenship rights and privileges to hundreds of thousands of living Americans.
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refugees