Speech #940127837

I hope we are beginning to learn from the mistakes we made throughout our Indochina experience and. being able to analyze this matter constructively. lay the groundwork for a new. firm and effective foreign policy. We might begin by focusing our attention on several long- and shortrange aspects of this problem. so as to gain a better perspective. One immediate problem is how to resettle the remaining antiCommunist refugees who fled their country to avoid retaliation from victorious North Vietnamese forces. There are still approximately 68.800 South Vietnamese refugees now being processed in the Philippines. Wake Island. Guam. and at military bases in the United States. As of today. 63.345 refugees have been resettled including 5.328 who were relocated in other countries. Another 2.232 refugees have expressed a desire to return to Vietnam. Approximately 55.760 Vietnamese are currently housed at 4 military installations in the United States. I have been advised that most of these refugees are middle class and approximately half of them are under 25 years of age. Sixty percent of the refugees are fluent in English and only 20 percent speak no English at all. In recent years the United States has been absorbing approximately 400.000 new refugees each year. Like all of my colleagues. I received a large number of letters expressing concern about the influx of these Vietnamese refugees. The problem looks more manageable when we stop to think that the total number of refugees involved is approximately the same as the seating capacity of the Rose Bowl in California. When you add in the additional factor that over half of them are women and children. who will not be competing with Americans for jobs. the problem becomes increasingly manageable. This does not mean that these refugees will be absorbed into our society without some difficulties. I would. however. point out that we should look at it from their point of view. These refugees have lost everything. They have lost their country. they have lost a long and drawn out war. they have been uprooted from their traditional culture. and many will encounter cultural and language barriers upon arriving in the United States. But I think we should never forget the inscription which appears on the Statue of Liberty: Give me your tired. your poor.