I move to strike the requisite number of words. and rise in support of the amendment. In response to the gentleman from Florida. I would only remind this House that the United States bears some responsibility for the refugee problem. the fact is we have spent $150 billion in destroying that country. If the gentleman does not think that had something to do with the terrible. harsh living conditions in that country. some of the conditions that make people want to leave. then I am afraid the gentleman has no understanding about the effects of war on a society. When one couples that with the fact that Vietnam has had two successive crop failures. they were hit by a typhoon last year that left 6 million people homeless. coupled with 30 years of war. has just left that country devastated with the most terrible. unimaginable. harsh living conditions. That perhaps more than anything is the primary reason why those people want to leave and find some of the peace and some of the freedom and some of the prosperity they have come to associate with America. It is only fitting and proper that having to bear some of the responbibility for those conditions that we should bear some of the responsibility for helping those people who have become refugees as a result of it. But I submit to the gentleman from Florida and the rest of the Members of this body that some money spent on some economic aid. food aid and developmental assistance in Vietnam itself would do a great deal more good for the people of Vietnam and for this country than all of the money that we spent by trying to deal with the problem after the fact. as we are in the case of the refugees.
Keywords matched
refugee refugees