Speech #980107639

Central America is more ethnically homogeneous than Indochina. so the dominoes there may fall faster. And Central America is close to our borders. If many American communities objected to the arrival of Vietnamese refugees and if Florida became divided over the arrival of 125.000 Cubans in 1980. we might well quake at the consequences here if hundreds of thousands of Central Americans begin streaming toward the U.S. If Mexico. too. becomes unstable. the numbers could be in the millions. resulting in an internal securitycivil liberties nightmare. not to mention job competition and ethnic frictions. To defend a hostile southern border and a threatened Panama Canal and U.S. coastline would swell the defense budget. at a cost to domestic programs.