Speech #990024166

I find that remarkable particularly in view of the successes that we have enjoyed in El Salvador over the last 6 years. what with the free elections and the new President. the constituent assembly. and the constitution the Salvadorans now enjoy. But most particularly. I grieve over the fact that the United States has been blamed for all the ills in Central America when. in fact. it has recently been conceded by even the gentleman from Indiana that because of the proximity of Central America. because of the fact that we in Washington are closer to Managua than we are to Los Angeles. because of the importance of the sealanes in the Pacific and in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. where 50 percent of all our commerce in this Nation flows. because of the potential of immigration into the United States as an outflow from Communist domination. Just as the Vietnamese fled from Vietnam when the Communists took over. and because the potential entrenchment of a Marxist regime on our southern border will possibly lead us to deploy troops away from Western Europe into the southern regions. All of these are substantial reasons to understand why Central America is important to us. and that what happens down there is vital to our future.