Speech #990190701

In 1984. Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach pledged to release all reeducation detainees if the United States would accept them. In spite of the enormous problems involved in accepting tens of thousands of refugees. the United States welcomed Thachs proposal and sought ways to implement it. Thachs proposal. however. turned out to be misleading. Hanoi more recently has insisted that it would carry out its pledge only if the United States would restrict the exercise of free speech and political expression of these refugees once they were in our country. He based this demand on Vietnamese national security considerations. This demand is. of course. wholly unacceptable. given the constitutional rights all our residents enjoy.