I am the author of a bit of legislation I have been introducing for almost 20 years known as the Language Preservation Act which is an attempt to try to preserve the language heritage of America which really should be very rich. but which has not been. because it has been lost in this very proper attempt to Americanize the mainstream. and there is nothing wrong with that. but America loses just as great a natural resource as if it were to lose its minerals. the oil and gas. The Vietnam struggle and our involvement in Southeast Asia. and our emerging involvement in what I consider to be the inevitable intervention under Reagan militarily in Central America with our young boys. reveals that. now as then. we did not have one American either in intelligence or in the military. or in the political hierarchy. or in the State Department. not one native American who could speak Vietnamese. not one. Now. we have hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees. I hope that somehow my colleagues will finally recognize the need for legislation that would stimulate. not actually go out and invest huge sums of money. but just investigate in the preservation of these very wonderful and rich heritages. which I think will be helpful. I think it is a shame that our national leaders. monolingual as they are. are poorly serving our country at a critical time of world leadership and is the reason for our present dilemma. as I see it.
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refugees