March 4, 1970
Page 5993
ANNIVERSARY OF LITHUANIAN INDEPENDENCE
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, on February 16 we commemorated the anniversary of the establishment of the modern Republic of Lithuania. I wish it had been in our power to celebrate the occasion in a more fitting manner.
Lithuania obtained its independence in 1918, and from that time, until 1940, the Republic fulfilled the longstanding national aspirations of the Lithuanian people. This renaissance of Lithuanian independence was brought to a close on June 15, 1940, when the Soviet Union, in collusion with Hitler's Germany, seized Lithuania. Today, 25 years after the end of World War II, the right of subject peoples to national dignity and self-determination is recognized almost everywhere except within the Communist bloc.
Let us look to and work for the day when this situation no longer exists and when free men and free nations everywhere can cooperate in a world free of compulsion and threats to their self-respect and national integrity.