February 26, 1974
Page 4239
SENATE RESOLUTION 291 – RELATING TO MISSING NEWSMEN IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Mr. BUCKLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to suspend the regular order for the consideration of a resolution, which I send to the desk.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The resolution will be stated.
The legislative clerk read the resolution.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, the Senate will proceed to its immediate consideration.
Mr. BUCKLEY. Mr. President, I believe that the resolution speaks for itself. There are missing newsmen known to be alive in Cambodia; 48 of our colleagues have cosponsored this resolution to ask the President to insist that they be identified, located, and liberated.
I have consulted with the majority leader (Mr. MANSFIELD), and he has approved the immediate consideration of this resolution.
Mr. President, I am submitting the resolution on behalf of myself and the following:
Tower, Tunney, Gravel, McGovern, Helms, Pastore, Goldwater, Hart, Pell, Pearson.
Biden, Nelson, Domenici, Allen, Stevens, Mansfield, Williams, Hansen, Brooke.
McClure, Percy, McClellan, Dole, Metzenbaum, Bennett, Griffin, Javits, Mathias, Curtis.
Burdick, Byrd, Robert C., Eastland, Fannin, Huddleston, Packwood, Bellmon, Dominick, Beall.
Baker, Fong, Fulbright, Stafford, Roth, Gurney, Muskie, Weicker, Bartlett, Hugh Scott, Adlai Stevenson and Inouye.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on agreeing to the resolution.
The resolution (S. Res. 291) was agreed to.
The preamble was agreed to.
The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:
S. RES. 291
Resolution Relating to missing newsmen in Southeast Asia
Whereas the Associated Press reported on January 26, 1974:
"The American Committee to Free Journalists Held in Southeast Asia says it has new evidence that as many as 10 of the missing newsmen are being held in eastern Cambodia ..."; and
Whereas the Associated Press report went on to state:
"The committee said 21 civilian noncombatant war correspondents and photographers are listed as missing in Cambodia. Seventeen of them disappeared between April and May, 1970, while covering the early stages of the Cambodian war ..."; and
Whereas these missing newsmen, if they are in fact alive, are detained illegally and without any justification or purpose since they are noncombatants: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is hereby declared to be the sense of the Senate that the President of the United States shall make every possible diplomatic effort through the Department of State and other relevant agencies to (1) ascertain the truth of the present whereabouts or fate of United States newsmen missing in Southeast Asia, and (2) obtain the release of those still alive and an accounting of those who may be dead.
SEC. 2. The Secretary of the Senate shall transmit copies of this resolution to the President and the Secretary of State.