March 13, 1974
Page 6784
U.S. MILITARY PERSONNEL ALLEGEDLY SERVING AS MILITARY ADVISERS IN CAMBODIA
Mr. CRANSTON. Mr. President, this morning, during the morning hour, I called attention to reports of U.S. military personnel allegedly serving as military advisers in Cambodia, which would be in violation of the law. I indicated that I intended to send a letter to Chairman JOHN STENNIS of the Armed Services Committee, requesting an immediate investigation of this situation. I also indicated that I would seek to have other Senators join me in that letter and would include their names in the RECORD at the end of the day.
I would like at this point to reread that letter into the RECORD and indicate the number of Senators who have joined. All together, there are 39. Counting myself, there are 40 who have joined in this letter.
I would like to state that had I had time, I am sure a very substantial majority of the Senate would have joined in this letter. The only reason they have not is that I was unable, during a very busy day, to talk to that many Senators. While pursuing this effort, I was attending one committee, attending another committee markup, attending the swearing in of a new California Representative, attending here during the consideration of S. 1401 and amendments thereto, and participating in the consideration of that material, and also working with Senators to clear passage of S. 3063, along with many other matters.
I list those activities, which are similar to those of other Senators, simply to indicate that had I had time to focus on this particular matter, which I think is of great importance, we would have a larger number of Senators joining in sending this letter to Senator STENNIS.
The letter to Chairman JOHN STENNIS reads as follows:
We respectfully request that the Armed Services Committee conduct an immediate investigation into the activities of United States military personnel, including Major Lawrence W. Ondecker of the Third Infantry Brigade, who allegedly are serving as military advisors in Cambodia which would be in violation of the law.
The Senators who have joined me in sending the letter are as follows: Senators ABOUREZK, BAYH, BIDEN, BURDICK, CASE, CHILES, CHURCH, CLARK, DOMENICI,, GRAVEL, HART, HARTKE, HASKELL, HATHAWAY, HUDDLESTON, HUGHES, HUMPHREY, INOUYE, KENNEDY, MAGNUSON, MATHIAS, McGOVERN, METCALF, METZENBAUM, MONDALE, MONTOYA, MOSS, MUSKIE, PELL, PROXMIRE, RANDOLPH, RIBICOFF, SCHWEIKER, STAFFORD, STEVENSON, TUNNEY, WEICKER, and WILLIAMS.