May 8, 1975
Page 13595
Mr. MONDALE. I thank the Senator. I strongly join in support of the pending resolution. Today, together with 27 other Senators, I signed a letter addressed to the Honorable JOHN B. SPARKMAN, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, and to the Honorable JOHN L. McCLELLAN, chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, expressing the hope that we could immediately grant relief for these refugees. I am glad to see that the Senate is obviously about to adopt a resolution that is in accord with that position. I think that is consistent with American tradition, it is consistent with our Judeo-Christian ethic, and I am glad we are making it clear that we are that kind of nation.
I wish to make a second point. I have spent some time reading my mail and going over some of the communications that I have received in opposition to the entry of these evacuees. I think I know what they are saying. Most of them are really objecting to what they think is a double standard. They are willing to be open and warmhearted with the evacuees coming from Vietnam, but they are wondering about their own unemployed. They are wondering about the lack of housing for Americans.
I would like to see the same sense of humanitarianism shown as well to some of our own citizens
Mr. President, earlier this week public attention was focused almost exclusively on those who, for economic or other reasons, expressed fear and opposition to the influx of refugees from Vietnam.
At a time when 8 million Americans are unemployed, when we are facing a budget deficit of $70 billion, and when many domestic needs are still unmet, these concerns are understandable.
Nevertheless, the picture some have attempted to paint of 150,000 Vietnamese pushing Americans out of work or vying with the unemployed for jobs is grossly exaggerated. Official estimates place the number of refugees needing employment at 30,000. This is a small percentage of our total work force of 94 million; and in an economy as large and diverse as ours, there need be little, if any, impact when these individuals are dispersed throughout the country. When the facts are understood, I am confident that many critics of the refugee relief efforts will join in welcoming a people who have so much to contribute to the strength and vitality of our Nation. To his credit, President Ford has persisted in seeking the understanding and support of the American people for this effort.
Now there is clear evidence that the tide is turning.
Yesterday, a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee approved an authorization to pay evacuation and resettlement costs for South Vietnamese refugees. This evening the bill will be considered by the full Judiciary Committee.
The resolution which is before the Senate at this time and the joint letter to the Foreign Relations and Appropriations Committees testify to the growing support in the Senate for action to ease the plight of those whose lives have been shattered by the fall of South Vietnam and Cambodia.
There will naturally be problems in connection with refugee assistance programs. Nevertheless, as we said in the joint letter today:
These problems should not be permitted to obscure the larger issue of whether the United States is prepared to act with the same generosity and goodwill we have always shown toward those seeking freedom from oppression. To do less would be to underestimate the strength and character of the American people and to dishonor the highest traditions of our nation.
Mr. President, I agree very strongly with the intent of the Cranston-Allen resolution, and I urge its prompt and overwhelming approval by the Senate.
As evidence of the support for such action, I ask unanimous consent that the joint letter I mentioned earlier and an editorial from the New York Times be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
MAY 8, 1975.
Hon. JOHN J. SPARKMAN,
Chairman,
Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
Dirksen Senate Office Building.
DEAR Mr. CHAIRMAN: Within the next few days the Committees on Appropriations and Foreign Relations will be considering the question of aid for refugees of the Vietnam war.
We feel it is unfortunate that the climate for consideration of this important issue is being shaped by the fears of some who are exaggerating the costs and ignoring the responsibilities of the United States in providing help to the victims of the war.
We believe and think that the President is right in asserting that the overwhelming majority of Americans feel an obligation toward those who have been forced to flee their homes, in many cases because of their loyalty toward the United States.
It would be a tragedy if our response to the plight of the refugees was determined by a few vocal opponents while the majority remained silent in their support for the refugees. In the eyes of other nations, we might be wrongly perceived as a people who were unwilling to make even this small sacrifice to help our friends.
We recognize that the Committee will want to carefully examine the dollar amount that has been requested by the White House. There may be other problems associated with resettlement, including the necessity of assuring that no undue burdens are placed on individual states and communities. Many Governors and local officials have already contacted the White House to express their willingness to cooperate in placement efforts.
Furthermore, a maximum effort should be made by our government to enlist the help of other countries in providing aid and asylum to refugees who would be willing to live elsewhere.
Nevertheless, these problems should not be permitted to obscure the larger issue of whether the United States is prepared to act with the same generosity and goodwill we have always shown toward those seeking freedom from oppression. To do less would be to underestimate the strength and character of the American people and to dishonor the highest traditions of our nation.
We are confident that when faced with this choice, the Senate will overwhelmingly approve the legislation necessary to find homes, jobs and a fresh start for those whose lives have been shattered by the fall of South Vietnam. We urge your full support In this effort.
Sincerely,
Walter F. Mondale, Hiram Fong, Philip A. Hart, Dale Bumpers, Robert B. Morgan, Bob Packwood, Adlai E. Stevenson, John V. Tunny, and Dewey F. Bartlett.
John O. Culver, Thomas J. McIntyre, Henry M. Jackson, William D. Hathaway, Daniel K. Inouye, Edmund S. Muskie, E. J. Jake Garn, Robert Stafford, and James Buckley.
William V. Roth, Dick Clark, Abraham A. Ribicoff, Patrick J. Leahey, Hubert H Humphrey Gaylord Nelson, Alan Cranston, Carl Curtis, and Lowell P. Weicker, Jr..
DENYING OUR HERITAGE
President Ford was fully justified in his press conference last night to express concern at the querulous and uncharitable reaction of too many Americans to the plight of the Vietnamese refugees. His statement on the desirability of admitting them to the United States ought to be read by every American. Mr. Ford's request for $507 million to assist the resettlement of approximately 130,000 Vietnamese over the next two years is a reasonable and honorable response to a tragic human situation. The United States can do nothing less.
Those citizens who are unemployed or who are financially pinched by inflation and high taxes have understandable fears that the nation is taking on yet another burden while their problems remain unsolved. But those fears are based on a misconception of the facts.
About 60 per cent of the refugees are children, while many others are elderly persons too old to enter the job market. Thus, only 30,000 of the Vietnamese refugees are heads of households and likely to seek work. Of these, many are doctors, lawyers and businessmen who can readily find places for themselves in American life and contribute needed skills.
What is harder than the fears of the unemployed to explain and justify is the antagonism of many members of Congress, including well-known liberals, and other leaders of opinion throughout the country. Several liberal members of the House of Representatives seem not to be aware that the war in Vietnam is over.
No nation is eager to welcome criminals, prostitutes, war profiteers, or practitioners of political torture. But it grossly distorts the whole nature of the refugee problem to focus on the tiny minority of persons who might deserve one or another of those terms of of opprobrium, or to exaggerate their number. There is no possible way to make a just determination about the political or moral character of individual refugees.
If some Vietnamese engaged in dirty work they usually had American advisers or were financed by American money. In some respects it was a dirty war. But now that it has all ended badly, it would be the ultimate disgrace for Americans to turn their backs and adopt a holier-than-thou attitude toward those Vietnamese who aligned themselves with the American war effort in their
country.
It is likewise blatantly contradictory to play upon fears that the Vietnamese may take away jobs or end up on welfare rolls and at the same time argue that many of them are too rich to deserve help.
Most of these refugees have lost all of their worldly possessions. Many are separated from loved ones. All have lost their country, a lasting sorrow that perhaps only other migrants and exiles can fully comprehend. They deserve to be cherished as fellow human being and given a welcoming hand as new Americans.
George Meany, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., has pledged the labor movement's help – even in this time of economic adversity – to assist the Vietnamese refugees to find jobs. "The United States has an inescapable moral responsibility," Mr. Meany observed "We are a nation of immigrants. Rejecting them would be denying our heritage and the history of this country as a haven for the oppressed."
No matter what one may have thought about the rights and wrongs of the Vietnam war, those words express the true American tradition.