May 7, 1975
Page 13313
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I would like to take a few moments to express a personal viewpoint, about the arrival of many thousands of refugees from South Vietnam. I am deeply concerned that this issue now threatens to divide us as a nation even as the war itself has divided us for so many years.
I hope that this will not be so – and that our country will welcome these new immigrants just as we have welcomed refugees from war and political oppression throughout our history. I speak to this issue as one who is himself the son of a refugee.
First, let me point out that the agony of Vietnam is over. America squandered much of her wealth, the lives of her young men, and much of her moral leadership in a policy that was wrong.
In our sensitivity to those consequences, let us not be insensitive to the suffering of Vietnam. The magnitude and depth of Vietnamese suffering exceeds our own. And we cannot simply forget that suffering. For the ledger of Vietnam will be part of this Nation's history forever.
We have the opportunity now to relieve a small part of that suffering, to make a positive, humane entry in that ledger. It is more than an opportunity, it is an obligation, a moral imperative.
I am not blind to the fact that some of the refugees are those who helped corrupt their own society. There may be some who are undesirable additions to our own society.
But the overwhelming majority are the middle class – the artisans, the scholars, technicians, minor officials, the women and children. They did not profit from war. They bring no secret bank accounts with them. They bought our aims unselfishly. They sacrificed much at our urging.
They have now fled Vietnam, fearing harsh retaliation. They are homeless, many are ill, their careers shattered, their dreams wiped away. Now all they have is the reality of their plight.
We can offer them hope in the refuge of our land. We can – and must – give them a new start in a new land.
This is not unusual or unprecedented in our history.
We are a Nation of refugees.
For more than three centuries we offered a new start to people of all races and nationalities. The Pilgrims and Puritans, Germans, Irish, Italians, Chinese, and scores of other groups who came here were refugees.
They came to avoid conscription, to escape political, religious, or social persecution, to rebuild mortgaged lives. They came because America welcomed them. The Nation gathered strength and vitality from them. Our powerful economy and rich culture was built by them.
My own father was a refugee. He fled from eastern Poland to avoid conscription in the czarist army. And when he fled, he came to America, the bright, hopeful refuge for the dispossessed of the world.
In recent years, we provided refuge for tens of thousands of Hungarians and hundreds of thousands of Cubans. They are now Hungarian Americans and Cuban Americans. They are productive people. They have prospered, and we have prospered.
We cannot turn our back on this history.
There are many who would, of course. Congressional mail has run strongly against aid to refugees. My own mail is no exception.
I believe that many of these opponents react impulsively to the frustration of seeing Vietnam collapse so quickly and completely. They would punish the wrongdoers, and classify all refugees as wrongdoers.
Others say that we cannot afford to help them. There are too many jobless and poor Americans already, to take on another burden.
But there are many others who in private acts of charity have aided the refugees. With quiet generosity, in small ways, they are breathing life into our history and responsibility.
I believe we must build on that private charity with legislation providing necessary aid.
If it may not seem momentarily popular, if rancor seems ascendant, if selfishness seems the order of the day, we must still act.
We must take on what all of us in public life must take on – leadership. We may be ahead of many Americans in exercising this leadership, but it must be done nevertheless. We must be honest and moral in this leadership.
Eight years ago, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke about the suffering of the Vietnamese. He urged the war's end and the repair of the damage. In calling for that, he said,
To be honest is to realize that the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of convenience and moments of comfort, but where he stands in moments of challenge, in moments of controversy.
We have that opportunity today. We in Congress and the American people have the opportunity to meet the challenge and reassert our moral leadership to the world. We can – and must – do no less.