[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 17 (Thursday, February 24, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 24, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                E X T E N S I O N   O F   R E M A R K S


                            VIETNAM EMBARGO

                                 ______


                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 24, 1994

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, the Clinton administration has just made 
one of the most outrageous and unspeakable policy decisions I have seen 
in my 16 years in Congress.
  Lifting our trade embargo against the heinous Government of Vietnam 
is a slap in the face of every veteran of a foreign war, every family 
member of such a veteran, and anyone who truly believes in freedom.
  The Clinton administration has just given away the last bit of 
leverage we had to get a full accounting of our missing.
  Sure, Hanoi will offer up bits and pieces of evidence on the way to 
full diplomatic relations.
  But with the embargo lifted, the skids are already greased for this. 
The logic of lifting the embargo leads inexorably toward establishing 
full diplomatic relations, and Hanoi knows this.
  Thus, they now have no incentive to really come clean on the MIA 
issue.
  Unless, of course, one believes that the regime in Hanoi thinks like 
we do, and will respond to kind gestures. Indeed, this is precisely the 
mentality of those who supported lifting the embargo all these years.
  Just be nice to them, and they will be nice to us, right?
  Well, Mr. Speaker, that is a lot of hogwash. The Vietnamese regime 
does not think like us.
  The regime in Hanoi is an unelected, illegitimate, Communist 
dictatorship, with one of the worst human rights record in the world.
  Evey major human rights monitoring organization, including the 
President's own State Department, acknowledges this.
  This is the same regime that signed the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 
and began violating them immediately.
  This is the same regime that invaded South Vietnam in 1975 with 
Soviet tanks, forcing our disgraceful final withdrawal, aided and 
abetted by liberal American politicians.
  And, Mr. Speaker, this is the same regime that lied about how many of 
our men it was holding at the time of the peace accords. We know this 
for a fact.
  And just who is it that believes all of this hogwash about Hanoi's 
good intentions, Mr. Speaker?
  Well, lo and behold, it is the same people who got it wrong on 
Vietnam in the first place.
  The same ones who cheered on our enemies 25 years ago.
  The same ones who told us that the Viet Cong, the Viet Minh and, yes, 
even the Khmer Rouge were just ``agrarian reformers.''
  The same people who denied that Ho Chi Minh was a Communist, despite 
the fact that he founded the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930.
  The same ones who got it wrong about the Soviets, the cold war, 
Euromissiles and the Sandinistas.
  Remember the doctrine of moral equivalence? The nuclear freeze? 
Bumper stickers that said ``Nicaragua Is Not Our Enemy?''
  The list is endless. These people were wrong about all of these 
things over three decades, and they are wrong about Vietnam today.
  They never understood the fundamental nature of Communist 
totalitarianism, Mr. Speaker.
  They never understood, and still don't understand, that when talking 
about Communist countries, it is imperative to distinguish between 
rulers and ruled.
  That is why it is folly to think that we are doing the Vietnamese 
people a favor by lifting the embargo.
  And that is why it is folly to believe that this action will induce 
the Hanoi tyrants to be more forthcoming about our MIA's.
  Indeed, the thinking of those who supported lifting the embargo is so 
far off base that it is hard to believe that they really believe their 
own rhetoric.
  In my view, what we have here is an attempt--yet another attempt--by 
those who were on the wrong side of history to wash their hands of that 
history.
  I can imagine the guilt that some of these people must feel, Mr. 
Speaker.
  They cheered on guerrilla movements and regimes that turned out to be 
barbarian enemies of America.
  They refused to support our troops and then watched 58,000 of them 
die and hundreds of thousands more get wounded.
  They hounded us out of Vietnam and, oops, then they realized that 
some of our boys were still there.
  And, of course, their beloved cause, socialism, has disintegrated 
before their eyes, unmasking what has been an unspeakable nightmare for 
scores of countries and billions of human beings.
  This guilt has to be especially deep for draft dodgers, Mr. Speaker.
  Imagine, in addition to all of the above rude awakenings, having to 
live with the fact that, due to your cowardice and selfishness, someone 
else may have died in Vietnam.
  But instead of admitting that they were on the wrong side of history;
  Instead of admitting that they aided and abetted a barbaric enemy 
during Vietnam and the cold war;
  Instead of admitting that they were selfish;
  Or that they were cowards;
  These people have chosen, once again, the easy and selfish way out.
  They have washed their hands of history, so that the final rewriting 
of it can begin.
  It all makes me sick to my stomach, Mr. Speaker.

                          ____________________