[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 111 (Tuesday, July 11, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H6739]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


          WHY FORMAL RECOGNITION OF COMMUNIST VIETNAM IS WRONG

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Funderburk] is 
recognized during morning business for 1 minute.
  Mr. FUNDERBURK. Mr. Speaker, today President Clinton will formally 
recognize Communist Vietnam. While American diplomats toast the brutal 
Hanoi regime, this White House ignores the wishes of hundreds of POW/
MIA families and thousands of Vietnamese-Americans who fled their 
country to escape Communist tyranny.
  In 1992, candidate Clinton promised never to lift the trade embargo 
on the Hanoi communists unless and until there was a full accounting of 
American servicemen. Mr. Clinton then turned his back on our POW/MIA 
families claiming that Hanoi had changed. What change? Vietnam is one 
of the world's worst human rights abusers. Thousands are imprisoned for 
political and religious beliefs and Buddhist monks are once again 
threatening to immolate themselves on the streets. Hanoi continues to 
torture our POW/MIA families with the slow and selective release of 
information about their husbands and fathers.
  Mr. President, if you want to know why you are wrong listen to what 
my colleague Sam Johnson--7 years a prisoner of Hanoi--told the 
Washington Post about Vietnamese communists: ``They have always lied to 
us, and they are still lying to us. I see normalization as an attempt 
on their part to get access to American markets. They are not to be 
trusted.'' Mr. President, is breaking faith with hundreds of brave 
American families really worth the profits of the big multinationals 
bankrolling your reelection campaign?

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