[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 124 (Tuesday, July 30, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5572-S5573]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




ACKNOWLEDGING THE COURAGE AND SACRIFICE OF VETERANS OF THE VIETNAM WAR 
 AND EXPRESSING REGRET FOR THE MISTREATMENT OF VETERANS RETURNING HOME 
                              FROM THE WAR

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I am here on the floor today to ask 
unanimous consent for a long, long overdue resolution. It is a 
resolution that I guarantee most Americans are going to be like: What? 
Wait. What? We haven't done that yet? The Senate, the Congress, hasn't 
done that yet?
  It is a resolution on this: recognizing the heroic service of our 
Vietnam veterans and finally issuing an apology--yes--for the way in 
which tens of thousands of them were treated when they came home after 
serving their Nation.
  So that is what I am going to do right here. I was told a couple of 
minutes ago that someone was going to object, and I was like: Whoa. 
Really? Let's have that debate. Let's have that debate.
  But good news: no objection. So what I wanted to do briefly is just 
explain the reasoning behind this resolution.
  I think, as a country, when you look at the broad sweep of American 
history, we have always rightfully respected, lionized, and celebrated 
America's veterans--think about it--in the last several decades.
  The World War II generation--we even have a name for them: the 
``greatest generation''--sacrificed over 400,000 Americans killed in 
action, saving the world from dictatorships in Europe and in the 
Pacific. The ``greatest generation'' literally defended freedom all 
over the world. When they came home--and to this day--we celebrated 
them, and we lionized them with ticker-tape parades, as it should be. 
At that moment in our history, the respect for our veterans was sky-
high.
  Then you had the Korean war, and unfortunately, in my view--I am a 
Korean war history buff, and I have studied this a lot--you had kind of 
an attitude of benign neglect. Even the phrase the ``forgotten war,'' 
which I don't like--it should be called the noble war, actually--kind 
of indicates this benign neglect. The veterans came home. People didn't 
really celebrate what they did. It wasn't really like World War II. It 
was just kind of, OK, get on with your life; you did your duty. They 
sacrificed, of course, but there wasn't a lot--it was kind of benign 
neglect, as I mentioned.

  Then the Vietnam war happened, and we all know what happened, but to 
this day, I think most Americans maybe don't even understand what 
happened, but there is no doubt our country went off-kilter, and the 
respect given to our servicemembers--World War II was certainly at the 
high level, even the Korean war with its benign neglect--this respect 
hit rock bottom. It hit rock bottom.
  You know, it is just really sad. We all have heard stories of 
veterans coming home--corporals, enlisted guys, young officers. They 
did their duty. Some of them were drafted and said: It is my turn to 
go. For whatever reason--Vietnam was, of course, very contentious, but 
for whatever reason, when they came home, a lot of people in the 
American public took it out on them--slandered, spit upon, all kinds of 
horrible epitaphs.
  I remember one of my first mess nights as a Marine officer--I was a 
brandnew second lieutenant, and we had a mess night with a lot of these 
old retired marines--a very formal, sacred setting in many ways. One of 
the officers there talked about how he came home from Vietnam. His dad 
was a World War II vet. He had been in 12 months of combat. He came 
home to see his father. He hugged his dad. They were walking outside of 
the airport, and somebody threw red paint on him and his dad. Could you 
imagine that? You just sacrificed for your country. You are in uniform 
with your father, who is a World War II vet. What did we do that for? I 
don't know if there is ever going to be an answer. But this happened 
literally to tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans. It shouldn't have 
happened, but it did.
  So what we can do here in the Senate is just say: Hey, we recognize 
your great service. It wasn't easy. You were doing your duty. And if 
you were treated horribly--which a lot of them were when they came 
home--again, maybe you go attack President Johnson or President Nixon--
not attack but criticize them--but why take it out on the lance 
corporal? That is what happened, and it shouldn't have happened.
  So what we can do here--and we are going to do it in a second. I am 
really glad no one is objecting. I hope no one is objecting. My 
resolution, S. Res. 778, has a lot of Senators supporting it. It is 
simply acknowledging the courage and sacrifice of our veterans from the 
Vietnam war and apologizing for the treatment that so many of them 
received when they came home--pretty simple--and welcoming them home, 
finally, from the U.S. Senate.

[[Page S5573]]

  This resolution lays out their heroic service. It talks about the 
sacrifice. Mr. President, 58,000 members of the Armed Forces lost their 
lives. More than 300,000 Americans were wounded in Vietnam. Yet many 
who served bravely and faithfully to the United States during the 
Vietnam war were repeatedly targeted with shameful attacks when they 
came home. Why? I don't know. That never really happened in our history 
before, and it should never happen again.
  Here is the beautiful thing about our Vietnam vets: Instead of being 
wracked and incapacitated by bitterness or anger, our Vietnam 
veterans--and I have seen it throughout my career in the military--when 
they came home, they said: Here is what we are going to do. We were 
treated really poorly. We are going to work really hard to make sure 
that the next generations of veterans who serve overseas aren't treated 
poorly, that we get back to this level of World War II treatment.
  Guess what. The Vietnam vets succeeded in that. The vast majority of 
Americans look at our veterans--whether they agreed with the war in 
Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere else, when they see the vets, they say: 
Thank you for your heroic service. We may not have liked the war, but 
we are certainly not going to take it out on you, lieutenant or 
corporal.
  That group--our Vietnam vets--had a lot to do with us getting back to 
that level.
  I saw this throughout my entire military career. I just retired out 
of the Marine Corps a few months ago after 30 years. I will give you 
one example. I had a sergeant from one of my Marine Recon units who was 
killed by an avalanche in Alaska--a great guy. So we were having a 
service to bury him. It was very somber. I was just a captain, but I 
was the lead officer overseeing this service. These guys pulled up on 
motorcycles--Vietnam vets. There were like five of them at this 
service, just sitting there.
  After the service, they came up to me.
  I said: Hey, thank you, guys, for coming to the service of my 
sergeant.
  I said: Did you know him?
  No, we didn't know him. We just saw that he was killed, and we wanted 
to come here to honor him.
  Think about that. Those are Vietnam veterans in my great State of 
Alaska who probably didn't get treated well but who said: We are going 
to go to the funeral of this Marine sergeant to make sure he gets the 
respect that everybody should have gotten and certainly that the 
Vietnam vet generation should have gotten, but so many didn't.
  So this resolution does that. It recognizes the extraordinary 
sacrifice of our Vietnam vets. It commends them for their courage and 
sacrifice. It urges the President and on behalf of the Congress to 
formally acknowledge the widespread mistreatment of veterans of the 
Vietnam war when they came back home. It offers, on behalf of the 
Congress, a long overdue apology, and it encourages and expresses 
support for increased education in the schools of the United States to 
reflect on and learn about the courage and sacrifice of this group of 
veterans and, unfortunately, sometimes the lack of support when they 
came home. So that is what the resolution does.
  Mr. President, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule 
XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the 
consideration of S. Res. 778, which is at the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The senior assistant executive clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 778) acknowledging the courage and 
     sacrifice of veterans of the Vietnam war and expressing 
     regret for the mistreatment of veterans returning home from 
     the war.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. SULLIVAN. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed 
to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be 
considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or 
debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 778) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  (The resolution, with its preamble, is printed in today's Record 
under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')
  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, with that, given that there is no 
objection, that Senate resolution has now passed in the United States. 
It unanimously is on record finally, in 2024, thanking our Vietnam 
veterans for their service, for their sacrifice; acknowledging the 
mistreatment they got when they came home; welcoming them home; and 
saying, on behalf of the Congress of the United States, we do apologize 
for the mistreatment that you received, and we know that you are the 
key to making sure future generations of veterans are honored.
  So to our Vietnam vets, welcome home.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.

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