Elizabeth Dole: “Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the Kerry second-degree amendment to the McCain amendment. While I applaud the…”

“Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the Kerry second-degree amendment to the McCain amendment. While I applaud the Vietnamese Government for the real progress it has made on POW-MIA accountability issues, repeated Vietnamese Government violations of international human rights standards require that I oppose the lifting of sanctions at this time. I simply cannot in good conscience support any significant change in the current United States-Vietnam political or economic relationship that does not expressly link any change to progress on human rights. I have great respect for my good friend from Massachusetts and my colleague from Arizona, but they have not and cannot prove their principal rationale for lifting the embargo.”