Political Quotes

“I want to join with my distinguished colleagues on both sides of this issue who have a genuine commitment to the highest obligation of government, and that is the issue of full accountability for American servicemen who are unaccounted for from the Vietnam war. I would also like to advise my colleagues, some of whom have come into the Senate in the last few years, that I am no stranger to this particular issue. Back in 1986, as chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, I held extensive hearings on the matter of MIA/POW full accountability and encouraged extended testimony, which the record in the Veterans Affairs Committee supports. As part of those hearings, I worked with the League of Missing Families and other veterans' organizations in an effort to collect as much information as possible on the issue of POWs/MIAs from the Vietnam war. Mr. President, I cannot tell you the anguish that Senator Cranston and I had--at that time, we were in the majority and Senator Cranston was the ranking member of that committee--as day by day we hoped that we would receive some firsthand information on charges that American soldiers were left behind at the end of the war and were being held against their will in Vietnamese prisons.”