Political Quotes

“I want to comment on an issue that has bothered me for some time and that is finally getting proper attention: The sorry legacy of our Nation's nuclear testing program in the Pacific--which involved 66 nuclear explosions in the 1940's and 1950's. In particular, I have long believed that when the United States detonated the Bravo shot--a 17 megaton thermonuclear bomb--on Bikini Atoll, the people of the Marshall Islands, especially those residents on nearby Rongelap and Utirik Atolls, were deemed expendable. The U.S. Defense Department has admitted that when the explosion took place, it knew islanders were downwind and in the path of windborne radiation. Mr. Speaker, the Bravo explosion was equivalent to 1,300 times the destructive force of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. From my discussions with Marshall Island leaders, they believe their people were used as guinea pigs and test subjects for U.S. radiation experiments. I share that belief. Recently, Government documents have come to light that give weight to that position. Archive documents released by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and related Federal agencies show that U.S. scientists callously viewed the Marshall islanders as little better than laboratory mice.”