Political Quotes

“I think one thing that I want to add, and also for our colleagues to know, this is not a Pacific issue. I think this is something that we need to kind of widen our perspectives and think just because you and I are from this region of the world that this makes it somewhat un-American. The fact of the matter is, the United States is a Pacific Nation. The fact is that we conducted 160 nuclear bomb explosions in the Marshall Islands in the late fifities and early sixties. I might also add that we had to stop doing these tests because what happened was they found strontium 90, a by-product of nuclear contamination, in dairy products in the State of Wisconsin and other States. What happens, all of a sudden, everybody says, ``Oh, it is a hazard to our health to conduct these nuclear tests.'' Despite our efforts to tell France, do not do this, they went right ahead and conducted these tests. I might also note to the good gentleman's comments about the nuclear tests that were conducted in 1979. They drilled a hole or shaft in this atoll, which was supposed to be 2,600 feet, where the bomb was to explode. The thing went down halfway and got stuck. Guess what? They went right ahead and exploded that bomb, which caused not only a tidal wave, but tons of fish and all forms of marine life totally contaminated in the explosion they conducted in 1979. That is just one incident.…”