Political Quotes

“this is the 251st anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Speaker, in 1943 President Roosevelt dedicated one of the world's most beautiful memorials across the pond from where we are now, and inside the ring below the marble canopy are the stirring words that ring through history: ``Eternal vigilance against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.'' Mr. Speaker, that tyranny still exists in the Communist nation of Vietnam, and that is why I want to treat Vietnam the way we treated South Africa when the evil of apartheid was in full force, the way this House voted to treat China last year. I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me in a bill that, although lifting the embargo on Vietnam was a bad idea, that battle being behind us, it is time to look ahead with a similar set of principles, like the Sullivan principles that we applied to South Africa. Under my bill, Mr. Speaker, American nationals involved in business would be asked to, among other things, insist that those who served in the Vietnamese military government, as well as those who worked for, or assisted, the United States Government, are not discriminated against, and there are four other key points I do not have the time to go over, but I ask they be in the Record, Mr. Speaker, and I call this the Vietnam Code of Conduct Act for our United States businessmen to follow as they make, sometimes, 30 pieces of silver.”