Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Al Green) for organizing this Special Order. It is an honor to be here to advocate on behalf of one of America's citizens. I have the honor of chairing the Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs. I have been to Vietnam, and I got to meet with their Prime Minister, with their ambassadors, and with so many people over there. The Vietnamese people are a wonderful people. They have a society that is a communist society, but it is opening up. Vietnam has made great strides in the last 15 to 20 years, moving in the direction that we would like to see, with an open society, free markets, as much as they can be in a communist country. When I was there, the thing that surprised me was the vibrancy of the people, their outlook on life. They yearn for freedom and liberties, just like all people do. That is an innate thing that our creator has endowed all of us with, that yearning of freedom and liberty. I became aware of Michael Nguyen's plight. We have intervened on phone calls. We have written letters. We have talked to the incoming chair of ASEAN. We just asked them; I am not going to demand. I am not going to try to have a power game against Vietnam. But what I do want to do is just talk to them, human to human. We have an individual who left Vietnam, adopted America, and become an American citizen. {time} 2030 He has been a model citizen.…”