Samuel Nunn: “my bottom line is, I support the Mitchell resolution and oppose the Dole resolution. But I do have a lot of caveats…”

“my bottom line is, I support the Mitchell resolution and oppose the Dole resolution. But I do have a lot of caveats about it. The largest caveat about the whole debate is that we are in real danger in this country, not simply in the Senate. We are in real danger of concentrating so much on interests that are humanitarian and important that we do not focus on what is truly vital. What we do here today may very well have a bearing on one of our vital interests where tens of thousands of Americans are at risk, and that is Korea. I think everyone ought to keep that in mind. It is hard for me to conceive of a unilateral lifting of an embargo that has gone through the Security Council at the same time we are on the verge of having to request that same Security Council to put an embargo on Korea. We move against one that we voted for and say we are going to take this action unilaterally and, at the same time, we go to China and Russia and others on the Security Council and say, ``Now, go along with us on Korea, because we believe that is vital.'' We are in real danger of losing sight of the difference between important and humanitarian, and vital. America has a tremendous stake in Korea. If that one goes wrong, we will lose an awful lot of people. And I do agree with that part of what Senator Warner said a few minutes ago.…”