Patsy T. Mink: “the hypocrisy of all of this is that the French Government has for some time now put itself on record declaring that it…”

“the hypocrisy of all of this is that the French Government has for some time now put itself on record declaring that it would abide by a test ban treaty. It declared a moratorium. It specified their commitment to the concept of no tests by any of these nuclear powers and, in doing so, encouraged all of these other nations to join in this tremendously, highly moral commitment that we are not ever going to have any more of these nuclear tests anywhere in the world. When they came out in June with their announcement that, notwithstanding the moratorium that they had declared, that they were going to proceed with these tests, to me that was a violation of the confidence and trust that the peoples of this area had placed in their earlier pronouncements. That to me was a devastating reversal of their government's policies. I agree with you that coming to this Chamber next week is a very very disappointing event. I regret that our leadership has extended such an invitation. I hope that our Members will understand the depth of our feelings about this issue and not grace this Chamber when the President appears at the joint session.”