John Kerry: “this is an amendment that seeks to address yet another painful chapter in the long legacy of painful chapters with…”

“this is an amendment that seeks to address yet another painful chapter in the long legacy of painful chapters with respect to Vietnam, and it specifically addresses what some might characterize as our own form of a bureaucratic Phoenix Program that sought to eliminate from existence a group of commandos who served faithfully during the war under our organizational effort and command effort. This amendment would reimburse this group of commandos for their years of incarceration in North Vietnamese prisons while they served in the mutual cause with us in the war in Vietnam. What the amendment seeks to do is to authorize $20 million for payment to Vietnamese personnel who infiltrated into North Vietnam to perform covert operations during the Vietnam era and who were captured and incarcerated by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Under the amendment, a lump-sum payment of $40,000 would be provided to each claimant determined eligible by the Secretary of Defense, and I am pleased to say that the administration has worked very closely in designing this amendment and in signing off on it and now fully supports it, as do, I believe, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee and the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee.”