Robert Torricelli: “Mr. Chairman, through the myriad of provisions of this legislation there is one common thread, one unmistakable common…”

“Mr. Chairman, through the myriad of provisions of this legislation there is one common thread, one unmistakable common purpose, and that is to reverse nearly one-half century of U.S. leadership, abdicating a leadership that through some of the most dangerous times in history has kept the peace, kept the peace through a system of international security. This is not, Mr. Chairman, a new debate in this Chamber. Democrats and Republicans through our history exchanged the mantle of isolationist leadership many times. But this legislation makes clear that that unfortunate title of leadership now strongly belongs to the Republican Party. Our Republican colleagues have every reason to be proud of the international leadership of Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, and Bush. But there was another Republican Party of Lodge who argued against a League of Nations and brought it to its death, of Burrow who argued against rearmament before the Second World War, and Vandenberg, to the very day of Pearl Harbor, argued against American involvement in the great international conflict. There is now no other interpretation of H.R. 7 available than that this Republican Party, having abandoned the traditions of the last generation, has returned to that earlier age.”