Mark Hatfield: “A number of years ago when, I believe, President Bush was still President and made a trip to the Baltics, he found that…”

“A number of years ago when, I believe, President Bush was still President and made a trip to the Baltics, he found that even though the Soviet Union had ceased to exist in reality, that the Baltic Governments that had emerged out of that former Iron Curtain power base of the Soviet Union, that those occupation troops, particularly the officers within the occupation of the Baltics, were not going back to Russia, were not returning home. They were remaining in the Baltics. They were wearing their uniforms, and that gave the new Baltic Governments great concern as to the intentions, and what have you. Upon a careful analysis, they found that the Russians were not returning home because they had no housing to return to. The housing market had just been totally demolished over the years, and they found better housing in the Baltics.”