Political Quotes

“I wish to speak against the Smith amendment which would prohibit funding for economic assistance to Vietnam. I just visited Vietnam 2 months ago and I believe that this amendment would move us in exactly the wrong direction as we attempt to encourage economic and political change in Vietnam. There is a tremendous entrepreneurial spirit pervading the streets of Hanoi. All along the narrow, winding streets you will find small stores crammed in next to each other, selling every thing under the Sun-- books, postcards, clothes, car parts. The people of Vietnam very clearly want to have their own businesses. They want to trade. They clearly want a market economy, but they need help to develop it. The foreign operations bill provides funding for us to provide assistance to teach them economic and legal reforms. This type of assistance will only encourage the country to move farther away from socialism and closer to a Western-style market system. Moreover, this is just the type of reform that United States business leaders in Hanoi told me they need to see in Vietnam. It is very much in American commercial interests to have investment and especially legal reforms in Vietnam. U.S. businesses are losing money now, but they continue to do business there because they believe change is coming to both the country and the region as a whole and that change will be profitable for them.”