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[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 74 (Friday, May 5, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6224-S6225]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

         REMEMBERING VIETNAM 20 YEARS AFTER THE END OF THE WAR

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, on April 24, 1964, Sergeant First Class 
Raymond Adams, a 10-year Army veteran, was killed by a hand grenade in 
South Vietnam. Sergeant Adams was 30 years old and married. More than 8 
years later, on July 21, 1972, Specialist Fifth Class Steven Allen 
Trant died in South Vietnam. He was 21 years old, and had been in the 
Army less than a year.
  They were the first, and the last South Dakotans to die in Vietnam. 
In between their too early deaths, our country was changed utterly.
  More than 3 million Americans served in Vietnam. Hundreds of 
thousands were injured, some permanently, and more than 58,000 young 
Americans died in the war.
  Today, 20 years after the last helicopter lifted off the roof of the 
American embassy in Saigon we pause to say thank you to all of the men 
and women who served in that long, sad war and to remember those who 
did not return.
  One of the most important ways we can show our thanks, of course, is 
by making sure Vietnam veterans get the medical care and compensation 
they need for injuries they suffered in that war.
  Every man or woman who puts on a uniform is at risk of harm. They 
accept that risk as part of their service. In return, we, as a nation, 
must accept responsibility to care for men and women if they are harmed 
during their military service.
  Congress took a big step toward fulfilling that responsibility to 
Vietnam veterans in 1991 when we agreed to allow Vietnam veterans to 
receive compensation for nine different illnesses and disabilities 
caused by their exposure to agent orange.
  The National Academy of Sciences is now investigating possible links 
between agent orange exposure and other illnesses. I suspect that 
additional illnesses will be added to the list of ailments for which 
Vietnam veterans may be compensated in the future, and I support the 
Academy in its continuing research.
  It doesn't matter whether a wound is inflicted with a bullet or a 
piece of [[Page S6225]] shrapnel or a toxic defoliant. In each case, 
the wound is real, and so is our obligation to help the veteran who 
suffers it.
  We also need more research into our health concerns of Vietnam vets.
  In all, more than 682,000 Vietnam and Vietnam-era veterans are now 
disabled as a result of their military service.
  And a respected study by the independent Research Triangle institute 
estimates that more than 960,000 men who fought in Vietnam and 1,900 
women--nearly one in three Vietnam veterans--suffer from post-traumatic 
stress disorder. For some, the effects are few and fleeting. For 
others, they are chronic and debilitating.

  So as we mark this 20th anniversary of the end of our Nation's most 
painful period this century, let us remember the words of Abraham 
Lincoln as he spoke them in his second inaugural to the Nation still 
grieving from another terrible war that divided our Nation. He said:

       Let us strive to finish the work that we are in, to bind up 
     the Nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the 
     battle and for his widow and orphan, to do all which may 
     achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace.

  Let us show our thanks to Vietnam veterans this week, next week, and 
at all times in the future by pledging to give the Department of 
Veterans Affairs the resources it needs to keep the promises we made to 
all Vietnam veterans.
  Let us show our thanks by strengthening community-based veterans 
health care centers, by making a commitment to keep veterans centers 
vital and independent. These centers do not duplicate the work of VA 
hospitals. They serve different people with different needs, and we 
ought to maintain them.
  Finally, Mr. President, it is time for this Nation to move toward 
normalizing relations with Vietnam. I know the arguments against 
normalization, and I sympathize with them. I understand that the 
prospect of restoring diplomatic ties with Vietnam is painful to many 
Americans, especially those who have friends and family members among 
those who remain unaccounted for in Vietnam.
  Experience has shown that it is precisely by expanding our ties with 
Vietnam that we are most likely to learn what happened to soldiers who 
never returned.
  In the years when we had no contact with Vietnam, we made no progress 
on the question of those missing in action.
  So I stand with my colleagues, Senator McCain, Senator Bond, Senator 
Kerry of Massachusetts, and others on both sides of the aisle in urging 
that we move cautiously toward a fuller dialog with Vietnam in order to 
secure answers for the families and healing for our Nation.
  We can never repay Sgt. Raymond Adams and Specialist Steven Trant or 
any of the other 58,000 Americans who lost their lives in Vietnam, but 
we can show our respect and our gratitude, and we can continue the 
effort to bind up the Nation's wounds from a war that, in some ways, 
still divides us.

                          ____________________
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