The following statement was submitted by US Senator Bob Smith at the hearing in the US Senate concerning the waiver of Jackson-Vanik amendment for Vietnam.

July 1, 1997

We, the members of the Free Vietnam Alliance would like to express our unequivocal support for Senate Joint Resolution 47 and HJR 120. Our reasons for supporting these resolutions are many, but foremost is the fact that many of us know first hand the living nightmare under communism.

Brevity prohibits any adequately detailed coverage of the outrages the Hanoi regime has committed, and continues to commit against the people of Vietnam.

Suffice to say that the State Department's own report on the matter paints a sufficiently bleak picture.

The reason the waiver clauses were added to the Jackson-Vanik amendment was to allow for exceptions in cases where there is a compelling national security interest, or where significant progress is being made in the human rights arena. Any possible benefit to American national security gained from granting the waiver to Hanoi at present is very small, very indirect, and very debatable. This hardly qualifies as a compelling national security interest. As far as human rights are concerned, while there have been small measures of progress in a few areas, the situation in Vietnam has worsened at least as often as it has improved. This is a far cry from significant progress. Clearly, Vietnam today does not qualify for a waiver under any but the most convoluted of logic.

We have to judge the government in Vietnam by its actions, not its words or symbolic gestures. Granting this waiver to such an obviously undeserving government will only serve to tarnish the moral authority of the United States. When a nation proclaims its commitment to democracy, yet gives waivers to unrepentant dictators, one cannot help but question the strength of that commitment. This nation was founded on the noblest of ideals; waivers such as the one in the Jackson-Vanik amendment should only be granted under the most compelling of circumstances. Anything less is done at the peril of dishonoring those ideals.