78-01-A5

- Main Page \ Reagan Radio Commentaries \ 1978

<< Previous Broadcast

Next Broadcast >>

Human Rights I

Transcript If human rights are denied to a people over a long enough period of time do they become ineligible for such rights? The answer to that as we listen to the voices raised in Washington would seem to be, "yes they do lose those rights." U.S. government representatives have been meeting in Paris with representatives of North Vietnam. The announced reason for the meeting is to open the door to friendship and to enter into an era of normal relations. The only two sticking points seem to be our demand for an answer as to the whereabouts or the fate of some 2,500 of our men listed as missing in action. And, on the North Vietnamese side, their demand for about $3 billion they say we promised in the Paris Peace accords to repair all the battle damage to both North and South Vietnam. Now those Paris Peace accords were signed by us, the South Vietnamese government and the Communist regime of North Vietnam. And it's true we agreed to put up the money. But the accords also called for North Vietnam to quit trying to conquer South Vietnam and to immediately give us an accounting of our men. Haven't our negotiators overlooked what should be the first issue to be settled before there is any talk about friendship or rebuilding any part of Vietnam? There were two Vietnams, north and south. They had been separate nations for 1000 years. Both became colonial possessions of France in what was known as French Indo-China and both were freed a few years after World War II as one after another of the European colonial empires were liquidated. Vietnam returned to its pre-colonial status as separate nations. The great powers in Geneva set down a plan, first, to allow the people of both countries to move to which ever of the two they chose without interference and, second, for an internationally supervised election by the people as to whether they wanted to unite or continue as separate nations. The Communist dictator of North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, refused to hold the election and when a million of his people started moving south away from Communism (under the terms of the agreement) his troops barricaded the frontier and halted the migration. The Vietnamese war was a plain and simple effort by North Vietnam to conquer South Vietnam. We tried to prevent this in a long, bloody war which our government refused to win. But now how do we negotiate with North Vietnam unless we begin with Step One--the release of half-a-million South Vietnamese now in concentration camps and the North Vietnamese withdrawal from South Vietnam, leaving it once again a free and independent nation. For that matter how did we agree to North Vietnam's entry into the United Nations which specifically demands that its member nations do not take up arms against their neighbor? Until South Vietnam is freed, North Vietnam is still an outlaw among nations. Time's up, but next air time I'll continue with some other nonexistent human rights we've forgotten lately.		Details Batch Number 78-01-A5 Production Date 01/09/1978 Book/Page RihoH-53 Audio Youtube? No
		Added Notes