THE DRASTIC CUT in foreign aid funds recommended by the
House Appropriations Committee poses a threat to free world security.
It makes no sense at all to
make speeches against the spread of communism, to deplore instability in
Latin America and Asia, to call for an increase in American prestige and
an initiative in Eastern Europe - and then vote to cut back the Alliance
for Progress, to hamper the Peace Corps, to repudiate our long-term commitments
of last year and to undermine the efforts of those who are seeking to stave
off chaos and communism in the most vital areas of the world. Foreign aid
has increasingly meant trade, sales and jobs in this country, and reform,
progress and new hope in the developing countries.
The Aid program is just as important
as any military spending we do abroad. You cannot separate guns from roads
and schools when it comes to resisting Communist subversion in under-developed
countries. This is a lesson we have learned clearly in South Vietnam and
elsewhere in Southeast Asia. To mutilate the aid program in this
massive fashion would be to damage the national security of the United
States.
I cannot believe that those
in both parties who have consistently voted in the course of three administrations
to fulfill this nation's obligations of leadership will permit this irresponsible
action to go uncorrected.