This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas http://dolearchives.ku.edu TRIBUTE SPEECH May 1, 1970 I want to begin by expressing, on behalf of all the wives and families of Captured and Missing American servicemen, gratitude to Senator Dole and his committee and all those who have worked so hard to make it possible for all of us to pay tribute here tonight to our men. We also thank all of you who have come here in person to show us that you do care and to demonstrate to the North Vietnamese that the American people do not condone their inhumane treatment of our loved ones. I think there may be some questions in the minds of many, about why the wives and families of American Prisoners of War and Americans listed as Missing in Action, remained silent for so long about the desperate plight of our men and then suddenly began to let the people of America and the free world know the truth about their circumstances. Many of our men have been listed as Captured and Missing for 4, 5 and 6 years now. For the major portion of that time, it was government policy to counsel the wives and families that they felt it was in the best interests of the men for us to re- main quiet about their situation, hoping in that way to soften the treatment our men were receiving in the hands of the Communists. Throughout that period of time, Hanoi repeatedly said that our men were being well-treated and because of the nature of their closed society, it has baken years for evidence to the contrary to be ac- cumulated. I, however, began accumulating my own evidence about the cruel and inhumane treatment of our loved ones more than four years ago. s-leg_475_020_001_A1b.pdf Page 1 of 4 This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas http://dolearchives.ku.edu Page 2. I am one of the very fortunate few who has ever heard from her husband and therefore I am not representative of the majority of the wives and families, more than 1100 of whom do not know tonight, and have not known for years, whether their husbands and sons are alive or dead. My husband was shot down over North Vietnam on September 9, 1965 and listed as missing in action. On April 15, 1966 I received two long four page letters from him, one written on December 26, 1965 and one on February 3, 1966. He told me that he would like to report on other acquaintances in his straits but that he had never seen another American since he was shot down. He told me he was injured, needed further medical treatment, had lost 30-40 pounds because it took energy to keep warm and of ways he tried to occupy his mind while he was alone. He also said that he had been told that he could expect to be given one letter a month from me and perhaps could write as often. In the subsequent total of his 15 letters and notes, he has reported that all was the same with him and in his most recent note which I received only a few days ago, he was either only physically able to complete 4 lines of a seven line form, a total of 38 words, or was only allowed to write that much. To the best of my knowledge, he has only been given 5 or 6 of the hundreds of letters I have sent to him. I knew that the wives of many of our men were suffering dread- ful daily torment because our men were not being accorded the basic standards of human decency in the civilized society. As a group of wives in similar circumstances in the San Diego area, we formed a local organization in 1967 to try to help our men. Several of us concluded that the North Vietnamese had demonstrated that it wanted s-leg_475_020_001_A1b.pdf Page 2 of 4 This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas http://dolearchives.ku.edu Page 3. to be regarded as a respectable and civilized society in the world community because of their oft-repeated claims that our men were being well treated. We knew that the North Vietnamese were violating even the most basic standards of human decency and we felt that America and the people of the free world should know the truth about what was happening to our men. We began to speak out in the Press in 1968 and were grateful when the U. S. government publicly expressed concern for our men in 1969. Through chain letter and word of mouth we have joined to- gether across the nation and the world in our efforts to make the world aware of the desperate plight of our men. We have tried to act with a dignity which reflects that which we seek for our loved ones. We have often asked U. S. government officials for counsel and advice but we have then made our own decisions independently. We have been appealing to people throughout the world, by letter and in person, to help us correct the deplorable situation imposed on our men and their families by the Communists. We have often paid our own expenses and in some cases have been sponsored in our efforts by civic groups and concerned citizens who wanted to help in this way. We are far from professional in our efforts because most of us have several young children and our time and resources are severly limited. We feel that recently the North Vietnamese have begun to respond to pressure from world opinion but the progress is painfully slow for so many who have waited for so long. No one person along can move the North Vietnamese but through our combined efforts, hopefully, the North Vietnamese will soon see the shortsightedness s-leg_475_020_001_A1b.pdf Page 3 of 4 This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas http://dolearchives.ku.edu Page 4. of incurring world disrespect for the sake of further using our men as political pawns in this conflict. We hope that you will want to help and that you will write letters and encourage others to do the same. When you ask yourself whether you have the time to do this, and whether it is worthy of your effort, please remember that there may be as many as 1500 United States servicemen who have plenty of time to spare as they languish in solitary confinement in communist hands, and who are desparately dependent on your help. s-leg_475_020_001_A1b.pdf Page 4 of 4