Jeff Jacoby thinks we've put too much emphasis on John Kerry's four short months in Vietnam 30 years ago and not enough on what the living conditions are for the 80 million Vietnamese citizens today:
Few Americans have made an issue of Vietnam's harsh denial of political and religious liberty. One who has is Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey, an outspoken defender of human rights worldwide and author of a bill linking growth in US aid to Vietnam to "substantial progress" in Vietnam's human rights record. Smith's bill, the Vietnam Human Rights Act, passed the House by an overwhelming 410-1 vote in 2001. But it never got a hearing or a vote in the Senate, where it was blocked by the then-chairman of the East Asian and Pacific Affairs subcommittee -- John Kerry.Posted by dan at August 9, 2004 04:21 PM