Dan Sullivan Promotes Resolution To Recognize 'Extraordinary Sacrifice' Of Vietnam Veterans

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During remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) spoke about bill to recognize the mistreatment of Vietnam Veterans and honor them for their service.

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Transcript

00:00Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be permitted to speak up to 15 minutes prior

00:05to the scheduled roll call vote.

00:07Without objection.

00:08Mr. President, I have a resolution that I'm looking forward to passing here on the Senate

00:12floor.

00:13I'm pretty sure no one's going to object to it.

00:14We'll see in a minute.

00:15But before I begin, I want to do a huge shout out and congratulations to Alaska's own Aliev

00:23Kelter and the U.S. women's rugby team.

00:29Thanks to Aliev's score late in the first half, the Americans beat the vaunted Australians

00:37in rugby to deliver the women's rugby team's first Olympic medal in rugby sevens.

00:46So great job, Aliev.

00:48Great job to the American women's rugby team, getting some medals there for our great nation.

00:56So Mr. President, I'm here on the floor today to ask unanimous consent for a long, long

01:05overdue resolution.

01:08And it's a resolution that I guarantee most Americans are going to be like, what?

01:12Wait, what?

01:14We haven't done that yet.

01:15The Senate, the Congress hasn't done that yet.

01:19And it's a resolution on this, recognizing the heroic service of our Vietnam veterans

01:27and finally issuing an apology, yes, for the way in which tens of thousands of them were

01:36treated when they came home after serving their nation.

01:42So that's what I'm going to do right here.

01:45I was told a couple minutes ago someone was going to object, and I was like, whoa, really?

01:50Let's have that debate.

01:52Let's have that debate.

01:54But Mr. President, good news, no objection.

01:59So what I wanted to do briefly is just explain the reasoning behind this resolution.

02:05And I think as a country, when you look at the broad sweep of American history, we have

02:12always rightfully respected, lionized, and celebrated America's veterans.

02:21Think about it.

02:22In the last several decades, the World War II generation, we even have a name for them,

02:28the greatest generation, sacrificed over 400,000 Americans killed in action, saving the world

02:37from dictatorships in Europe and in the Pacific, the greatest generation literally defending

02:45freedom all over the world when they came home.

02:50And to this day, we celebrate them, we lionize them, ticker tape parades, as it should be.

02:57At that moment in our history, the respect for our veterans was sky high.

03:03Then you had the Korean War.

03:05And unfortunately, in my view, I'm a Korean War history buff, and I've studied this a lot,

03:12you had kind of an attitude of benign neglect.

03:17Even the phrase, the forgotten war, which I don't like, should be called the noble war,

03:22actually, kind of indicates this benign neglect.

03:25The veterans came home, people didn't really celebrate what they did, wasn't really like

03:32World War II.

03:34It was just kind of, okay, get on with your life, you did your duty, they sacrificed,

03:39of course.

03:40But there wasn't a lot, it was kind of benign neglect, as I mentioned.

03:45And then, Mr. President, the Vietnam War happened.

03:51And then, we all know what happened, but to this day, I think most Americans maybe don't

03:56even understand what happened.

03:59But there's no doubt our country went off kilter.

04:02And the respect given to our service members, World War II certainly at the high level,

04:07even the Korean War, benign neglect, this respect hit rock bottom.

04:12It hit rock bottom.

04:15And you know, it's just really sad.

04:17We all have heard stories of veterans coming home, corporals, enlisted guys, young officers,

04:23they did their duty.

04:25Some of whom were drafted, said, it's my turn to go.

04:29And for whatever reason, Vietnam was, of course, very contentious.

04:34But for whatever reason, when they came home, a lot of people in the American public took

04:38it out on them.

04:40Slander, spit upon, all kinds of horrible epitaphs.

04:46I remember, Mr. President, one of my first mess nights as a Marine officer, I was a brand

04:53new second lieutenant.

04:54We had a mess night with a lot of these old retired Marines.

04:59Very formal, sacred setting in many ways.

05:03One of the officers there talked about how he came home from Vietnam, his dad was a World

05:08War II vet, he had been in 12 months of combat, came home to see his father, hugged his dad,

05:16they're walking outside of the airport, and somebody threw red paint on him and his dad.

05:24Could you imagine that?

05:26You just sacrificed for your country?

05:29You're in uniform with your father, who's a World War II vet?

05:34What did we do that for?

05:37I don't know if there's ever going to be an answer.

05:40But this happened literally to tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans.

05:47And it shouldn't have happened, Mr. President, but it did.

05:51So what we can do here in the Senate is just say, hey, we recognize your great service.

05:56It wasn't easy.

05:58You were doing your duty.

06:02And if you were treated horribly, which a lot of them were when they came home, again,

06:07maybe you go attack President Johnson or President Nixon, not attack, but criticize

06:13them, but why take it out on the Lance Corporal?

06:16That's what happened.

06:18Shouldn't have happened.

06:19So what we can do here, Mr. President, and we're going to do it in a second, I'm really

06:22glad no one's objecting, hope no one's objecting, is that my resolution, Senate Resolution 778,

06:30it's got a lot of senators supporting it, is simply acknowledging the courage and sacrifice

06:36of our veterans from the Vietnam War and apologizing for the treatment so many of them received

06:43when they came home.

06:45Pretty simple.

06:47And welcome them home, finally, from the U.S. Senate.

06:52This resolution lays out their heroic service.

06:55It talks about the sacrifice, 58,000 members of the armed forces lost their lives.

07:02More than 300,000 Americans were wounded in Vietnam, and yet many who served bravely

07:11and faithfully to the United States during the Vietnam War were repeatedly targeted with

07:15shameful attacks when they came home.

07:19Why?

07:20I don't know.

07:21That never really happened in our history before, and it should never happen again.

07:25And Mr. President, here's the beautiful thing about our Vietnam vets.

07:31Instead of being wracked and incapacitated by bitterness or anger, our Vietnam veterans,

07:36and I've seen it throughout my career in the military, when they came home, they said,

07:42here's what we're going to do.

07:43We're treated really poorly.

07:44We're going to work really hard to make sure the next generation of veterans that serve

07:49overseas aren't treated poorly, that we get back to this level of World War II treatment.

07:58And guess what, Mr. President?

07:59The Vietnam vets succeeded in that.

08:03The vast majority of Americans, they look at our veterans, whether they agreed with

08:08a war in Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere else, when they see the vets, they say, thank you.

08:14Heroic service.

08:15We might not have liked the war, but we're certainly not going to take it out on you,

08:19Lieutenant or Corporal.

08:21And that group, our Vietnam vets, they had a lot to do with us bringing them back to

08:28that level.

08:29I saw this throughout my entire military career.

08:32I just retired out of the Marine Corps a few months ago after 30 years.

08:37I'll give you one example, Mr. President.

08:39I had a sergeant, one of my Marine recon units, who was killed by an avalanche in Alaska.

08:48Great guy.

08:49And so we're having a service to bury him.

08:52Very somber.

08:54I was just a captain, but I was the lead officer overseeing this service.

09:01And these guys pull up in motorcycles, Vietnam vets, there's like five of them at this service,

09:10just sitting there.

09:14After the service, they came up to me, I said, hey, thank you guys for coming to the service

09:18of my sergeant.

09:19I said, did you know him?

09:21Nope.

09:22We didn't know him.

09:25We just saw that he was killed and we wanted to come here to honor him.

09:33Think about that.

09:34Those are Vietnam veterans in my great state of Alaska who probably didn't get treated

09:40well and said we're going to go to the funeral of this Marine sergeant to make sure he gets

09:45the respect that everybody should have gotten.

09:50And certainly that the Vietnam vet generation should have gotten, but so many didn't.

09:55So this resolution, Mr. President, does that.

09:59It recognizes the extraordinary sacrifice of our Vietnam vets, commends them for their

10:04courage and sacrifice, urges the president and on behalf of the Congress to formally

10:10acknowledge the widespread mistreatment of veterans of the Vietnam War when they came

10:16back home and offers on behalf of the Congress a long overdue apology and encourages and

10:25expresses support for increased educations in the schools of the United States to reflect

10:32on and learn about the courage and sacrifice of this group of veterans.

10:39And unfortunately, sometimes a lack of support when they came home.

10:42So that's what the resolution does, Mr. President.

10:46And so, Mr. President, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding Rule 22, I ask

10:52unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the consideration of Senate Resolution 778, which

11:00is at the desk.

11:02The clerk will report.

11:04S. Res. 778, a resolution acknowledging the courage and sacrifice of veterans of the Vietnam

11:09War and expressing regret for the mistreatment of veterans returning home from the war.

11:16Without objection, the Senate will proceed.

11:19I ask unanimous consent, Mr. President, the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed

11:25to and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening

11:31action or debate.

11:33Is there objection?

11:35Without objection.

11:36Thank you, Mr. President.

11:37And with that, given that there is no objection, that Senate resolution has now passed in the

11:45United States, unanimously is on record, finally in 2024, thanking our Vietnam veterans for

11:55their service, for their sacrifice, acknowledging the mistreatment they got when they came home

12:02welcoming them home and saying on behalf of the Congress of the United States, we do apologize

12:09for the mistreatment that you received.

12:12And we know that you are the key to making sure future generations of veterans are honored.

12:19So to our Vietnam vets, welcome home.

12:24I yield the floor.

Dan Sullivan Promotes Resolution To Recognize 'Extraordinary Sacrifice' Of Vietnam Veterans

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