SITU ATION IN SOUTH VETNAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP66B00403R000200150031-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 29, 2004
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: June 15, 1964
• Content Type: OPEN

1964
Approved Fo elease 2065/01/05 : CIA-RDP66B0046 000200150031-8
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE 13347
" c 4 oq'much of section 407 of the Social Security Act which precedes pars- graph (1) is amended by striking out 'under the age of eighteen' and inserting in lieu thereof 'who meets the requirements of sec- tion 406 (a) (2),', by inserting a comma after
'parent', and by striking out 'relatives specs- fled in section 406(a)' and inserting in lieu
Mr. MORSE. Mr. President, I am merit under the United Nations Charter
more convinced than ever, after listen- and the Geneva accords. We should stop
ing to the Secretary of State, that we are being an outlaw nation tested by. inter
heading for a major war in Asia if we nati
in Asia onal law.
our unilateral military action '
continue
. It is an unconscionable policy.
SEVENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY ANNI-
We should take the southeast Asia policy
q6 to the United Nations without further de- VERSARY OF FORMER SENATOR
", lay. We have that clear, moral duty PRENTISS M. BROWN
p
to the world and the cause of peace. Mr. MCNAMARA. Mr. President, I
Our conduct in southeast Asia, in my yield myself such time as I may need. I
SITUATION IN SOUTH VIETNAM
judgment, is irreconcilable with our in- shall be brief.
Mr. MORSE. Mr. President, I yield
ternational law obligations. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The
Today's New York Times publishes an Senator my proceed.
myself 2 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The
editorial that is typical of the "double Mr. McNAMARA. Mr. President, June
Oregon, is recognized for
think" that is characterizing American
Senator from 18 will mark the 75th birthday of Prentiss
M. Brown, a distinguished citizen of
Mr. President, this policy in Asia and those who speak for it.
Mr. MORSE. Michigan, and a former Member of the
The Times calls the United States "po-
morning the Secretary of State briefed liceman to the world." It points to our Senate.
.
Foreign ;Relations Committee on joint effort with the United Nations to
Senator Brown has had a long and
. and
southeast Asian American policy for keep peace in the Mediterranean. active career in business, politics,
more than 2 hours. I believe that at least But the Times conveniently overlooks
public office, and that career is contin-
90 percent of what he said should have the fact that we are making war, not
uing today almost unabated.
been in public instead of in executive yes- peace, in southeast Asia. "Independence
Born in 1889 in St. Ignace, Mich., on
sion. I told the Secretary of State at and a genuine neutrality are legitimate
the northern tip of the Straits of Macki-
the meeting, and on the record, that I goals," says the Times, just as though nac,
Prentiss Brown first attained pub-
was incorporating by reference every the United States were seeking independ-
lic office in 1914 as prosecuting attorney
speech that I have made for weeks in the ence or neutrality or both for the people for Mackinac county.
.
until 1926 and
against the State Department's of that area. He held that position
for St. Ignaee
policy in southeast Asia and` that I South Vietnam is not independent at served also as city attorney
stand by every word of criticism I have all. The Khanh government, and its
from 1916 to 1928.
-
made of that policy. two predecessors, is totally dependent, fl- Senator Brown began his congression
I also told him that I would welcome nancially and militarily, on the United
al career with election to the House of
the opportunity to meet him on any States for its existence. The United
Representatives for the 73d Congress-
platform, or on as many platforms as he States has quite carefully backed certain
taking office March 3, 1933.
wished to select, and debate before the military factions in Vietnam to make cer-
Reelected to the 74th Congress-he
American people what 'I consider to be tain that that country does not become
next ran for the Senate and served in
the State Department's unsound war- independent, because with true inde-
this body from November 19, 1936, until
making American policy in southeast pendence might come neutrality. The
January 3, 1943.
Asia. United States has come to fear a govern- After brief duty as Administrator of
It is my opinion that once again the ment in South Vietnam that might neu-
the_ Office of Price Administration in
Secretary of State did not give one sin- . tralize the country as much as it fears a
1943, Senator Brown returned to Michi-
gle valid reason for the warmaking pol- Vietcong victory.
gan to resume his business activities full-
icy of the United States in southeast We enforce a peace in Cyprus, because
time.
Asia. In fact, his briefing this morning it is not in our interest to have a war
Prentiss Brown's executive and busi-
is already out of date. I ask unanimous there. But we wage war in Asia, because
ness ability carried him to the chairman-
consent to have printed in the RECORD a we believe that a peaceful solution would
ship of the board' of the Detroit Edison
dispatch which just came off the ticker, not be in our interest.
Co.-southeast Michigan's 'major elec-
showing that instead of a lull which the When practiced by Britain, that kind
tric supplier-and he held tills position
State Department seems to believe is of policy was called imperialism.
until 1954.
going on in the South Vietnam war, the When practiced by the Soviet Union, it
Today Senator Brown refuses to re-
opposite is true. This dispatch states was called aggression.
tire completely from business and civic
that the Vietcong have doubled their at- But when practiced by the United
affairs.
tacks in the past week, and the casualties States, its apologists dress it up as an un-
His most recent public duty has been
of the Government have doubled, where- welcome burden of policing the world.
chairmanship of the Mackinac Bridge
as the casualties of the Vietcong have The United Nations is the only legiti-
Authority-the organization responsible
been reduced by 20 percent. mate policeman in international affairs.
for the construction of the 5-mile bridge
There being no objection, the dispatch That is why ~?.e are supporting it in Cy-
connecting Michigan's Upper and Lower
was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, . prus. Why are we not supporting it in
Peninsulas.
as follows: Vietnam? Only because we know that
Mr. President, I am sure that his col-
SAIGON, VIETNAM.-The ministry of defense what we are doing in Vietnam is illegal
leagues who still serve in the Senate join
announced today a sharp increase in Com- and would not be endorsed by the U.N.
with his many friends in Michigan and
munist Vietcong activity which could indi- In recent days I have heard the excuse
elsewhere in wishing Prentiss Brown a
Cate a month-long lull in Vietnamese civil from the State Department that the U.N.
happy birthday and many more years of
war is about to be broken in renewed wide-
spread fighting. could not finance an operation in south-
productive effort.
I ask unanimous consent that an article
The ministry reported government casual- east Asia. But this allegation was not
ties nearly doubled during the week ending heard when the Security Council voted
written by James Pooler on Prentiss
Saturday, while Vietcong casualties dropped to send a peacekeeping mission to Cyprus. Brown,
, published in the June 14 issue of
percent. I ask, Why cannot the United States
the Detroit Free Press may be printed in
The report said 172 government soldiers support and cooperate with a similar U.N. the RECORD.
were killed or captured during the week,
compared to 92 in the previous week. Viet- mission in Laos and Vietnam? There being no objection, the article
cong losses were 185 compared to 233 in the We can, if we have the will to do so, if was ordered to be printed in the RECORD,
previous week. Toll of the wounded was not we believe the world's policeman should
as follows:
given. represent the world, and if we appreciate
SPOTLIGHT ON SENATOR PRENTISS BROWN,
Vietcong operations jumped from 151 the that, in the long run, our own interests SERVANT OF VHE STATE
STATE
previous week to 217 last week, the ministry will be better served by the United Na- _ S.
said. Only 134 Vietcong-initiated operations (By James S Pooler)
were reported 3 weeks a?p,,,,pXet`gpp tions acting in Asia to keep peace than by f t s a a monument to him-
erations have been ste ot`e1 ee2O85A 054,'MA-RDP66B004~fl dbi i dI m3M1-8
to the same extent, from 168 in the previous We should stop our policy of warmak- And 30 grandchildren have swelled the
week to 187 last week: ing in Asia, and return to our Commit- ranks of his 7 homegrown Democrats.
 Approved Fdr Release 2005/01/05 : CIA-RDP66B004 1000200150031-8
1334$
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -SENATE
There are, laws in the land that he wrote-
rike that Q= that,r'allted the wealthy to save
And to think. that next Thursday Prentiss
loin will: pe 75 years old.
riey saluted him Friday, and proclaimed June
18 as "Prentiss M. Brown Day" in Michigan.
You go out to the River House thinking
that this has been quite a career since that
day In 1814 when, fresh out of his bar exams,
he. was elected prosecutor of St. Ignace, to
go an to Congress, to the Senate and also to
contribute .mightily to the economic life of
his State.
And there's the "Senator." gray-haired
now but, Good Lord, you should belle your
years like that-just a gray thatch on top
of young vigor. Bouncing around, like
spending a week is his apartment at River
House when he comes,down for board meet-
ings of the National Bank of Detroit or the
Detroit Edison and thin 3 weeks "at home,"
St. Ignace, where the old roots are.
But his heart is all over Michigan, and
there's intimacy with so much of It and us,
for you start o$ reminiscing of the Great
Lakes fishing tugs, the fishing families, the
famous wrecks. and the hinge turns on the
fact that the old Senator keeps a hand in
things today.
Like writing our new Senator, Pan, HART,
in support of his plan to turn Canadian rivers
into the Great Lakes-"anything to keep the
level up"-and reminding him that "away
back when I was in the Senate there was a
plan to build a weir at Port Huron to diminish
the flow out of Lake Huron" in which there
still is interest in YQ;Abington.
Which was a great point to plunge into
those colorful years of the great depression,
the Roosevelt era, when Prentiss Brown first
went down to Washington.
This was,in the years when he said that
there werg so few Democrats in the Upper
Peninsula he had to raise his own-seven of
them-but there ,burned out to be enough
to send him to Congress in 1932, the first
Democrat ever elected in Michigan's 11th
District.
There he, landed on the House Banking
Committee in a position to influence some
mighty important legislation-not just for
those times but into today.
"I saw one thing wrong-that double liabil-
ity on bank stockholders-they were liable
for the amount they had in stock," he said.
The law was amende4-bank deposits were
put in-and double indemnity on bank stock-
holders removed.
Which brought two benefits. The wealthy.
no longer "threatened with being socked
twice," rallied to save the closed banks,. And
today you still get'your savings insured up to
'*10,000.
Then on to a little-known story of loyalty
and politics, Normally Republican Michigan
elected Democrat Brown to the Senate In
1936. Before he could take his seat, Senator
James Couzens died and there were 2 mqntbs
left to serve In his term.
True to the old school tie of Upper Penin-
sula boys, Brown wanted the grand old man
of Michigan politics, "my friend and sup-
porter," ex-governor Chase S. Osborn, given
the honor of serving out Couzens' un#Iled
term.
"But Gov. Frank Fitzgerald said, 'No',"
Brown recalled. "He said if he appointed
me it would give me seniority on the other
new Democrats elected to the Senate that
year.
It may have been a kick in the teeth to
loyalty but it turned out to be good practical
politics. For Senator Brown, with his 2
months seniority, went on two of the top
committees -Flnanc and the BBa~n~ggingg,~naj the 8 nd
currency-most viAPRGOYli erQss1>iea a WM j,ti &&
M
economic times. bought $2 million worth and then a bigger
He sponsored such legislation to gladden one 88 million.
the average man's heart as putting Govern- He can take pride that there now is $8
meat employees, even Federal judges, under
income taxes like the rest of us, and led the
fight against inflation with such matters as
his draft of the law for the Office of Price
Administration-which didn't do him any
good politically with such groups as farmers
and others who didn't Want controls.
It was the kind of Integrity, you remem-
bered, which got him voted by the press "the
most typical American in the Senate," and
praised for his "intelligence. Industry, and
courage."
That last word-courage-reminded you
that he'd gotten in bad with President
Roosevelt.
"Yes," he grinned. "I was one of the hand-
ful of Senators who went up to the White
House and told him he couldn't win on his
decision to pack the Supreme Court."
But he didn't stay in the presidential "dog-
house" long for a',er Roosevelt appointed
Senator James Byrnes to the Supreme Court,
he "needed help In the Senate" and called
on Brown.
Later he was to appoint friend Prentiss as
Administrator of the Office of Price Admin-
istration-the law for which, Brown says not
without some pride, "still is on the books for
Presidential emergency."
But you can lose a man in the pattern of
politics or even big business. Brown was
to come back to chairman the board of De-
troit Edison, to serve on innumerable other
business boards, to head brotherhood weeks,
to chairman fund drives for his old alma
mater, Albion.
But here Is the fellow who got his "first
tailormade pair of pants by hitting .402 on
the Albion baseball team In my sophomore
year." and who knows bow an athlete can
outrank even a U.S. Senator.
This was In, the days when Forrest Eva-
shevski. now his son-in-law. was courting
his daughter, Ruth. The. two of them were
bound for Washington in a new car. It was
the week after Evaabevokt had quarterbacked
the Michigan team to a whopping victory
over Ohio State.
"And we got nailed by a speed cop in. of
all places, Ohio," Brown said. He flashed his
credentials-a U.S. Senator is immune to
such misdemeanors as speeding.
The cop ignored them. He got to peering
at Evashevskl-"the last guy you'd want him
to recognize"-and insisted on his name.
"Gee," said the cop, "the guy, who beat
Ohio State. I never expected to meet you,"
and waved them on, grandly, a man who
could distinguish quarterbacks from mere
senators.
Here is a man who is a lawyer-"I might
have been a good one if I'd had more time
for it," he said wryly.
His clients go back to pennyptnching
lumber barons. There was, one, worth $8
million, who nursed his Cadillac along and
at Gaylord always stopped and put In 10 gal-
lons of "blue" gas, the cheapest grade. One
day Brown finally asked why.
"Haven't you figured it out," the million-
aire said. "It's downhill all the way from
Gaylord to Bay City."
From such characters a young lawyer got
a very small fee, even when fighting cases
involving millions.
At 75 a man can look back on many
things-and ahead if he's young In heart-
and so you come to that big thing, the
Mackinac Bridge, that probably only an Up-
per Peninsula boy, knowing the importance
of linking Michigan's two peninsulas, could
see from a dream to a reality. Prentiss
Brown has been chairman of the bridge au-
thority since Its beginning In 1948.
He knows the tough fight it was to sell
those $80 million in 4 percent bonds and
June 15
million In reserve. When there's $12 million
they can start to retire the bonds.
Dreamer, businessman, looker-ahead, Pren-
tlse Brown is the "authority" all right.
"I think the nothern part of the State is
In for a great era," he predicts. "Touristwise
things are going great. And mining's reviv-
ing with the pelletizing of low grade ore."
With an eye on agriculture he says potatoes
are coming on great-"the climate's like
Maine's"-and doggone if he can't cite record
crops to the acre. It looks a little rosy for
the once neglected Upper Peninsula.
Which Is more than enough to gratify a
man. But there's family too. His 7
homegrown Democrats have multiplied to 37
with the 30 grandchildren.
The old drive is still going. Beside all his
continuing links to industry and banks, the
family still runs what likely is "the oldest
passenger line on the Great Lakes," the
Arnold Transit Co. operating a ferry line
between Mackinaw City, St. Ignace and
Mackinac Island.
And he has enough vigor left over to head
up the $100-a-plate dinner for President
Johnson here on June 26.
Which is why next Thursday a large num-
ber of citizens will be saying "Happy Birth-
day" to Prentiss Brown who, during three-
quarters of the century of living, has con-
tributed so much to his State and Nation.
Mr. HART. Mr. President, will the
Senator yield?
Mr. McNAMARA. I am glad to yield.
Mr. HART. No opportunity is more
welcome than this, to join in the ap-
preciation which has just been voiced
by my distinguised colleague the Sen-
ator from Michigan (Mr. MCNAMARAI, as
we observe the birthday anniversary of
former Senator Prentiss M. Brown.
My colleague has cited some of the
public contributions that have been made
by former Senator Brown over a long
and useful life. I should like to com-
ment on the quiet role that he has played
in his private life.
He has been a good friend to many
people in need, but never with ceremony
or public attention. He has been a quiet
counselor to all who have sought his
counsel. Not all of them are among the
great and mighty. His attitude Is the
same toward all, and reflects a deep relig-
ious conviction and good sense of values,
which all In Michigan have come to
admire.
He is a neighbor of ours, Senator
Brown's home is on St. Ignace Island, a
small Island in the Straits of Mackinac.
Our home is on Mackinac Island. There
Mrs. Hart and our children met and came
to know Senator and Mrs. Brown and
their children.
This has been an enriching experience
to our family, one that I prize.
I believe that Senator Brown was the
first Senator I ever met. The first im-
pression could not have been finer, and
his good counsel has helped me over the
Intervening years. I welcome this op-
portunity publicly to acknowledge it.
VISIT TO THE SENATE BY DR. S.M.
SADJADY, PRESIDENT OF THE
IRANIAN SENATE
Mr. SCOTT. Mr. President, it is my
great honor and privilege to present to
O W 1 DD1' 4ifent of the Iranian
Senate, Dr. S. M. Sadjady. We are hap-
py to have him with us. [Applause,
Senators rising.]