LETTONIE - RUSSIE, Traités et documents de base

Selected Excerpts from Adresses Delivered to the Congress of the United States on February 16, 1966.

Selected Excerpts from Adresses Delivered to the Congress of the United States on February 16, 1966.

Sen. Hverett M. Dirksen (R., Ill.):

Mr. President, commemorating the proclamation of the independence of a nation is a magnificent event. We know how the Americans cherish the annual Fourth of July celebration. Among nations that have fallen to the onslaught of the Soviet Communist Union the passion for commemorating their independence day grows stronger in each succeeding year that these people must remain slave rather than free.

Each year Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle raise their voices in the Halls of Congress extolling the gigantic struggles for freedom from Soviet communism and further urging that the peoples behind the Iron Curtain be given the opportunity to again become freemen. The world knows of the gallant fight of the Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Hungarians, Rumanians, Polish, and other peoples behind the Iron Curtain, trying to break away from the chains of slavery, even though that gallant fight ended in further destruction to these people behind the Iron Curtain. Irrespective of many killings, the shedding of blood and untold sacrifices, these people still dream, hope and pray for national independence.

Mr. President, on January 22, February 16, and February 24 are the independence days of the Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and the Estonians respectively. Independence days of other people behind the Iron Curtain will follow on through the year. Speeches in the Halls of Congress give strength and hope to the people behind the Iron Curtain but their quest for freedom cannot live on speeches alone. For this reason, Mr. President, for a number of years I have introduced in the Senate of the U. S. Senate concurrent resolutions which, if passed by Congress would ask for specific action.

Sen. Paul H. Douglas (D. Ill.):

Lithuania, along with her neighbouring states along the Baltic, was brutally annexed in 1940 and thousands of her people were murdered and deported to Siberian prison camps. The accomplishments of independence were torn asunder but the experience of freedom and self-government was not erased from memory.

There is no evidence that the devotion of Lithuanians to their national identity and to the goal of independence has waned. The Communists have tried to subvert those customs and institutions that foster patriotism and pride in Lithuania�s cultural heritage. Such efforts will never work. The principle that men have a right to live in freedom and to govern themselves cannot be excised from their hearts and minds. Indeed, as Thomas Jefferson said over a century ago, 'The flames kindled on the 4th of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to lie extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume them and all who work them" .

Most of all, on this day we look to the future and resolve that we will never recognise the Soviet annexation of the Baltic States and we will never forget the true Lithuania which must one day again be free.

Rep. William J. Murphy (D. Ill):

I would like to point out that the United States emphatically and openly denounced the Soviet take-over of Lithuania, and on July 23, 1940, Acting Secretary of State Summer Wells issued a statement in behalf of the U. S. Government condemning the deliberate suppression of the Baltic States independence. The United States and other free nations of the West have always refused to recognise the Soviet regime in the Baltic, and have continued diplomatic relations with the legal representatives of the Baltic countries; thus the Lithuanian diplomatic and consular officers continue to function in many countries of Europe and North and South America, and are supported by the income from funds located in the West from pre-war days. Every U. S. Administration since the occupation has explicitly and emphatically restated the policy of non-recognition of the puppet regimes and has continued to support the just aspirations of the Lithuanian people for Freedom and independence.

This pledge made by the U. S. Government is one that is not violated. We stand by this pledge just as we stand by the pledges made to other small nations throughout the world. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, mentioned only last week in Atlanta, Ga., that our pledge was given to the Vietnamese people, and that we gave them our word that we would help them maintain a free and democratic form of government.

Rep. John B. Anderson (R., Ill.):

It is our task who live in freedom to nurture that spark of hope that continues to hum in the bosoms of the oppressed and to give them encouragement so that time will not destroy these valiant peoples' determination and longing to win once more for themselves the right of self-determination.

As I speak to you today. the candour which bas attacked the world continues to inflict its slavery upon the unwilling in Europe and Southeast Asia.

We have but to look at the Baltic States to realise all too well the ugly realities of Russian imperial colonialism which lie behind the facade of the Soviet Union's so-called peaceful coexistence pronouncements.

To put an end to such aggression and bring about the return to freedom for those subjugated peoples must be a continuing part of our foreign policy goals.

Source:
Record, Vol. 112, No. 26, Feb. 16, 1966 cit� dans American Latvian Association in The United States, "Lettonie, en com-m�moration du 50�me anniversaire de la D�claration d'Ind�pendance de la R�publique de Lettonie" , Washington D.C., 1968, p.71