The Administration was accused of being “soft on Communism, ” in an address here by Sen. Barry Goldwater, Republican Presidential candidate, because the State Department and Chairman J. W. Fulbright, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, eliminated the “Ribicoff amendment” condemning Soviet anti-Semitism.
That amendment to the Foreign Aid Bill, previously favored by 82 senators, was deleted in the House-Senate Conference on the measure, and a milder version had been substituted, not naming Jews or the USSR but merely referring to the persecution of any persons because of their religion, anywhere in the world.
Pointing out that it was Sen. Fulbright who had offered the substitute amendment which struck out any reference to Russia, Sen. Goldwater asked: “What the devil is the point of the whole thing if you don’t mention the culprit?”
Sen. Goldwater said: “When we have reached the point that the spokesman for the Administration, Sen. Fulbright, has to try to disgrace the whole American Senate and the American people by trying to appease the Russians (on the anti-Semitism issue), than I think we have come to a point where we can say, with assurance, we are being soft on Communism. “
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