Reagan OKs U.S. Role in Treaty Against Genocide
President Reagan today paused on the campaign trail to approve legislation providing for U.S. participation in an anti-genocide treaty signed by Harry S. Truman in 1948 but long blocked by conservatives.
Retiring Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.), who fought for the legislation, was not invited to the ceremony, which took place at O’Hare International Airport outside Chicago.
“I am delighted to fulfill the promise made by Harry Truman to all the peoples of the world--and especially the Jewish people,” Reagan said.
He recalled the Nazi death camps that claimed millions of Jews, Slavs, Gypsies and others in World War II, noting that he remembered seeing films of the camps after the war. He noted that similar horrors have occurred in Cambodia, the Ukraine and Ethiopia.
These events “only renew our rage and righteous fury and make this moment all the more significant for me and all Americans,” Reagan said.
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