বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (ত্রয়োদশ খণ্ড)/৭৭
| শিরোনাম | সূত্র | তারিখ |
| সিনেটর প্রক্সমায়ার-এর বিবৃতি | প্রেস বিজ্ঞপ্তি | ১৭ই এপ্রিল, ১৯৭১ |
Senator William Proxmire (D-Wis.) said in a statement Saturday night that “the bloody civil war in East Pakistan is just one more reason why we should remove the 'secret stamp' from the amount of foreign military aid we send to Pakistan, India and other countries."
Proxmire is Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on foreign operations which has Jurisdiction over military aid request. Proxmire said: "In Pakistan, American arms and ammunition are now being used to stamp out the Bengali secessionist movement. Instead of using the aid to defend themselves against a Russian or Chinese threat, the Pakistanis are using it against their own people. In the past, the Indian and Pakistanis have used our military aid to beat each other over the head.
"For Years, the amounts of military aid we send to India, Pakistan, and Nepal in Asia, and to Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia in the Near East have been classified secret on a permanent basis. Amounts sent to them since 1950 have never officially been made public. In addition, the secret stamp is also used for the amounts we propose to send to other countries each year and is not lifted until a year after the funds are budgeted.
"As Chairman of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, I Intend to do everything I can to end this practice whoa no overriding issue of American security is involved.
"This is a mischievous practice for which there is no justification.
The Pakistani War is just the most recent example why the practice is wrong historically and is wrong today. Much of the arms, equipment, and ammunition sent abroad is used for internecine warfare and not to defend against a Communist threat.
"But the arms are paid for by the American taxpayer. He has a right to know who gets what. It is a proper issue for public debate and public decision. If we get the information out in the open, the American people may decide we shouldn't be doing it at all. At the least, our disastrous experience in Vietnam proves that these decisions should not be made behind closed doors.
The arguments used to justify the secret stamps are not only specious but in my view, make peace harder to achieve. It is claimed that if the facts were published, it might 'embarrass' a foreign country. It is said the embarrassment would arise if one country got more than another or if Congress cut the amounts proposed for one country more than it cut the funds for its traditional rival.
"Such arguments cannot stand public examination. Similar arguments were used or years to keep Senators' and Congressmen's payrolls secret. But now that they have been made public, the Congress is better off for having done it. “If Publishing the figures proposed for military aid to Africa, the Near East, Latin America, and other nations is embarrassing to them, let them turn it down. That would not only save the American taxpayers billions of dollars but would probably lead to a mere peaceful world as well.
“We make our own military budget public in voluminous detail. There is no reason to routinely classify the amounts we send to other countries!"
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