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D. Burton: Address to World Summit 2014
Written by Hon. Dan Burton, Member, House of Representatives (1983-2013), USA
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Address to World Summit 2014, Seoul, Korea, August 9-13, 2014
When I was first elected, Ronald Reagan was president of the United States and he had been in office about two years. One of the things that we were concerned about was the spread of communism in Central and South America. Ronald Reagan was a crusader against communism, like Rev. Moon.
I think that a lot of things that Rev. Moon were picked up by Ronald Reagan. [In reference to the Berlin Wall] Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” but Rev. Moon said that before.
When I first met Ronald Reagan and we started fighting communism in Central and South America, we were trying to stop the communist FMLN in El Salvador from taking over that country, and we were trying to stop the communist Sandinistas by supporting the Contras, who were freedom fighters in Nicaragua. It was a very difficult fight, because a lot of members of Congress did not want us to be involved in anything like stopping the communist movement in Central and South America.
Fidel Castro had sent Che Guevara down to South America, where he was killed, and the Cubans were continuing to spread communism as rapidly as possible, not only in Central and South America but in other parts of the world as well. In Angola there were 38,000 communist Cuban troops trying to help spread communism, so it was a great battle.
A heroic figure like Rev. Moon was essential, in my opinion, in the fight to stop communism. He started The Washington Times, and I think that had a lot to do with changing the attitude of a lot of people in the Western hemisphere and in Congress. As a result, we ultimately were able to prevail and stop the communist movement in Central America.
Democracies flourished in many of the countries that had been communist dictatorships because of crusaders like Rev. Moon and Ronald Reagan. But the fight goes on today. It’s a different fight than we had back then.
We have the fight against the expansion of narcotics coming across the borders of these countries. The people who are selling these narcotics are making millions and billions of dollars. I’ve been told that there are rooms filled with so much money that they have to worry about the rats eating the money before they can launder it. It’s a very lucrative business.
As a result, terrorism is spreading in Central and South America. From Mexico and Honduras and Guatemala, there’s a torrent of young people and children coming to the United States; many of these young people are being brought by people who are trafficking in human beings. They’re also involved in the drug trade.
We need to go back to our countries and talk about these threats to freedom, democracy and human rights. Human trafficking does not just take place in Central and South America. It takes place in Africa. It takes place in Asia. It takes place all over the world, and we need to talk to leaders all over the world and tell them how important it is that we address such issues.
Narcotics, which is a brother of these other terrible things that are going on, needs to be dealt with as well. We need to tell our leaders to redouble their efforts to deal with the drug trafficking.
You have been invited here to participate in this forum because you are respected and admired. Many of you are elected leaders, who have served as presidents and legislators and other office holders. Because of that you have influence.
These forums are great opportunities to get together and talk about the problems, but once we leave here the problems must be addressed. The best way to address them is to tell your friends, neighbors and government leaders who are currently in office that the fight goes on against the drug traffickers in Central and South America and around the world. The fight goes on against those who are trafficking in human beings and causing multitudes of misery. Tell all of your friends and neighbors and political leaders how important it is to carry on the fight.
For more information about the World Summit, click here.