“It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen,” the First Lady told the press. “As a wife, as a mother, as a human being, it’s devastating.” After that, the world paid attention to Cambodia. The next year—the last of his presidency—Carter signed the Refugee Act of 1980, which tripled the annual number of refugees allowed into the country. By 1982 the United States had admitted half a million Indochinese, by far the most of any country in the world. The number eventually reached one and a half million. Holbrooke had a lot to do with it. It shames us today.
First Lady Carter
