RIPPLE SALVO… #898… ON THE EVENING OF 19 AUGUST 1968 PRESIDENT JOHNSON SPOKE TO THE VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS AT THEIR ANNUAL CONVENTION IN DETROIT. The speech first paid homage to President Eisenhower who had suffered his seventh heart attack and was in the ICU at Walter Reed fighting for his life as LBJ spoke. LBJ asked the Vets and audiences everywhere (ABC broadcast the speech) to stand silent and pray for Ike. It worked–Ike lived through the crisis. General Eisenhower passed in March 1969. The second part of the LBJ remarks that night fifty years ago was to recognize and praise the veteran fighting men of America (“Through other wars, and through troubled days, President Lincoln’s words have endured as the rock of our commitment. ‘TO NO GROUP DOES AMERICA OWE MORE THAN IT OWES TO THE MEN WHO HAVE BORNE ARMS IN DEFENSE OF AMERICA AND IN DEFENSE OF THEIR FELLOW MAN–SOME OF WHOM COULD NOT ALWAYS BE THERE WITH YOU–AND IN DEFENSE OF FREEDOM.'”)… He included the signing of a significant increase in Veteran’s Benefits for Disabled Veteran’s at the VFW event.
And then the President said: “I came here tonight because I wanted to say a few words about Vietnam.” Good Timing. The Peace talks in Paris were stuck in Park. The Republicans had nominated Nixon and were readying the G.O.P. message for the Presidential campaign. The Democrats were meeting in Chicago to nominate their candidate and try to agree on a Vietnam war Plank that the disparate groups within the party could support, and the world waited to hear if the President would veer from his hard stand that Rolling Thunder would continue until the North Vietnamese took some measure to de-escalate the war. This portion of the President’s speech is the RTR post for 19 August 1968… I quote…
“We are in the midst, as you may have judged, of national political campaign. and I think it is altogether proper that there should be a great deal of discussion and speculation about a war which more than 500,000 of our young men are at this moment, tonight, deeply engaged. These things are quite clear:
*Those more than a half-million American men are not out in Southeast Asia as Republicans or Democrats or American Party or fourth party members. They are out there as American sons fighting to protect vital interests of America, as those interests have been determined by more than one President and more than one Congress.
*Until January 20, 1969, until another President takes the oath with those closing words, ‘So help me God,’ I bear the responsibility of the Presidency, and of the executive policy of the nation towards Vietnam–a policy that has been fashioned over many years on a bipartisan basis, by several presidents and by several American Congresses.
“The interests of the Nation and the interests of peace are not advanced by ambiguity at any time about that policy. Therefore, I am not going to speak in ambiguous terms and I am going to lay out a few fundamentals for you and for the rest of the nation tonight./
“First, our objective in Southeast Asia is peace, and the essentials of what we mean by peace for a long time have been quite clear. And I am going to repeat them briefly:
*reinstall the demilitarized zone at the 17th parallel, as the Geneva accords of 1954 require, and let the matter of Vietnmese unity be decided by the people of North Vietnam and the people of South Vietnam in the future;
*remove all foreign forces from Laos and reinstall and make fully effective the Geneva accords of 1962 on Laos:
*withdraw the United States forces from South Vietnam under the circumstances described in the Manila communique;
*encourage the people of South Vietnam to exercise their rights of self-determination. It is for them to decide in peace without any coercion of any kind–from anyone–their own political future on a one-man one-vote basis– in a free election–in the spirit of reconciliation reaffirmed by President Thieu at Honolulu. He said there that all can vote in Vietnam, and all can run for office, if they will forsake violence and if they will live by the Constitution. We in the United States agree.
“That is what I mean by an honorable peace. I doubt that any American President will take a substantially different view when he bears the burdens of office, and he has available to him all the information that flows to the Commander in Chief, and he is responsible to our people for all of the consequences of all the alternatives left open to him.
“Second, the United States took a major initiative toward peace on March 31. We not only made an offer, but we immediately acted. We took a first dramatic step to deescalate the conflict. I immediately ordered our aircraft and our naval vessels to make no attacks on North Vietnam north of the 20th parallel. This excluded from bombing almost 90 percent of the North Vietnamese population and almost 80 percent of the North Vietnamese territory.
“I then, that night, in that televised speech to the Nation had this to say, ‘I cannot in good conscience stop all bombing so long as to do so would immediately and directly endanger the lives of our men and our allies. Whether a complete bombing halt becomes possible in the future will be determined by events.’ Thus far Hanoi’s response has been:
*to reject every single suggestion made by ourselves or others to deescalate the conflict;
*to proceed since March 31 with the highest level of infiltration that we have observed during the war in Vietnam, the highest level of southward movement of military supplies, and the highest level of preparations for the third major wave of attack in 1968.
“I do not know whether or when such a new attack will, in fact, take place. It may have already begun. But I can assure you that we are doing everything that’s imaginable and in our power to avoid it. But I do know that Hanoi has rejected our every offer for prompt deescalation and movement toward peace in favor of massive military preparations for intensified battle.
“So the next move must be theirs. In affairs there is no more basic lesson than it takes tow ot make a bargain and to make a peace. We have made a reasonable offer and we have taken a major first step. That offer has not been accepted. This administration does not intend to move further until it has good reason to believe that the other side intends seriously to join us in deescalating the war and moving seriously toward peace. We are willing to take chances for peace but we cannot make foolhardy gestures for which your fighting men will pay the price by giving their lives.
“So tonight I hope you will ask yourselves: Where would the position fo their Nation and its allies be if, having taken a major step toward deescalation and peace already, we responded now to their hostility with still another major unilateral step. If you were in Hanoi would you then deescalate and negotiate? Or would you not demand unilateral step, until finally the whole foundation of freedom for the nations of Southeast Asia was gone beyond repair?
“This President–this administration–will not move down that slippery slope.
“This is the time tonight when Americans have to face certain hard questions and they have to keep certain facts clearly before them. First, are we Americans prepared to say to Hanoi that we are ready to have their men by the thousands and their supplies by the tons pour down through the DMZ against our American sons an our allies without obstruction, whether or not Hanoi takes action to deescalate the conflict? Well, that is what would be involved in an immediate halt to all bombing in North Vietnam.
“Second, are we Americans ready to let the Communist forces assemble without any interference around Saigon, Danang, Hue, an other cities and, then and there, deliver their attacks at times and places of their own choice, when it suits their own advantage? Well, that is what would be involved if we should give up our search-and-destroy operations.
“Third, let us all remember that it is a long-established policy of the Government of the United States and the Government of Vietnam that the political future of that country should be decided by free elections based on the principles of one-man one-vote. It is the Communists who have refused to even discuss these elections. It is they who seek a solution by bullet rather than ballot.
“Fourth, let us all remember that with the encouragement of the American people, these gallant South Vietnamese have created their own Constitution, have created their own government. They have voted freely–often at the rik of their own lives–in elections as closely observed as any elections in modern times-in which 60 per cent of the total electorate participated. In that government and closely associated with it the Vietnam Senate, are candidates who received more than 56 percent of the popular vote in the Vietnam presidential election. The people of South Vietnam and their government have demonstrated–in action–a willingness and an ability to let the people speak–peacefully–by democratic means. It is not they, but it is the other side, who now tonight must be persuaded that the election process is the road to peace in Vietnam.
“I can tell you that I believe peace is going to come–that is, if we are steady and it is going to come, if I have anything to do with it, on honorable terms. I cannot tell you precisely when it will come, but I believe that it will come:
*because I believe military victory is beyond the enemy’s grasp;
*because the South Vietnamese are gathering political and military strength and confidence every day by day; and finally
*because I believe in America.
“However great our anxiety for peace; however great our concern for the war in Vietnam; however great our passionate desire that the killing shall stop, I do not believe that the American people are going to walk away from this struggle unless they can walk away from it on honorable terms.
“When we sent our negotiating team off to Paris I told them two things:
*first, put aside all considerations of domestic politics;
*second, work for a genuine peace–the peace which is a vital interest of the United States now, and which will serve us well 10 years from now.
“I did not take myself out of personal partisan presidential politics on the night of March 31 in order to permit our pursuit of peace to be colored in the slightest degree by domestic political considerations. I want peace in Vietnam. I want it perhaps more than any single living American individual. But the pursuit of peace in this administration is going to be governed by America’s abiding interests as we see them. I do have faith, a faith that strengthened me on Marcfh 31st, that when the political campaign is all over, and the man takes up the responsibility of the Presidency–whoever he may be–he will take a similar view. Right now we are doing all that diplomacy can do to end the war through the talks in Paris. And we shall continue.
“We shall try again and again, every conceivable thing that human ingenuity can produce. I shall do everything I possibly can between now and January, every waking moment, to bring an honorable peace to Southeast Asia. I do hope that it can be possible. But if not, I have faith that the next President–faced with the consequences to his own people, and the consequences to the peace of the toward–I have faith that he too will stand up and insist on an honorable peace. So these are my views on Vietnam. This is my faith.
“But let me add another word about why we came to commit ourselves as a nation in Vietnam and to the security of Southeast Asia.
“Almost two-thirds of the men, women, and children on the planet, living in the world, now live in Asia. In the year 2000, that proportion is going to be even higher than two-thirds of the world. It is as certain as the sun rises that in the world of modern technology and communications, the prosperity and the security of your United States, with the passage of time, be more bound up with the fate of Asia–and not less.
“this nation–not the administration, but this Nation–has three times in the past 30 years reacted when one power or another sought by aggression to enlarge its power in Asia; in 1941 on December 7, in 1950, and then in the present conflict. Our responsibility was recognized in 1954 when the SEATO treaty was adopted by the United States Senate by a vote of 82 to 1. That treaty was accepted by the United States Senate for one simple reason–because in their hearts and their minds, the Members of the Senate knew that this Nation could not and would not ever stand idly by and see all the countries of the Southeast Asia placed under the aggressor’s heel. They hoped–and they stated in the speeches on that treaty that they hoped–that that treaty and the warning that it represented would deter aggression.
“But the men in Hanoi believed that they commanded a method of aggression that would succeed even in the face of our commitment. They have been supported by others who felt that Hanoi’s success would drive the United States out of Asia and leave it open for a takeover.
“Well, there is no serious an responsible leader in Asia who does not already know that the struggle now taking place in Vietnam tonight is the hinge on which the fate of Asia will swing–one way or the other–for many years, far into the future. When we insist on an honorable peace in Vietnam, we are insisting on a solution to the struggle which has the promise of permitting the independent nations of Asia to go forward in confidence to build in freedom a life consistent with their own traditions and their own ambitions. We are talking tonight not about 17 million people of South Vietnam, but we are talking about nations which contain hundreds of millions of people.
“There are some among us who appear to be searching for a formula which would get us out of Vietnam and Asia, on any terms, leaving the people of South Vietnam and Laos and Thailand–and all the others–to an uncertain fate. Laos, south Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia–pretty soon we could be back to the Philippines–and even back to Honolulu. I profoundly believe that this course would be disastrous to the interest of the United States. I believe it would be disastrous to the world–now and all years to come.
“On the other hand, I am equally confident that if we have the will to see this through on Vietnam to an honorable peace the way will be open for better times; for a period of relative tranquility in which the forces of moderation, of national independence, of freedom and regional cooperation will assert themselves in Asia as they are tonight asserting themselves in other parts of the world-permitting the United States not to return to isolation but to work as a partner with a vital region of the world which will more and more assume responsibility for its own destiny.
“Well, that is the ultimate stake in Vietnam–for Americans, for Asians, and for the world. That is why three different Presidents hve taken and have held the position we have taken. and that is why the American people, in my judgement, are going to hold steady and see it through and not cut and run. I want the killing in Vietnam to stop–but we cannot stop the killing if North Vietnam insists on sending another 150,000 new aggressor into the South Vietnam to kill Americans and allies since January the first of the year.
“Remember, it takes two to stop the killing. We are ready now, tonight, to stop the bombing when the other side is prepared now just to see our bombing stop and weapons taken from our men, but the other side is willing to stop their aggression as well. We are ready to stoi[p the war now by stoppinhg the fighting when thay are ready to stop the war by stopping the aggression.
“We have stopped the bombing already now eight different times. The last time, out of respect to Buddhas’s birthday. Then, on their own religious birthday–their answer to our stopping the bombing was the Tet offensive when tens of thousands of casualties were suffered by our people. We stopped the bombing again before that, for 37 long days. And what did they stop? the answer was not to stop aggression, but, General Westmoreland will tell you, they greatly stepped up their aggression while we were stopping the bombing.
“So, my friends, let’s not be hoodwinked. Let’s not be misled. In short, our people and their people must understand one thing: We are not going to stop the bombing just to give them a chance to step up their bloodbath. We are not going to stop bombing their trucks or bombing their ammunition or bombing their supply line while they bomb our cities and while they bomb our headquarters and while they mine South Vietnamese territory and they require our American fighting men to bear the brunt of the increased firepower tht the Communists would rain on our men if we did not stop every truck and every bit of ammunition.
“On March 31 we stopped 90 percent of the bombing. Have they stopped 90 percent of their infiltration or 80 percent or even 50 percent? No. They didn’t stop anything. They increased their infiltration 100 percent. That was their answer to our stopping the bombing.
We are ready tonight ans we are ready tomorrow, either on the battlefield or the conference table in Paris, to put into effect an y fair and reasonable cease fire on both sides–but not just one side. We are not going to trade the safety of American fighting men whose voices are not here to be heard in this election campaign for any Trojan horse. They are going to have a voice in this campaign before it is over. So tonight, I appeal to all-intentioned citizens who are demanding tht American stop the bombing to tell me wht they are demanding of Hanoi. I ask each well-intentioned good American to search his conscience when he goes home tonight and ak himself: ‘Why, oh why do we hear nothing of any demands on Hanoi?
“You can look at that Marine sergeant and say, ‘Please sacrifice and give up the best implement yop have to stop these trucks, and those hand grenades, and those divisions tht are coming toward you. I ask you to give up the best weapon you have and lay it down. And he would look up at me with those innocent, boyish eyes and say, ‘Yes, Mr. President, but what are they going to give up?’ And I say, ‘That has not been mentioned.’ I am not going to answer him that way. It is one thing when you are seeking responsibility and it is another when you have it. One day I pray–and I pray every night that it will be soon–the men who bear the brunt of battle are going to come back home. And when they do come they are going to ask an accounting of us for the support that we gave them or that we denied them in the hour of greatest need when we sent them away to protect us and defend us.
“I hope and pray we are not going to be found wanting in that judgement. So long as I am the American Commander in Chief we are not going to be found wanting.
“In our great Democracy–from the American Revolution to this war in Vietnam– this great Nation has produced men like your selves, men who are ready to do their duty; in your cae, ready to go abaord, ready to fight for their Nation, ready to give their lives to protect freedom.
“You men grace this banquet hall tonight did your job, in your time, and you did it in faraway places, in great fear–because no man ever got shot at who wasn’t frightened. I know. but you brought home your nation’s flag in honor–an you brought it home unstained. And they are going to do the same in Vietnam.
“In time–and I pray that time will be short–these almost 600,000 young men are going to come back and join us. In time the debates and personalities will pass, and they and the American people will look back on what you have done, and, I think, they will look back with the same pride that we feel in our other efforts in the cause of freedom when we have defended it with our blood.
“And we all shall know that those who do not come back–your brother in arms–will not have died in vain. Every ay I read reports of the courage of Americans in battle in Vietnam. Every day I read reports of our civil efforts to help the South Vietnamese build a nation, expand education, plant new rice seeds, strengthen thier constitutional government. Every day I read about our men teaching them to read and write and helping to cure the sores and hel the bodies of thse unfortunate deprived people.
“Behind thee military and civilian efforts are, I am here to certify tonight, as fine a generation of young Americans as America in all her history ever produced.
“So I hope that you have the faith, and I hope ou keep the faith. I hope you give us the support that we are going to need so dearly in the trying months ahead.
“So tonight I come here to thank you for your honor and for your kindness to my family and to tell you that I am of good heart. Let no one ever tell you that love of country, that dedication to freedom, that dedication for an honorable peace is dead in this land.”… End quote of LBJ 19-Aug-68 VFW Speech
Humble Host suggests a reading of two State Department Historical Documents dated 19 August 1968. Document 331 is a memo from Walt Rostow to the Secretary of Defense that pulls no punches in challenging SecDef on his stand in public on the bombing. Secretary Clifford included a conclusion “that they will move the men and material that they choose to.” This is a very enlightening document with respect to the internal squabbling about the effectiveness of the bombing. A second document is an Editorial Note that summarizes the President’s VFW speech…
Speech at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29085
331. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d331
332. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d332
RTR will return to form tomorrow…
Lest we forget… Bear