Remarks at the Headquarters of the 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

General and Mrs. Sternberg, General Truman, my dear friend Governor Breathitt and Mrs. Breathitt, ray former colleagues and my friends, Senator Cooper from Kentucky, Senator Morton of Kentucky, Congressman Stubble field, Congressman Anderson, Governor Branigin, Governor Hulett Smith of West Virginia, ladies and gentlemen:

I come before you this afternoon as an old Navy man with my heart full of pride for the United States Army.

I speak to you now as the Commander in Chief of the best military force our Nation has ever placed on the field of battle.

Three hundred thousand young Americans-better trained, better equipped, better supported than any who have borne our colors of the past--are now engaged in combat in faraway Vietnam. Great fighting units have been writing military history out there as they did a generation ago in Europe and the Pacific.

The 1st Infantry Division, the "Big Red One"--

The 1st Air Cavalry--

The 25th Infantry Division--

The 173rd Airborne Brigade--

And the 101st Airborne Division.

Never have the people of this country had more justification for pride, nor more reason to be grateful, than they have today because of men like you. Their sons have joined a conflict as difficult and demanding, against an enemy as tough and resilient, as any American arms have ever faced in our long past history. And they have more than matched every hostile unit that they have ever encountered.

Our men entered the war at a very difficult moment. The South Vietnamese were hard-pressed. The Vietcong and the North Vietnamese had the initiative. They were attacking in every province with a sharp confidence of victory written all over their faces.

To the American soldier and the American marine, the terrain was new and it was difficult. The climate was oppressive. We faced an enemy of hardened, professional soldiers with long training and experience in guerrilla warfare.

There were no front lines. The enemy was everywhere. And everywhere, too, were the innocent civilians: people whose lives must be saved, people whose trust must be won.

Despite the enemy's advantages--despite the alien character of the struggle--our brave fighting men have now turned the tide of battle.

The initiative is no longer with the enemies of freedom. The initiative is with us.

This must have surprised no one so much as it surprised the leaders in Hanoi. We now know from their captured documents that the troops from North Vietnam were taught that we Americans were soft. They thought our men could not face the trials of a guerrilla war. They thought our troops would not stand up in close combat.

I suspect at this very hour someone yonder in Hanoi is now busy revising those estimates.

The morale of the American fighting man is as high today as it was in 1944, when the 101st Airborne threw back the enemy at Bastogne. For today's soldier knows--as his father knew a generation ago--that good men must sometimes leave their homes and their loved ones, to take arms against the agents of oppression.

The terrain is different now, from what it was more than two decades ago. The faces of the civilian population may have a little different color. The tactics of the fighting have changed.

But the oppressor still seeks power over the lives of men and women who yearn only to lead peaceful lives, to be left alone, to raise their children in freedom and to give them a better life.

Our soldiers and marines and airmen have seen the work of the Vietcong in the villages of Vietnam. They have seen the assassination and the kidnaping of local officials, the burning of schools, the terror and the intimidation by night.

They have seen the soldiers of South Vietnam--600,000 strong--still fighting, still fighting after more than a generation of brutal warfare in their homeland. They see them still bearing the brunt of the struggle. And they see them still taking most of the casualties.

They have come to know that peace and freedom for Vietnam cannot be won by weapons alone.

They know they are the brothers-in-arms:

--of civilian doctors and nurses,

--of teachers and administrators,

--of farm and marketing advisers,

--of experts who are now helping to build the Asian Development Bank, and experts who are now planning the growth of the great Mekong Valley.

They know that even as they make a military conquest impossible for the Communist forces in the field, our diplomats are now probing--searching for a way to make an honorable peace seem desirable to the Communist leaders in Hanoi.

It is no wonder, then, that the morale of the American fighting man is high. He is doing what brave men must do when they face tyranny. He is supported by the most efficient military machine his country has ever produced. He is supported by men in the House and the Senate of both parties who are willing to give them their all. And the resources of this land are behind him in unlimited quantity. His courage on the battlefield is matched by the unselfish work of those who labor in the schools and the hospitals and the villages in the field. His allies have never wavered in the prosecution of the war. And I am here to assure you that his Government has not tired of the search for peace.

So such is the spirit of the American soldier this afternoon.

Along with a number of distinguished Senators from Indiana and Kentucky and Tennessee and Texas, I am here to say to you as your Commander in Chief, I am proud that you wear my country's uniform. As your fellow citizen, I am inspired to feel that never before has my country been so well served by its men at arms.

And I want every man in uniform to know the very great respect and affection that I entertain for the great Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General Johnson, who is here and honors us with his presence today.

So we at home must ask ourselves this question: Have we the same strength of spirit? Have we the same commitment? Have we the same ability to endure until peace returns to Vietnam?

Each of us--no matter what our politics, our religion, our race, or our station in life-must search his conscience and his understanding for the answer to that question.

If his conscience tells him that freedom cannot be the province of wealthy white Christians alone, but must be secured and must be defended for all who seek its blessings, then his answer will be clear. If his understanding tells him that what this Nation has tried to do since 1941 rests on our commitment to the integrity and the well-being of all mankind, then his answer will be straightforward and will be unafraid.

His answer will affirm the effort that we are mounting in Vietnam to turn back the oppressor and to relieve the sufferings of the oppressed.

I believe that our people will give that answer-just as I know that our soldiers are giving it at this hour in Vietnam.

So our honored and respected men of the 101st, we have come here today to salute you. May we prove worthy of the honor that you and your comrades in arms are bringing to this great land of ours.

God protect you.

Thank you very much.