IT IS with a profound sense of sorrow that the President learned today of the tragic death of John Paul Vann.
The President feels John Vann was one of America's finest citizens--and a truly extraordinary public servant. For more than a decade, he worked tirelessly in the forefront of our efforts to achieve an honorable peace in Southeast Asia and to bind up the wounds of its ravaged peoples. After his initial service as a military officer in Vietnam, he returned to that country to continue his devoted work as a civilian. There he has now given "the last full measure of devotion."
The President wants to say that, as honest and outspoken as he was committed, John Paul Vann did nothing in a half-hearted manner. For him, any work that was worth his undertaking was worth his very best--and that always meant a truly exceptional effort.
John Paul Vann will be deeply missed, by the people of Vietnam who came to know and love him, and also by his fellow Americans who have taken such pride in his contributions. His fervent dedication to peace and freedom will be a continuing inspiration to all of us.
On behalf of all Americans, the President and Mrs. Nixon extend to Mr. Vann's family and friends their deepest sympathy.
Note: Press Secretary Ronald L. Ziegler read the statement at his regular news briefing at the White House on June 9, 1972.
Mr. Vann, 47, died in a helicopter crash near Kontum in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. He served in the military from 1942 to 1963, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was senior adviser for the Army to the 7th Vietnamese Division from 1962 to 1963. He was an adviser for the Agency for International Development in South Vietnam from 1965 and was Senior U.S. Adviser of the Second Regional Command, Civil Operations and Rural Development Support, from May 1971.
Secretary of State William P. Rogers represented the President at the burial services at Arlington National Cemetery.
On June 16, the President met with members of the Vann family at the White House where he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously to Mr. Vann. John Allen Vann, Mr. Vann's son, received the medal on behalf of his family. On the same day, the White House released the text of the citation accompanying the medal, which read as follows:
Soldier of peace and patriot of two nations, the name of John Paul Vann will be honored as long as free men remember the struggle to preserve the independence of South Vietnam. His military and civilian service in Vietnam spanned a decade, marked throughout by resourcefulness, professional excellence and unsurpassed courage; by supreme dedication and personal sacrifice. A truly noble American, a superb leader, he stands with Lafayette in that gallery of heroes who have made another brave people's cause their own.
Richard Nixon, White House Statement on the Death of John Paul Vann. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/254914