Remarks on Signing a Proclamation Honoring Vietnam Veterans

THIS PROCLAMATION that I am now signing, all of the Members of the House and the Senate who have sponsored it are aware of it. The members of the press and perhaps the Nation are not aware of why we have a proclamation designating March 29 as Vietnam Veterans Day.

That is the day that the last American combat soldier left Vietnam, the day, therefore, that marks the final conclusion of America's longest and, without question, its most difficult war.

It seems to me appropriate that in signing this proclamation that reference be made to those who fought in that war, those who served in that war, why they fought, and why their service was not only in the interest of the country but in the highest tradition of service to the United States of America, as far as the wars in which we have been engaged throughout our history, wars which, we trust, we will not have to be engaged in in the future if our foreign policy is as successful as we hope to make it.

I know that there are some who quarrel with the phrase that I have often used, that our men in Vietnam and those who served in the Armed Forces finally achieved what many thought was impossible-peace with honor.

I do not use this phrase in any jingoistic sense. I use it, because when I consider the alternative, I realize how much those who served did for their country under difficult circumstances.

This has been described as a war without heroes, without heroes perhaps except for those who occasionally receive a Medal of Honor that we hand out, but very little attention given to it, those without heroes, a war in which for the first time our prisoners of war come home and for a few fleeting months are recognized for the character that they showed as prisoners. But when I refer to peace with honor achieved by over 2 1/2 million who served in Vietnam, I think of what would have happened had they not served and had we failed in our objective.

I am not now going to go into how the war began. It would serve no useful purpose to point out the difficulties that some of us have had as to how the war was conducted, but I do know this:

It was important to bring it to a conclusion in the right way, in a way that America remained respected throughout the world, in a way in which our allies had confidence in us, the neutrals did not lose their faith in us, and particularly where those who might be our opponents still respected us, respected not only our power but respected our strength in terms of will and willingness to use that strength for a cause to which we were committed.

What would have happened had we not ended the war in the way that we did end it? Seventeen million people in South Vietnam, instead of having a government which is non-Communist with a right to choose for the future, would now be under Communist control.

The 7 million people of Cambodia who are fighting against very great odds would certainly now be under Communist control. The small countries of Malaysia and Singapore, the much larger country of Indonesia, Thailand, the 200 million people that live in the perimeter of Southeast Asia, those nations would have a much greater danger threatening .them of aggression sweeping over the entire peninsula of Southeast Asia.

People say the domino theory really is not accurate. The difficulty is they have never asked the dominoes, because when we find in visiting those areas, as many of us have, that they are watching what the United States does in terms of its relations to a small country so far away in a very difficult war, when they reach a conclusion that the United States is not a dependable ally, that the United States will be pushed over, when faced with Communist aggression, then they lose confidence in us, and they accept the inevitable that the tide of aggression will engulf them also.

So, we are grateful to our men who served, because as a result, 250 million people and perhaps more in the Southeast Asian effort have a chance--not a guarantee, but a chance--to choose their own way, a chance to remain free from a takeover by aggression from outside forces.

Our part will, in the future, be under the Nixon Doctrine not to furnish troops, but to furnish within our capacities and depending upon their ability to use it, to furnish the economic and military supplies so that they can have what they need to defend themselves.

But also, the way that this war ended had a much greater significance. There have been some foreign policy developments over the past 5 years, and particularly over the past 2 years, that in my opinion would not have occurred, could not have been accomplished, had not the United States proved that it was a dependable ally and also demonstrated in Vietnam that it would not join an enemy to overthrow an ally.

What I am referring to is very simply that when a great power, in any of its relations with any countries large or small, shows a lack of will, it loses respect not only in that area but it loses respect all over the world, and particularly among those who might oppose it in the future and who might be tempted to engage in adventurism, proceeding on the assumption that the United States having backed down one place might do so somewhere else.

So, in conclusion, I simply want to say to the Members of the Congress present, both Democrat and Republican, that we do owe a great debt of honor to those who served here, a great debt that is difficult to repay because this has been a misunderstood war; this has been one in which Americans have been honestly divided, and we trust that that may never come again.

But as we see what would have happened had these men not stood firm and had we not backed them up, let me say the chance now to go forward with great initiatives for peace, with the United States strong and respected, we would not have.

So, the 2 1/2 million who served in Vietnam deserve our thanks. They deserve, I would say to Mr. Johnson, as he may have noted from the press conference last night, special attention insofar as those who have suffered from the wounds of war. And I want, particularly, personal attention given to any indications that our laws are not being adequately carried out in that respect, in providing the benefits for them.

And finally, looking to the future, the way that we can pay the debt that we owe those who served, those who died, those who were wounded, those who have been prisoners, and those who served and came back with very little in terms of praise or applause, the best way we can repay that debt is to have a strong America militarily, but an America that is respected throughout the world, an America that will not back away from its great and destined role to be the peacemaker of the world, whether it is in the Mideast, in Europe, in Asia, or in any other area of the world.

That is our goal, and as we designate this as being Vietnam Veterans Day, let us set as our goal that we in the United States will be able to avoid not only more Vietnams, but build a structure of peace in which all people in the world will be able to avoid a future war, large or small.