These are very earnest men who are both republicans and democrats, moderates and liberal. People who have come to the conclusion that the United States should not be fighting in this war. A tragedy has mounted so much over the years that they have to stop. They are trying to use the legislative branch to bring the war to an end. In a sense, creating a bit of a constitutional clash with the president of the United States. Its very moving piece. Those are all very prominent senators. I knew several of them and work with them. They looked much younger in these pictures but they are really earnest about what they are saying. They were very convincing to the Television Audience that watch them. They had to fight to get the Television Program in the first place and so they made the most of it. Article one, section eight of the constitution reads as follows, the Congress Shall have power to raise and support armies but no appropriation of money to that use shelby for a longer term than two years. Our amendment to end the war fills the obligations that we have under the constitution. Mcgovern hadfield amendment that was sometimes referred to, who were they and what would this really have done it if you passed . To back it just a little bit, the president of the United States, Richard Nixon, had announced in november of 1969 the Vietnamese Program to remove american troops out of vietnam. The thought at that point was maybe this was the end of the war. Actually it was good for me because i was a supply kirk and because they were not some pending sending clerks vietnam. I was sent to hawaii instead. A lot of us for either side of relief. But then instead of the war going down and reducing, it seemed to increase, to escalate. It seemed to be getting more violent. It seemed to be spreading into what to china, cambodia. That is why senator first senator cooper and frank church introduced the Cooper Church amendment to stop any american activity in cambodia. Then senator mark hadfield, the republican from oregon, consider george mcgovern, a democrat from south dakota, got together and create the Mcgovern Hadfield amendment that would have ended the United States in the war. It wouldve first of all stopped on military actions that year and the next year would have withdrawn all troops. So it was a sweeping amendment. They knew they could not introduce it as a piece of legislation so they put it on as an amendment to appropriation bill that was eventually going to pass. They thought they had a chance that way. They had to develop american support. The day that they introduced that amendment, april 30th, 1970, that night, president nixon went on television, on National Television, announced that he was authorizing american troops in cambodia to attack for troops in vietnam. Attacks are being launched this week to clean no major enemy sanctuaries on the cambodia, vietnam border. And so this was a huge step forward for, the escalation of the war and all hell broke out on american campuses. There was demonstrations even on the most conservative campuses have demonstrations. The most dramatic, the most tragic took place in cant state just a few days after nixons announcement when National Guards fired on kent students on campus. A week later there was a similar shooting in jackson state, mississippi. This was a really tragic moment. There were 100,000 people who marched on washington to protest. The senators felt that the president could get air time anytime he wanted. He could, you know, announce and make these announcements to the public but they could not respond. Of course there was no cspan chamber at that stage. If you were lucky enough to be on the news it was just for a minute or two and maybe you would get on the sunday morning news program. Essentially they wanted a chance to respond and so they went to the federal Communications Commission and asked for equal time. They wanted free time on National Television to respond to the president. The fcc will not grant them so they basically took out a 60,000 dollar loan and they purchased at half an hours time on nbc will. It was broadcast on the evening of may the 12, 1971 1970, 7 30. They made that program and then several other stations felt that the program was so important that they ran a later. Cbs, for instance, ran it the following sunday and other networks and local stations followed. The program and with an appeal of money and an appeal for the petitions. It was so successful in raised half 1 Million Dollars at that time, which was a little over 3 Million Dollars today in terms of how people responded. They are huge bags of nails delivered to the Senate Offices and people writing in to tell them they supported this. The public support however, was not enough because when the senate eventually got around to voting the Mcgovern Hadfield, i think was defeated by 65 to 39. That was substantial. Actually there was several, you know, major antiwar senators who voted against it because they just did not like the principle of telling the president in the middle of the war. They were willing to give the president a little more time to withdraw. He was showing that there was significant in congress for ending the war. It was important that they did not pass the Cooper Church amendment. It was withdrawing troops from cambodia. It was making the first steps towards would eventually the war powers act in 1973, which was passed over president nixons veto. This was an important first step. It also introduced senator mcgovern to a lot of the public and just two years later, he would be the democratic nominee for president. He would lose very badly in that election but still it was an indication of the growing strength of the Anti War Movement in the United States. And i think that the principal stumbling now is that we are somehow worried about losing face. We are worried about embarrassing the policy makers that sent us in there. We are worried about many that perhaps we made a mistake. Actually, i think it would contribute to the greatness of the United States if, as a free people, we could just admit that we are capable of making a mistake and then do the best we can to put in early and to it. Vietnamization is not a change in policy at all. It is a continuation of the old policy. What can we learn today, as we are just about to watch this program, from just listening to how the senators frame the debate and the argument and what is happening in the war . Why is it important to study this . When you consider how polarized politics have become, its quite fascinating to see this as a bipartisan group. Two republicans and three democrats. When you consider how sort of flamboyant politics has gotten in recent years, these are very sober minded people. They are not making outrageous statements. They are making very serious statements. They are having good dialog between themselves about what needed to be done. They are also pointing out the tragic nature of the war. At that point, about 40,000 americans have died in the war and countless vietnamese had died in the war. One of the senators says that if we dont pass this now, we could have another 20,000 casualties. In fact, the good now more memorial in washington has nearly 58, 000, so nearly 20,000 names were added after this broadcast was made. Of course, the conclusion of the war was no different in 1973 or 1975 than it would have been in 1970. Or for that matter, and 1965. Looking back at this point, they were right. President johnson and president nixon were absolutely wrong about what they did in vietnam and the United States is separate from that ever since. Donald richie, thank you very much for joining us via zoom. Thank you. Now from a 12th, 1970, here is that broadcast. Today, in the bright spring time 1970, United States of america has been ripped apart. Citizens bludgeoned each other in the streets of new york. Students die in a campus eruption. Buildings explode, thanks burn. The nations colleges are shut down. The population is polarized, and there operates protest everywhere. Not since the days of the civil war have americans treated each other like this. At the heart of the trouble lies the war in vietnam. It is a strange war, a war that we have to keep explaining to ourselves year after year. And it is a difficult work to explain, particularly to the people who have to go and fight on its inconclusive battlefields. But while all the top goes on, the war goes on to. It goes it continues tonight, as it has continued for a decade. Tonight, americans will die in vietnam. Tonight, americans will die in cambodia. What can we do. On the day before we went into cambodia, amendment number 609 was introduced on the floor of the United States senate. It was sponsored by a Bipartisan Coalition of 20 senators. These republicans and democrats call it the amendment to end the war. They regard it as a realistic new thrust for peace. The Senate Debate on it will begin in just a few days. And the next half hour, five of the senators will make a case for this amendment. If the American People can effectively urge its passage upon the members of the house and senate, if the amendment to end the war is passed, then the traditional right of declaring whether or not we shall commit americans to battle will be returned to the congress where it belongs. Through protest, petition, and an act of law, we shall have it last ended the vietnam war. There is no way under the constitution, by which the congress of the United States can act either to continue this war or to end it, except by a decision on whether we will appropriate funds to finance the war. Article one section eight of the constitution reads as follows. The Congress Shall have power to raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shelby for a longer term than two years. Our amendment to end the war fulfills the obligations that we have under the constitution. The amendment clearly states that unless that congress have shelled declared war. That no money is appropriated on the act to which we attach the amendment, or any other law, shall be used in vietnam after december the 30th, 1970, except for the withdrawal of american troops and other provisions. It provides that no money shall be used for military operations in the country of laos after december of 1970. It provides that no moneys shall be authorized for the use of any military operations in cambodia. 30 days following the adoption of the amendment. And that all troops should be withdrawn from vietnam. All american troops, by june, 1971. Unless the president of the United States shall deem it is important enough to extend that time by requesting the congress to pass a joint resolution authorizing such extension time. The amendment to end the war provides continuing funding for full protection of american troops during the total period of our withdrawal. It also provides Adequate Funding to provide political asylum for all those South Vietnamese and other civilians, for which there may be great concern of a blood path, and there are adequate provisions that the civilians may be placed in other places for their own protection. It also provides for a continuing negotiation of exchange of prisoners. Very soon, the senate will be acting on another amendment offered by senator cooper and myself, which is addressed to the cambodia situation and sets the limits on that venture to those declared by the president. But this and the war amendment takes the full step and provides an orderly method for the extradition of the United States from the war in vietnam itself. So what we are looking for is a reasonable way to accomplish that withdrawal. And i think that the principal stumbling block now is that we are somehow worried about losing face. We are worried about embarrassing the policy makers that sent us in their. We are worried about admitting that perhaps we made a mistake. Actually, i think it would contribute to the greatness of the United States if, as a free people, we could just admit that we are capable of making a mistake. And then do the best we can to put in early and to it. Vietnamization is not a change in policy at all. It is a continuation of the old, old policy. It is dedicated to war, not peace. It means that the war will go on and continue to go on for years to come. It means that there has been no one speaking in this administration, or the last, at the end of our support to a commitment in vietnam. It means we can look into the future for least a decade in all probability to a quarter of 1 million men involved in vietnam. I think every mother and father in america who has a son right now that is five or six or seven years old or anywhere up to 15 or 16, should well realize that that boy is going to be involved in our future commitment in vietnam under existing policy. We have come to the point where we realize, and i think the president realize when he went into cambodia, that vietnamization will not work. It was an admission of the failure of the vietnamization. I think its time that the American People recognize that the president doesnt have the power to declare war or make war alone. He can ask congress to declare that. I think thats why what we are discussing here, and urging support from the American People for, is so important. Congress can do this. Its not in a responsible action with the walls falling down all around american prestige and power in the world if we decide to get out. Congress would simply be saying, okay, we fought for seven years, we bled and died and spend our resources on this, and now the time has come to say to the South Vietnamese take it over. We will give you time. Over a period of time, we will be withdrawing and you can go on getting eight if you fight for yourself in your own civil war. We are not going to stay there and bleed and die for you any longer. But the point is simply this. It is no longer the opinion of president s and no longer the opinion of senators. Its the evidence of history. Of over 40,000 deaths and this amount of resources expended that has proved each one of those escalations to be wrong. I say how many more american men have to be heaped upon that funeral pyre of war to disprove a theory or a doctrine of military action that has been proven wrong each time it has been acted upon. After all, the United States is not going to impose any permanent solution in asia to settle asian problems among asian people on the asian mainland. The idea that we are going to do that runs against the whole current of history. Whats happening in asia is that the western powers are moving out and that the agents are taking over for themselves. Vietnamization, as it has been pointed out here, is not the method for extricateing us from this meringue. It will merely perpetuate our involvement in this war. Have the troops may come home and the other half will stay inevitably. It does not serve the interest of the United States to maintain a Permanent Military base in Southeast Asia. The president reiterated the other night that hes going to continue to bring back these hundred and 50,000 men in the next 12 months. So Many Americans may feel that means they are all going to be coming back and nobody is going to be going. Under a policy of bringing back 150,000 men and the next 12 months, we will send to South Vietnam 276,000 men who are not there now. Who are now in the military or about to go into the military. We will bring back more, 150,000 more than we send, but in a rotation process there will be this 276,000 men to go over there to fight and perhaps die. And what would we have accomplished . What evidence is there, based on past history, to lead us to believe that we would be in any better position or that South Vietnam would be in any better position one year or five years or ten years hands after tens of thousands of additional americans have been killed then we are now . What would we have gained . We have created a crisis of confidence in a deep disillusionment and alienation that doesnt just affect a narrow fringe of radicals on campus. Anyone who goes to the campuses knows that this feeling extends to millions of young americans. If they grow up without a belief in the system, that, it seems to me, has far greater bearing up on the future the United States than anything we have now or have ever had at stake. I think one of the great tragic byproducts of all of this has been the spiritual scarring of our own people and the questioning in our own minds of why we are involved in a bloody war with total military supremacy. With indiscriminate bombing and far ranging effects on the ecology of those nations by spraying chemicals and driving the people off of the land and into the cities. Completely changing the complex of that Little Nation involving 16 to 18 Million People. And we ask ourselves, can we be happy about the fact that weve killed 10,000 vietnamese and suffered 300 deaths ourselves in the process . That this complete psychology that we have a of destroying ally at any expense and what the results of it. Our own society. It is brutalizing as internally. We find our young people turning away from it. Fleeing to canada to avoid a war they continue consider immoral. We are questioning ourselves to find National Purpose again. What we need to understand is that there is no way to separate the cost of this war in asia from the cost of our own society. Now there were stories in the press recently that some of our poor people, some of the black citizens and other minority groups, have shied away from participating in protests against the war on the grounds that their concerns are with hunger and with racism and with poverty. What i think all of our fellow americans need to understand is that the answer to these other problems will not come until we put this war behind us and the enormous drain that its taking here in our society. The person who is worried about inflation ought to realize that war is a principal cause of it. The man who is worried about the stock market skidding ought to realize that the stock market jitters are so she aid to a great extent with the war. As you have said so many times, the governors and the city councilman and others who are worried about where the money is going to come from for those new schools, or new sewage projects or other things, they have to understand that the war is robbing them of those possibilities. We are talking about a 16 to 18 Million People in South Vietnam. There are 23 million blacks in america who have not been able to find justice in this great country. I am told thousands of american indians, who have never been brought to their fulfillment. You, who have worked so long and energetic in the field of hunger in america and poverty, with some 35 Million People even in poverty where the very foundation shaking of every major city in the nation. With the great basic undergirding of this nation that has always kept it stable. With those minorities is now being drained, robbed in the name of somehow saving face in Southeast Asia. When we talk, i think you would agree that there seems to be a great paradox. The cost of the war was 23 billion dollars. Just about in specific terms that one year has costed this war will clean up all our waters in the United States. The half hour that this program is being telecast to the American Public to reduce that of the terms of the cost a war, the federal government will be spending 1 Million Dollars. Vietnam . Just in vietnam. The argument is made that the world will think we are weak when we withdraw. I think of all the arguments that are made, that one is the least impressive. Actually, the world knows we have the power to exterminate every living inhabitant in vietnam if we can loosen that power, we can solve it. It is not our power to question out there, its the wisdom of our policy. The world sees the richest, strongest nation dropping more bombs on vietnam then we have dropped in europe in the second world war. They have seen tremendous disproportion of strength and wealth and that puts us in a very bad light in the world. In fact, this war has done more to undermine americans moral leadership in the world than anything that has ever happened to us. The faster we put the matter right in Southeast Asia and end this war, the sooner we will begin to wind back again the respect that this country ought to have throughout the world. What do you say to people who are really concerned about the fact that we will lose face in the world . It will not be a first rate power as it has been implied in the past in the present. The concern of honest americans who want to get out of the war, who want to stop the killing in the dying and they say this is america place in the world. Unless we accept this challenge, we are somehow failing in world leadership. I think this is the question in the minds of millions of americans today. Last constitutes leadership. Not just power but power of ideas. I say that we are losing in the world today by continuing to be in vietnam. Its not a matter of national pride, its a matter of whether we are practicing what we preach. Its a matter of whether our ideals embodied the constitution. The American People are really at the Senate Center of our policy or peripheral object a face saving and so forth. I say if its to be humiliated, to admit we are wrong and to save lives, then the sooner we do this, the better is going to be for our nation. I do not consider humiliation. I consider greatness because only the powerful can take the chance of admitting error and we are that powerful. Civilizations that have died, died that is happening on the United States of america if we do not get out of this war. If we close this war in the sacred words of justice and freedom and peace, but justice, freedom and peace are not at stake out there. The government we are supporting is not a democratic government, its an incompetent and corrupt military dictatorship. Its involved in the war with another dictatorship. This is a war between two dictatorships for control of vietnam. So i think we make a great mistake when we try to quote such a war in terms of the ideals for which this country should stand. Freedom is not at issue for the people of vietnam. One way or the other, the kinds of freedom we know is not going to be a gift of this who are out there. When you got a question, frank, and particularly george, we are talking about this amendment to end the war, to most americans is how can i support this amendment . At the same time support my country and involvement we have had over the last 15 years. I think if people can resolve this in their own minds it will very willingly bring this war to an end to this a moment. The president said the other night that if we leave vietnam now, we are going to be through. I think he said we are going to be finished as a peacemaker in asia. Well now i think we ought to quit trying to be the policeman for asia. Lets quit trying to be a solo policeman and pacifier in asia alone. How ironic it would be if at long last we succeeded pacifying Southeast Asia and could not pacify our own society . Invasion of cambodia, i think, was truly the straw that broke the camels back. The writing to me at about eight to ten to one against the president s posture right now in Southeast Asia. In the belief and the hope that the senate of the United States will offer the leadership to alter this posture. Everything we have said here today is completely i think we have all been critical of the democratic president s as we have over republican president s and we should not be considering this in terms of a political or partisan advantage one way or another. This warm frames partisanship. I know great many republicans as well as democrats think our policy now is wrong and need to get out. I think an overwhelming number of americans, whatever their Political Party belief is. I think what we are trying to do with our amendment and the war is to say that that is too important of a decision based on the shoulders of one man. Its too big of a risk to ask one man to decide. The president ought not to have to make that judgment alone. Under the constitution, he is not supposed to make that decision alone. But we are proposing to do to share that responsibility and whatever political risk, whatever opportunity, whatever hazard is involved in making the decision to end the war, we are prepared, as elected officials, to stand up on that question and answer yes or no and then take whatever blame or whatever credit is involved. Providing a situation where the president can withdraw faster, where you can make a determination the war is going to end and you will not bear the hold on himself. We recognize that when you make a tragic mistake there is no shameless way to get out of it. We will share that pain, we will share that responsibility but lets recognize and get out. What do we say to the American Parents that have family finding a vietnam . Is this a patriotic move that we are taking in this amendment to end the war . Is this support of their sons who are fighting in vietnam . There is no better way to protect the young men who are fighting over there that to bring them home and i do not know if any military person, any responsible position would doubt that if we made our declaration, that they would be brought home safely. As long as we stay there, the casualties are going to go up. It Richard Nixons Program Works over the next three years, we are talking about a minimum of 5000 more americans dead and probably closer to 25, four or five times as many casualties and four or five times for more than vietnamese in the process. But now what we are proposing is not a disorganized and uncoordinated outcry. We are proposing a specific legislative that will have the full force of law and it will stay in effect no more money for Southeast Asia or any other purpose other than arranging for the systematic and safe withdraw of our forces for the exchange of presents, for asylum for those people that might be threatened by our withdrawal. Its orderly constitutional procedure for bringing about an end to this war. Well this brings the congress back to the role that should have been playing all along. It asks the congress assume its responsibility to the American People. It brings our democratic system back to light again in a balanced, constitutional manner. That, in itself, is as important in the long run to the life of this public as ending the war in vietnam. What we say to the American People who have been watching and who say, well, we agree with you but our voices are not loud, we believe one person i am just a little person will . You hear that many times. Does that voice have a place in this whole great issue of war when . We are tired of speeches, we want some action. A lot of the young people are saying this to, a lot of the older people. Turn it off, we agree with you but what have you done about it . What can you do about it . What can we do . We are asking people who for the senate of the United States, particularly, to begin to assume its responsibility under the constitution. For years and years now we have advocated, we have given all the power to the president when it came to the war. We sat on our hands and done nothing and hoped that the people would look the other way. Well the time has come to reinsert our responsibility and vote on the question of war and peace. We have sort of enshrined silent as the virtue of patriotism in the last year or so. Actually i think the highest patriotic duty is to speak up, to speak his convictions and minds. That is the hope we have to give to all American People, that there is this channel open to them and we and others like them on this and the power structure, so to speak, are accepting. We are not only reception but we are inviting for them to participate in this amendment in the war. This is what we must do. We need their help even if we have 40 senators presently on this amendment. We need that help of the people of the United States. There is no other way that we can succeed. The voice of the people counts in the final analysis for. Its to exercise my judgment and to follow my conscience in a position of responsibility. I must tell the people when i think we are right when i tell them when we are wrong. I expect them to support those positions or to oppose them one. But for load sake, do not be quiet, right, support or oppose but do something in this critical time. If you want to cast your vote to end the war in indochina, there is something you must do in the next few days, right to your congress or your center. Just a simple words, i vote for the amendment to end the war in Southeast Asia. There is Something Else you can do, take a sheet of paper and right at the top, we undersigned favor the amendment to end the war. Whats the room for names and addresses and then go to work, churches, supermarket, wherever you can collect signatures and get people to sign who agree with you. Send those petitions to your congressman and to your senators. The president of the United States rightfully can command all media to bring a message to the people of the United States anytime he deems he has a message of importance. For those of us who have different viewpoints and wish to express those to you, the American People, it requires that we seek your assistance. Remember that 66 cents out of every dollar now goes to war. A dollar for peace can go a long way. Send your contribution, whatever it may be, in order that we can continue to speak out. Make your checks out to amendment to end the war. Post office box 1a ben franklin station washington, d. C. Let me close this broadcast on a very concrete and specific point. What we are proposing here is that for the first time in the long history of this war, the senate of the United States stand up and be counted yes or no on the question of whether we wish the war to continue or to be ended. We propose to do that in a vote that will come in a very short time. We pledge you that that vote will be held. This is not a sense of the congress resolution, it is not a debate, it is an act of law which has carried will put an end to this war in a systematic way. We ask earnestly tonight for your support in that effort. Every area of the world. In 1968, a new phase is now starting. General Westmoreland Strategies producing results. The enemies hopes are dim. Just a few days, the debate to end on the amendment to end the war will begin on the floor of the United States senate. If the people can effectively urged its passage by members of the house and senate, if the amendment to end the war is passed, then the traditional right of declaring whether or not we shall commit americans to battle will be returned to the congress. Where it belongs. Through protest, petition and an act of law, we shall have at last and in the vietnam war. Next, Richard Nixon accepts his partys president ial nomination for a second term at the 1972 Republican National convention in miami beach, florida. President nixon won the 1972 general election in a landslide over democratic nominee george mcgovern, carrying 49 states. The president of the United States mister chairman, delegates to this convention, my fellow americans, four years a
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.