Transcripts For CSPAN3 The 20240704

Presidency. In this episode, well hear from two president S Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Lbj was president of the United States from 1963 to 1969, and during those turbulent years, he often invoked americas better angels in speeches. And he also talked about his vision of a Great Society. And he went to the statue of liberty to sign an immigration bill. Ter those, well hear from ard nixon, 1969. Richard nixon talked about the great silent majority. And in 1974, he resigned from Office Beginning now. HereS Lyndon Johnson. President hatcher. Governor romney. Senators mcnamara and hart. Congressman meader and stabler. And other members of the pine michigan delegation. Members of the graduating class. My fellow americans, it is a great pleasure to be here today. This universe today has been coeducational. Since 1870, but i do not believe it was on the basis of your accomplishments that a Detroit High School girl said, and i quote, in choosing a college, you first have to decide whether you want a coeducational school or an educational school. Well, we can find both here at michigan, although perhaps a different ours. I came out here today very anxious to meet the michigan student whose father told a friend of mine that his sons education had been a real value. It stopped his mother from bragging about him. I have come today from the turmoil of your capital to the tranquility of your campus to speak about the future of your country. The purpose of protecting the life of our nation. And preserving the liberty of our citizens pursue the happiness of our people. Our success in that pursuit is the task of our success as a nation. For a centu labored to settle and to subdue a continent for half a century. We called upon unborn added invention and untiring energy to create an order of plenty for all of our people. The challenge of the next half century is whether we have the wisdom to use that wealth to enrich and elevate our national life. And to advance the quality of our american civiliz in your imagination and your initiative and your indignation will determine whether we build a society where progress is the servant of our needs, our a society where old values and new visions are buried under unbridled growth. So far, in your time, we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society, the Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and Racial Injustice to which were totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning. The Great Society is a place where evy ild can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talen. It is a place where leisure is a welcome chance to build and reflect, not a feared cause of boredom and restlessness. It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce, but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community. It is a place where a man can renew contact with nature. It is a place which honors creation for its own sake and for what it adds to the understanding of the race. It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods. But most of all, the Great Society is not a safe harbor or a resting place. A final objective, a finished work. It is a challenge. Constantly renewed, beckoning us toward a destiny where the meaning of our lives matches the marvelous products of our labor. So i want to talk to you today about three places where we began to build the Great Society in our cities and in our countryside and in our classrooms. Many of you will live to see the day, perhaps 50 years from now, when there will be. 400 million americans. 4 5 of them in urban areas, and the remainder of this century, urban population will double city land will d ande will have to build homes and highnd facilities equal to all those built. Since this country was first settled. So in the next 40 years, we must rebuild the entire urban United States. Aristotle said, men come together in cities in order to live, but they remain together in order to live the good life. It is harder and harder to live the good life in American Cities today. The catalog of ales is long. There is the decay of the center and the despoiling of the suburbs. There is not enough housing for our people. Our transportation for our traffic. Open land is vanishing and old landmarks are violated. Worst of all, expansion is eroding. These precious and time honored values of community with neighbors and Community Communion with nature. The loss of these values breeds loneliness and boredom and indifference. And our society will never be great until our cities are great. Today, the frontier of imagination and innovation is is inside those cities and not beyond their borders. You experiments are already going on. It will be the task of your generation to make the American City a place where future generations will come not only to live, but to live the good life. And i understand that if i stayed here tonight. I would seth michigan students are really doing the best to live the good le. This is the place where the peace corps was started. It is inspiring to see how all of you, while you are in this country, are trying so hard to live at the level of the people. A second place where we began to build the Great Society is in our countryside. We have always prided ourselves on being not only america, the strong and america there but america the beautiful. Today that beauty is in danger. The water we drink, the food we eat, the very air that we breathe are teatened with pollution. Our parks are overcrowded. Our seashores overburden. Green fields and dense forests are disappearing. A few years ago, we were greatly concerned about the ugly american. Today, we must act to prevent an ugly america. For once, the battle is lost. Once the battle is lt, once our natural splendor is destroyed, it can never be reptured. And once man can no longer walk with beauty or wonder ate, his spirit will weather and his sustence be wasted. A third place to build the Great Society is in the classrooms of america. There aryour childrens lives will be shaped. Our society will not be great until every young mind is set free to scan the fathers for eight years of vote and imagination. We are still far from that goal. Today, 8 million adult americans. More than the entire population of michigan, have not finished five years of school. Nearly 20 million have not finished eight years of school. Nearly 54 million. More than arter of all america have not even finished high school. Each year, more than 100,000 High School Graduates with proved ability do not Enter College because they cannot afford it. And if we cannot educate todays youth, what will we do . In 1970, when Elementary School enrollment will be 5 million greater than 1960 and high School Enrollment will rise by 5 million, and College Enrollment will increase by more than 3 million. In many places, classrooms are overcrowded and curricula are outdated. Most of our qualified teachers are underpaid and many of our paid teachers are unqualified. So we must give every child a place to set and a teacher to learn from. Poverty must not be a bar to learning, and learning must offer an escape from poverty. But more classrooms and more teachers are not enough. We must seek an educational system which grows in excellence as it grows inside. And this means better training for our teachers. It means preparing youth to enjoy their hours of leisure, as well as their hours of labor. It means exploring new techniques of teaching to find new ways to stimulate the love of learning and the capacity for creation. These are three of the central issues of the Great Society. While our government has many programs directed at those issues, i do not pretend that we have the full answero those problems. But i do promise this. We are going to assemble the best start. And the broadest knowledge from all over the world to find those answers for america. I intend to establish working groups to prepare a series of white house conferences and meetings on the cities, on natural beauty, on the quality of education, and on other emerging challenges. And from these meetings and from this inspiration and from these studies, we will begin to set our course toward the Great Society, the solution to these problems, not rest on a massive program in washington. Now, i cannot rely solely on the strained resources of local authority. They require us to create new concepts of cooperation in a create aided federalism between the National Capital and the leaders of local communities. Woodrow wilson once wrote a every man set out from his university should be a man of s nation, as well as a man of his time. Within your letime, powerful force is already loosed. Will take us toward our way life, beyond the realm of our experience. Almost beyond the boun oour imagination. Far better our far worse your generation has been appointed by history to deal with those problems and to lead america toward a new age. You have the chance. Never before afforded to any people in any age. You can help build a society where the demands of morality and the needs of the spirit can be realized in the life of the nation. So will you join in the battle to give every citizen the full equality of which god enjoins . And the law requires whatever his beliefs, our race or the color of his skin. Well, you join in the battle to give every citizen an escape from the crushing weight of poverty. Will you join in the battle to make it possible for all nations to live and enduring peace as neighbors and not as mortal enemies. Will you join in the battle to build the greatiety . To prove that our material progress is only the foundatn on which we will build a richer life. Our mind and spirit. Arofhose tenets. All that say this battle cannot be won. That we are condemned to a soulless wealth. I do not agree that we have the power to shape the civilization that we want. But we need your well and your labor and your hearts. If we are to build that kind of society, those who came to this land so sought to build more than just a new country, they sought a new world. So i have come here today to your campus to say that you can make tir vision, our reality. So let us, from this moment, begin our heart so that in the future, mewi lookack and say it was them. After a ng and weary way, that man turned the exploitshis genius to the full and richmond of his life. Thank you. Goodbye. Mr. Vice president. Mr. Speaker. Mr. Ambassador goldberg. Distinguished members of the leadership of the congress, distinguished governors and mayors. My fellow countrymen, we have called the congress here this afternoon not only to mark the very historic occasion, but to settle a very old issue that is in dispute. That issue is to what Congressional District does. Liberty island really belong. Congressman farbstein or congressman gallagher . It will be settled by whomever of the two can walk first to the top of the statue of liberty. This bill that we will sign today is not a revolutionary bill. It does not affect the lives of millions. It will not reshape the structure of our daily lives or really add importantly to either our wealth or our power. Yet it is still one of the most important acts of this congress and of this administration. Our it does repair a very deep and painful flaw in the fabric of american justice. It corrects a cruel and enduring wrong in the conduct of the american nation. Speaker mccormack and congressman seller. More than almost 40 years ago. First pointed it out in their maiden speeches in the congress. And this measure that we will sign today will really make us truer to ourselves, both as a country and as a people. It will strengthen us in a hundred unseen ways. And i have come here to thank personally each member of the congress who labored so long and so valiantly to make this occasion come true today and to make this bill a reality. I cannot mention all their names, for it would take much too long. But my gratitude and that of this nation belong to the 89th congress. We are in debt to to the vision of the late beloved president John Fitzgerald kennedy, and to the support given to this measure by the then attorney general and now senat robert f kennedy. In the final days of consideration. This bill had no more able champion than the present attorney general, nicholas katzenbach, who was new yorks own manny celler, and senator ted kennedy of massachusetts, and congressman feehan of ohio. And senator mansfield and senator dirksen, constituting the leadership of the senate. And senator javits helped to guide this bill to passage, along with the help of the members sitting in front of me today. This bill says simply that from this day forward, those wishing to emigrate to america shall be admitted on the basis of their skilled and their Close Relationships to those already here. This is a simple task and it is a fair test. Those who can contribute st to this country, to its growth, to its strength, to its spirit will be the first that are admitted to this land. The fairness of this standard is so selfevident that we may well wonder that it has not always been applied. Yet the fact is that for over four decades, the immigration policy of the United States has been twisted and has been distorted by the harsh injustice of the National Origins quota system. Under that system, the ability of new immigrants to come to america depended upon the country of their birth. Only three countes were allowed to supply 70 of all the immigrants families were kept apart because a husban or wife or a child had been born in the wrong place. Man ofeed skill and talent, or denied entrance because they came from southern. Our Eastern Europe or from one of the developing countries. This system violated the basic principle of american democracy, the principle that values and rewards. Each man on the basis of his merit as a man, it has been unamerican in the high sense because it has been untrue to the faith that brought thousands to these shores, even before we were a country. Today, with my signature, this system is abolished. We can now believe that it will never againtter the gate to the american nation with the twin barriers of prejudice and privilege. America would. Our beautiful america was built by a nation of strangers from 100 different places or more. They have poured forth into an empty land, joining and blending in one mighty and irresistable, all tied. The land flourished because it was fed from so many sources, because it was nourished by so many cultureand traditions and peoples. And from this experience, almost unique in the history of nations has come. America has attitude toward the rest of the world. We, cae of what we are, feel safer and stronger in a world as varied as the people who make it up. A world where no country rules. Another. And our countries can deal with the basic problems of Human Dignity and deal with those problems in their own way. Now, under the monument, which has welcomed so many to our shores, the american nation returned to the finest of its traditions. Today. The days of unlimited immigration are past, but those who do come will come because of what they are and not because of the land from which they sprung. When the earliest settlers poured into a wild continent, there was no one to ask them where they came from. The only question was, were they sturdy enough to make the journey . Were they Strong Enough to clear the land or are they enduring enough to make a home for freedom . And were they brave enough to die for liberty if it became necessary to do so . And so it has been through all the great and testing moments of American History. Our history this year we see in vietnam a man there are dying man named fernandez and jj and zelenka and mariano and mikami. Neither the enemy who killed them nor the people whose independence they have fought to save ever asked them were. They are. Their parents came from. They were all americans. It was for free, man. And for america. That they gave their all. They gave their lives themselves. And by that same question as a test for immigration, the congress proves ourselves worthy of those men and worthy of our own traditions. As a nation. So it is in that spirit that i declare this afternoon to the people of cuba that those who seek refuge here in america will find it. The dedication of america to our traditions as an asylum for the oppressed is going to be upheld. I have directed the departments of state and justice and health and education and welfare to immediately make all the necessary arrangements to permit those in cuba who seek freedom, to make an orderly entry into the United States of america. Our first concern will be whether those cubans who have been separated from their children and their parents and their husbands and their wives and that are now in this uny. Our next concern is with those who are imprisoned for political reasons. And i will send to the Congress Tomorrow a request for supplementary forms of 12,600,000 to carry forth the commitment that im making today. I am asking the department of state to seek through the swiss government immediately the agreement of the cuban government and a request to the president of the International Red cross committee. The request is for the assistance of the committee and processing the movement of refugees from cuba to miami. Miami will serve as a port of entry and a temporary stopping place for refugees as they settle in other parts of this country and to all the voluntary agencies in the United States. I appeal fir continuation and expansion of their needed, and the reception, thes settlement of those who choose to leave cuba. The federalnment will work closely with these agencies and their task of charity and and i want all the people of this great land of ours to know really the enormous contribution which the compassion of citizens of florida have made to humanity and to decency in all states. And this union can join with florida now in extending the hand of helpfulness and humanity to our cuban brothers. The lesson of our times is sharp and clear in this movement of people from one land to another. Once again, it stamps the mark of failure on a regime when many of its citizens voluntarily choose to leave the land of their birth for a more hopeful home in america. The future holds little hope for any government or the present holds no hope for the people. And so we americans will welcome these cuban people or the tides of history run. And in day they can return to their homeland to find it cleansed of terror and free from fear. Over my shoulders here, you can see ellis island, whose vacant corridors echoed today in the joyous sound of long ago voices and we can all believe that the lamp of this grand old lady is brighter today. And the golden door that guard gleams more brilliantly in the light of an increased liberty for the people from all countries of the globe. Thank you. And this is American History. Tvs series speeches that defined a presidency. Well turn our attention now from lbj to Richard Nixon and well hear from him in 1969, talking about the great silent majority. And then again in 1974, when he resigned from office. Good evening, my fellow americans. Tonight, i want to talk to you on a subject of deep concern to all americans and to many people in all parts of the world. The war in vietnam. I believe that one of the reasons for the deep division about vietnam is that Many Americans have lost confidence in what their government has told them about our policy. The American People cannot and should not be asked to support a policy which involves the overriding writing issues of war and peace unless they know the truth about that policy. Tonight, i would like to answer of the questions that i know are on the minds of many of you listening to me. How and why did america get involved in vietnam in the first place . How has this administration changed the policy of the Previous Administration . What has really happened in the negotiations in paris and on the battlefront in vietnam . What choices do we have if we are to end the war . What are the prospects for . Peace. And let me begin by describing the situation i found when i was inaugurated on january 20. The war had been going on for four years, 31,000 americans had been killed in action. The Training Program for the South Vietnamese was beyond scope. Five. And 40,000 american were in vietnam, with no plans to reduce the number. No progress made at the negotiations in paris. And the United States had not forth a comprehensive peace proposal. The war was causing deep division at home and criticism from many of our friends as well as our enemies abroad. In view of these circumstances, there were some who urged that in the war at once by ordering the immediate withdrawal of all American Forces from a political standpoint, this would have been a popular and easy course to follow. After all, we became involved in the war while my predecessor was in office. I could blame the defeat which would be the result of my action on him and come out as the peacemaker. Some put it to me quite bluntly. This was the only way to avoid allowing johnson his war to become nixons war. But i had a greater obligation and to think only of the years of my administration and of the next election. I had think of the effect of my decision on the next generation and on the future of peace and freedom in america and in the world. Let us all understand that the question before us is not whether some americans are for peace and some americans are against peace. The question at issue is not whether johnsons war becomes nixons war. The great question is how can we win americas peace . Well, let us turn now to the fundamental issue. Why and how did the United States become involved in vietnam in the first place . 15 years ago, North Vietnam, with the Logistical Support of communist china and the soviet union, launched a campaign to impose a communist government on South Vietnam by instigating and supporting a revolution. In response to the request to the government of South Vietnam, president eisenhowers sent economic aid and military equipment to assist the people of South Vietnam in their efforts to prevent a communist takeover. Seven years ago, president kennedy sent 16,000 military personnel to vietnam as combat advisors for years ago. President johnsons and american combat forces to South Vietnam. Now, many believe that president johnsons decision to send american combat forces to South Vietnam was wrong, and many others among them have strongly critical of the way the war has been conducted. But the question facing us today is now that we are in the war. What is the best way to end it . In january, i could only conclude that the precipitate withdrawal of all American Forces from vietnam would be a disaster not only for South Vietnam, but for the United States and for the cause of peace for the South Vietnamese. Our precipitate withdrawal would inevitably allow the communists to repeat the massacres which followed their takeover in the north. 15 years before they then murdered more than 50,000 people and hundreds of thousands more died in slave labor camps. We saw a prelude of what would happen in South Vietnam when the communists entered the city of away last year during their brief rule where there was a bloody reign of terror in which 3000 civilians were club shot to death and buried in mass graves. With a sudden collapse of our support, these atrocities of away would become the nightmare of the entire nation, and particularly for the million and a half catholic refugees who fled to South Vietnam when the communists took over in the north. Or the United States. This first defeat in our nations history would result in a collapse of confidence in american leadership, not only in asia, but throughout the world. Three american president s have recognized the great stakes involved in vietnam and understood what had to be done. In 1963, president kennedy, with his characteristic eloquence and said, we want to see a stable government there carrying on the struggle to maintain national independence. We believe strongly in that. We are not to withdraw from that effort. In my opinion, for us to withdraw from that effort would mean a collapse not only of South Vietnam, but southeast asia. So were going to stay there. President eisenhower and president johnson expressed the same conclusion during their terms of office, where the future of peace precipitate withdrawal would be a disaster of immense magnitude. A nation cannot remain great if it betrays its allies and lets down its friends. Our defeat and humiliation in South Vietnam, without question would promote recklessness and the counsels of those great powers who have not yet abandoned their goals of world conquest. This would spark violence wherever our commitments help maintain the peace in the middle east. In berlin, eventually, even in the western hemisphere. Ultimately, this would cost more lives. It would not bring peace. It would bring more war. For these reasons, i rejected the recommendation that i should end the war by immediately withdrawing all of our forces. I chose instead to change american policy on both the negotiating and the battlefront in order to end the war fought on many fronts. I initiated pursuit for peace on many fronts. In a television speech on may 14, in a speech before the United Nations on a number of other occasions, i set forth our peace proposals in great detail. We have offered the complete withdrawal of all outside forces within one year. We proposed a cease fire under International Supervision. We have offered free elections under International Supervision with the communists participating in the organization and conduct of the elections as an organized Political Force and the saigon government has pledged to accept the result of the election. We have not put forth our proposals on a take it or leave it basis. We have indicated that were willing to discuss the proposals have been put forth by the other side. We have declared that anything is negotiable except. The right of the people of south to determine their own future. At the paris peace conference, Ambassador Lodge is demonstrated our flexibility and good faith in 40 Public Meetings. Hanoi has refused even to discuss our proposals. They demand our unconditional acceptance of their terms, which are that we withdraw all American Forces immediately and unconditionally and, that we overthrow the government of South Vietnam as we lead. We have not limited our peace initiatives to Public Forums and public statements. I recognize the january order that a long and bitter war like this usually cannot be settled in a public forum. That is why, in addition to the public statements and negotiations, i have explored every possible private avenue that might lead to a settlement. Tonight i am taking the unprecedented step of disclosing to you some of our other initiatives for peace initiatives we undertook privately and secretly, because we thought we thereby might open the door, which publicly would be closed. I did not wait for my inaugural nation to begin my quest for peace. Soon after my election, through an individual who is direct and contact on a personal with the leaders of North Vietnam, i made two private offers for a rapid comprehensive summit. Hanois replies called, in effect or our surrender before negotiations. Since the soviet union furnishes most of the military equipment for North Vietnam, secretary of state rogers, my assistant for National Security affairs. Dr. Kissinger. Ambassador lodge and i personally have on a number of occasions with representatives of the soviet government to enlist their assistance in getting meaningful negotiations started. In addition, we have had extended discussions directed toward that same end with representatives of other governments which have diplomatic relations with North Vietnam. None of these initiatives have to date produced results in midjuly. I became convinced that it was necessary to make a major move to break the deadlock in the paris talks. I spoke directly in this office where im now sitting with an individual who had known ho chi minh on a personal basis for 25 years. Through him, i sent a letter to ho chi minh. I did this. Outside of the usual diplomatic channels, with the hope that with the necessity of making statements for propaganda removed, there might be construct in progress toward bringing the war to an end. Let me read from that letter to you now. Dear mr. President , i realize that it is difficult to communicate meaningfully across the gulf of four years of war, but precisely because of this gulf, i wanted to take this opportunity to reaffirm and also solemnity my desire to work for a just peace. I deeply believe that the war in vietnam has gone on too long and delay in bringing it to an end can benefit no one, least of all the people of vietnam. The time has come to move forward at the conference table toward an early resolution of this tragic war. You will find us forthcoming and open minded in a common effort to bring the blessings of peace to the brave people of vietnam. Let history record that at this critical juncture, both sides turn their face toward peace rather than toward conflict and war. I received yemens reply on august 30, three days before his death. It simply reiterates the public position North Vietnam had taken in paris and flatly rejected my initiative. The full text of both letters is being released to the press. In addition to the Public Meetings that i referred to, Ambassador Lodge has met with vietnams chief negotiator in paris in the 11 private sessions. And we have taken other significant initiatives which must remain secret to keep open some channels of communications which may still prove to be productive. But the effect of all the Public Private and secret negotiations which have been undertaken since the bombing halt a year ago and since this administration came to office in january summit, january 20th, can be summed up in one sentence. No, whatever has been made except agreement on the shape of the bargaining table. Well, now who is at fault . Its become clear that the obstacle in negotiating an end to the war is not the president of the United States. It is not the South Vietnamese government. The obstacle is the other sides absolute refusal. To show the least willingness to join us in seeking a just peace. And it will not do so. While it is convinced that all it has to do is to wait for our next concession and our next concession after that one until it gets everything it wants. There can now be no longer any question that progress in negotiation depends only on hanois desire to negotiate. To negotiate seriously. I realize that this report and our efforts on the diplomatic front is discouraging to the American People. But the American People are entitled to know the truth. The bad news, as well as the good news where the lives of our young men are involved. Now, let me turn, however, to a more encouraging report. On another front, at the time we launched our search for peace, i recognized we might not succeed in bringing an end to the war through negotiation. I therefore put into effect another plan to bring peace. A plan which will bring the war to an end regardless of what happens when the negotiating front. It is in line with a major shift in u. S. Foreign policy, which i described in my press conference at guam on july 25. Let me briefly explain what been described as the nixon doctrine, a policy which not only will help end the war in vietnam, but which is an essential element of our program to prevent future vietnams. We americans are a do it yourself people. Were an impatient people. Instead of teaching someone else to do a job, we like to do it ourselves. And this trait has been carried over into our Foreign Policy in korea and again in vietnam. The United States furnished most of the money, most of the arms, and most the men to help the people, those countries defend their freedom against communist aggression. Before any american troops were committed to vietnam, a leader of another asian country expressed this opinion to me when i was traveling in asia. As a private citizen, he said, when you are trying to assist another nation, defend its freedom. U. S. Policy should be to help them fight the war, but not to fight the war for them. All in accordance with this wise counsel i laid down in guam three principles as guidelines for a future american policy toward asia. First, the United States will keep all of its treaty commitments. Second, we shall provide a shield. If a Nuclear Power threatens the freedom of a nation allied us or of a nation whose survival we consider vital to our security. Third, in cases involving other types of aggression, we shall furnish military and economic assistance when requested in accordance with our treaty commitments. But we shall look to the nation directly threatened to assume the primary responsibility of providing the manpower for its defense. After i announced this policy, i found that the leaders of the philippines, thailand, vietnam, korea, other nations which might be threatened by communist aggression, welcomed this new direction in american Foreign Policy. The defense of freedom is everybodys business, not just americas business. And it is particularly the responsibility of the people whose freedom is threatened. And the Previous Administration, when we americanized the war in vietnam. In this administration, we are vietnam izing the search for peace. The policy of the Previous Administration not only resulted in our assuming the primary responsibility for fighting the war, but even more significant, did not adequately stress the goal of striking in the South Vietnamese so that they could defend themselves. When we learned the vietnamization plan was launched following secretary lairds visit to vietnam in march, under the plan, i ordered first a substantial increase in the training and equipment of South Vietnamese forces in july. On my visit to vietnam, i changed general abrams orders so that they were consistent with the objectives of new policies under the new orders. The primary mission of our troops is to enable the South Vietnamese forces, to assume the full responsibility for the security of South Vietnam. Our air operations have been reduced by over 20 , and now we have begun to see the results of this long change in american policy in vietnam. After five years of americans going into vietnam, we are finally bringing american men home. By december 15. Over 60,000 men will have been withdrawn from South Vietnam, including 20 of all of our combat forces. The South Vietnamese have continued to gain in strength. As a result, theyve been able to take over combat responsibilities from american troops. Two other Significant Developments have occurred since this administration took office. Enemy infiltration. Infiltration, which is essential if they are to launch a major attack. Over the last three months is less than 20 of what it was over the same period last year. And most important, United States casualties have declined during the last two months to the lowest point in three years. Let me now turn to our program for the future. We have adopted a plan which we have worked in cooperation with the South Vietnamese for the complete withdrawal of all u. S. Combat Ground Forces and their replaced by South Vietnamese forces on an orderly scheduled timetable. This withdrawal will be from strength and not from weakness, as South Vietnamese forces become stronger, the rate of american withdrawal can become greater. I not and do not intend to announce the timetable for our program. And there are obvious reasons for this decision, which im sure you will understand. As ive indicated on several occasions, the rate of withdrawal will depend on developments on three fronts. One of these is the progress which can be or might be made in the paris talks and announcement of a fixed timetable for our withdrawal would completely remove any incentive for the enemy to negotiate an agreement. They would simply wait until our forces had withdrawn and then move in. The other two factors in which we will base our withdrawal decisions are the level of enemy activity and the progress of the Training Programs of the South Vietnamese forces. And i am glad to be able to report tonight progress both of these fronts has been greater than we when we started the program in june for withdrawal. As a result, our timetable for withdrawal is more optimistic. Now than when we made our first estimates in june. Now, this clearly demonstrates why it is not wise to be frozen and on a fixed timetable. We must retain the flexibility to base each withdrawal decision on the situation as it is at that time. Rather than on estimates that are no longer valid. Along with this optimistic estimate, i must, in all candor, leave one note of caution. If the level of enemy activity is significantly increases, we might have to adjust our timetable accordingly. However, i want the record to be completely clear on one point. At the time of the bombing halt just a year ago, there was some confusion as to whether there was an understanding on the part of the enemy that if we stopped the bombing of North Vietnam, they would stop the shelling of cities in South Vietnam. I want to be sure that there is no misunderstanding on the part of the enemy with regard to our withdrawal program. We have noted the reduced level of infiltration. The reduction of our casualties and our basing. Our withdrawal decisions partially on those factors. If the level of infiltration or our casualties increase while we are trying to scale down the fighting, it will be the result of a conscious decision by the enemy. Hanoi could make no greater mistake and to assume that an increase in violence will be to its advantage. If i conclude that increased enemy action jeopardizes our remaining forces in vietnam, i shall not hesitate to take strong and effective measures to deal with that situation. This is not a threat. This is a statement of policy which, as commander in chief of our armed forces, i am making in meeting my responsibility for the protection of American Fighting men wherever they may be. My fellow americans, i am sure you can recognize from i have said that we really only have two choices open to us. We want to end this war. I can order an immediate, reciprocal withdrawal of all americans from vietnam without regard to the effects that action or we can persist in our search for a just peace through a negotiated, aided settlement of possible or your continued implementation of our plan for vietnamization if necessary, a plan in which we will withdraw all of our forces from vietnam on a schedule in accordance with our program. As the South Vietnamese becomes Strong Enough to defend our own freedom. I have chosen this second course. It is not the easy way. It is the right way. It is a plan which will end the war and serve the cause of peace, not just in vietnam, but in the pacific and in the world. In speaking of the consequences of a precipitous withdrawal, i mentioned that our allies would lose confidence in america far more dangerous. We would lose confidence in ourselves or the Immediate Reaction would be a sense of relief. But our men were coming home. But as we saw the consequences of what we had done, inevitable remorse and a visible condemnation would scar our spirit as a people. We have faced other crises in our history, and we have become stronger by rejecting the easy way out and taking the right way and meeting our challenges. Our greatness as a nation has been our capacity to do what has to be done. When we knew our course was right. I recognize that some of my fellow disagree with the plan for peace ive chosen. Honest and patriotic americans have reached different conclusions as to how peace should be achieved. In San Francisco a few weeks ago, saw demonstrators carrying signs, reading news in vietnam bring the boys home. Well, one of the strengths of our free society is that any american has a right to reach that conclusion and to advocate that point of view. But as president of the United States, i would be untrue to my oath of office if i allowed the policy of this nation to be dictated by the minority who hold that point of view and who try to impose it on the nation by mounting demonstrations in the street. Almost 200 years, the policy of this nation has been made under our constitution by those leaders in the congress and the white house, elected by all the people. If a vocal minority, however fervent its cause prevails over reason and the will of the majority, this nation has no future as a free society. I know i would like to address a word, if i may. For the young people of this nation who are particularly concerned. And i understand why they are concerned about this war. I respect your idealism. I share your concern for peace. I want peace as much as you do. There are powerful personal reasons i want to end this war. This week, i will have to sign 83 letters to mothers, fathers, wives and loved ones of men who have given their lives for america. Vietnam. Its very little satisfaction to me that this is only one third as many letters as i signed the first week in office. There is nothing i want more and to see the day come when i do not have to write any of those letters. I want to end the war to save the lives of those brave young men in vietnam. But i want to end it in a way which will increase the chance that their younger brothers and their sons will not have to fight in some future vietnam, some place in the world. And i want to end the war for another reason. I want to end it so that the energy and dedication of you, our young people, now too often directed into bitter hatred against those responsible for the war, can be turned to the great challenges of peace, a better life for all americans, a better life for people on this earth. I have chosen a plan for peace. I believe it will succeed if does not succeed. What the critics say now wont matter. Or if it does succeed. What the critics say now wont matter. If it does not succeed. Anything i say, then wont matter. I know it may not be fashionable to speak patriotism or National Destiny these days, but i feel it is appropriate to do so on this occasion. 200 years ago, this nation was weak and poor. But even then, america was the hope of millions in the world. Today we have become the strongest and richest nation in the world. And the wheel of destiny turned so that any hope the world has for the survival of peace and freedom will be determined by whether the American People have the moral strength and the courage to meet the challenge of free world leadership. Let historians not record that when america was most powerful nation in the world, we passed on the other side of the road and, allowed the last hopes for peace and freedom of millions of people to be suffocated by. The forces of totalitarianism. So tonight, do you the great silent majority . My fellow americans, i ask for your support. I pledged in my campaign for the presidency to end the war in a way that we could win the peace. I have initiated a plan of action which will enable me keep that pledge. The more support i can have from the American People, the sooner that pledge can be redeemed or the more divided we at home, the less likely the enemy is to negotiate. And paris, let us be united for peace. Let us also be united against defeat. Because let us understand North Vietnam cannot defeat our humiliate the United States. Only american can do that. 50 years ago in this room and at this very dance, president woodrow spoke words which caught the imagination of a war weary world. He said this is the war to end wars. His dream for peace after world war one was shattered on the hard realities of great power politics. And Woodrow Wilson died a broken man. Tonight i do not tell you that the war in vietnam is the war to end. But i do say this. I have initiated plan which will end this war in a way that will bring us closer to that great goal to which goodwill road to which Woodrow Wilson and every american president in our history has been dedicated. The goal of a just and lasting peace as president , i hold the responsibility for choosing the best path to that goal, and then leading the nation along. I pledge to you tonight that i shall meet this response ability with all of the strength wisdom i can command in accordance with your hopes. Mindful of your concerns. Sustained by your prayers. Thank you. Good night. Good evening. This the 37th time i have spoken to you from this office where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this nation. Each time i have done so to discuss with you some matter that i believe affected the National Interest in all the decisions i have made my public life. I have always to do what was best for the nation throughout the long and difficult period of watergate. I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office, to which you elected me. In the past few days, however, it has become to me that i no longer have a Strong Enough Political Base in the congress to justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base. I felt that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process and a dangerously precedent for the future. But with the disappearance of that base, i now believe that the constitutional purpose has been served and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged. I would have preferred to carry through to the finish whatever the personal agony it would have been involved. And my family. You mostly urge me to do so. But the interests of the nation must always come before any personal considerations. From the discussions i have had with congressional and other leaders, i have concluded that because of the watergate matter, i might not have the support of the congress that i would consider necessary to back the very difficult decisions and carry out the duties of this office and the way the interests of the nation will require. I have never been a quitter to leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as president , i must put the interests of america first. America needs a full time president and a full time congress, particularly at this time, with problems we face at home and abroad. To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost total absorb the time and attention of both the president and the congress and a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without at home. Therefore, i shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice president for will be sworn in as president at that hour in this office. As i recall, the high hopes for america with which we began this second term. I feel a great. That i will not be here in this Office Working on your behalf to achieve those hopes in the next two and a half years. But in turning over of the government to Vice President ford. I know, as i told the nation when i nominated him for that office ten months ago, that the leadership of america will be in good hands in passing this office to the Vice President. I also do so with a profound sense of the weight of responsibility that will fall on his shoulders tomorrow, and therefore of the understanding, the patience to cooperate. And he will need from all americans, as he assumes that responsibility. He will deserve the help and the support of all of us. As we look to the future. The first essential is to begin healing wounds of this nation, to put the bitterness and divisions of the recent past behind, us and rediscover those shared ideals that lie at the heart of our and unity as a great and as a free people. By taking this action, i that i will have hastened the start of. That process of healing, which is so desperately needed in america. I regret deeply injuries that may have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision. I would say only that if some of my judgments were wrong and some were wrong, they were made in what i believed at the time be the best interest of the nation. To to those who have stood with me during past difficult months, to my family, my friends, the many others who joined in supporting my because they believed it was right. I will be eternally grateful for your support. And to those who have not felt able to give me your support, let me say i leave with no bitterness toward those or oppose me because all of us in the final analysis have been concerned with the good of the country. However, our judgments might differ. So let us all now join together in affirming that common commitment and in helping our new president succeed for the benefit. All americans. I shall leave this office with regret at not my term, but with gratitude for the privilege of serving as your president for the past five and a half years. These years have been a momentous time in the history of our nation, in the world. They have been a time of in which we can all be proud achievements that represent shared efforts of the administration the congress and the people. But the challenges ahead are equally great, and they, too, will require the support and the efforts of the congress and the working in cooperation with the new administration. We have ended americas longest war, but in the work of securing a lasting peace in the world the goals ahead are even more far reaching and, more difficult. We must complete a structure of peace so that it will be said of generation. Our generation of americans by the people of all nations. Not only that, we ended one war, but that we future wars. We have unlocked the doors that for a quarter of a century stood between the United States and the peoples republic of china. We must now ensure that the one quarter of the worlds people who live in the peoples of china will and remain not our enemies, but our friends. In the middle east. Once a Million People in the arab countries, many of whom have considered us their enemy for nearly 20 years now, look on as their friends. We must continue to build that friendship so that peace can settle. At last over the middle east and so that the cradle of civilization will not become grave. Together with the soviet union, we have made the crucial breakthroughs that have begun the process limiting nuclear arms. But we must set as our goal, just limiting but reducing and finally destroying these terrible weapons so that they cannot destroy civilization and so that the threat of nuclear war will no longer hang over the world. And the people we have opened the new relation with the same soviet union. We must continue to develop and expand it that no relation. So that the two strongest nations of the world will live together in cooperation rather than confrontation. Around the world. In asia, in africa and latin america, and the middle east. There are millions of people who live in terror of a poverty, even starvation. We must keep as our goal turning away from production for war and expand production for peace so that people everywhere, this earth can at last look forward in their childrens time, if not in our own time, to having the necessities a decent life here in, america. We are fortunate that most of our people have not only the blessings, liberty, but also the means to live a full and good and by the world standards, even abundant lives. We must press on, however, toward a goal not only of more and better jobs, but a full opportunity for every american and of what we are striving so hard right now to achieve prosperity without inflation. For more than a quarter of a in public life. I have shared in the turbulent history of this era. I have fought for what i believe in. I have tried to the best of my ability to discharge those duties and meet those responsibilities were entrusted to me. Sometimes i have succeeded and sometimes i have failed, but always i have taken heart. From what theodore once said about the man in the arena. Whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who and comes short again and again, because there is not ever without error and shortcoming. But who does strive do the deed . Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions . Who spends himself in a worthy cause who at the best knows is in the end the triumphs of high achievements and the worst. If he fails at least fail. While daring greatly. I to you tonight that as long as i have a breath of life and my body, i shall continue in that spirit. I shall continue work for the great causes to which i have been dedicated throughout my years as a congressman and a senator, Vice President and president. The cause of peace, not for america, but among all nations prosperity, justice, opportunity for all of our people people. There is one cause, above all, to which i have been devoted and to which i shall always be devoted for as long as i live. When i first took the oath of office as president five and a half years ago, i made this sacred commitment to consecrate my office, my energies, and all the wisdom i can summon to the cause of peace among nations. Ive done my very best in all the days since the to be true to that pledge. As a result of these efforts, i am confident that the world is a safer place not only for the people of america, but for the people of all nations and all of our children have a better chance than of living in peace rather than dying in war. This, more than anything is what i hoped to achieve when i sought the presidency. This, more than anything, is what i hope will be my legacy to you, to our country as leave the the presidency. To i served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American American and leaving it. I do so with this prayer. May gods grace be with you. And all the days ahead. And next week on speeches that defined the presidency well hear from president reagan. It will be his 1981 inaugural address and his 1984 dday address at point to hawke in france. A reminder that all of the speeches that youre seeing in this series and all American History tv programs are available to watch online at cspan dot org and welcome back to American History tv and our special series speeches that define the presidency. This week, our focus is on ronald reagan. President