And now more from president Lyndon Johnson with remarks on the conflict in vietnam and u. S. Policy in Southeast Asia. The speech was titled peace without conquest. It took place april 7, 1965. During the current Academic Year this marks the second occasion on which Johns Hopkins has been privileged to welcome our chief executive to this campus. Ladies and gentlemen, i present the president of the united states. [ cheers and applause ] senator brewster, senator tidings, members of the congressional delegation, members of the faculty of Johns Hopkins, student body, my fellow americans, last week 17 nations sent their views to some two dozen countries having an interest in Southeast Asia. We are joining those 17 countries and stating our american policy tonight, which we believe will contribute towards peace in this area of the world. I have come here to review once again with my own people the views of the american government. Tonight americans and asians are dieing for a world where each people may choose its own path to change. This is the principle for which our ancestors fought in the valleys of pennsylvania. It is a principle for which our sons fight tonight in the jungles of vietnam. Vietnam is far away from this quiet campus. We have no territory there. Nor do we seek any. The war is dirty and brutal and difficult. And some 400 young men born into an america thats bursting with opportunity and promise have ended their lives on vietnams steaming soil. Why must we take this thing for rote . Why must this nation hazard its ease and its interest and its power for the sake of a people so far away . We fight because we must fight if we are to live in a world where every country can shape its own destiny and only in such a world will our own freedom be finally secure. This kind of a world will never be built by bombs or bullets. Yet the infirmities of man are such that force must often precede reason and the waste of war the works of peace. We wish that this were not so, but we must deal with the world as it is. If it is ever to be as we wish. The world as it is in asia is not a serene or peaceful place. The first reality is that North Vietnam has attacked the independent nation of South Vietnam. Its object is total conquest. Of course, some of the people of South Vietnam are partoning in attain parting in attack of their own government with trained arms, ordered an arms flow a constant stream from north to south. This support is the heartbeat of the war. And it is a war of unparalleled brutality. Simple farmers are the targets of assassination and kidnapping. Women and children are strangled in the night because their men are loyal to their government. And helpless villages are ravaged by sneak attacks, largescale raids are contacted on towns, and terror strikes in the heart of cities. The confused nature of this conflict cannot mask the fact it is the new face of an old enemy. Over this war and all asia is another reality. The deepening shad ining shado communist china. The rulers of urged on by peking. This is a rasheem which has destroyed freedom in tibet which has attacked india and has been condemned by the United Nations for aggression in korea. It is a nation which is helping the forces of violence and almost many in every continent. The contest in vietnam is part of a wider pattern of aggressive purposes. Why are these realities our concern . Why are we in South Vietnam . We are there because we have a promise to keep. Since 1954 every american president has offered support to the people of South Vietnam. We have helped to build and we have helped to defend. Thus over many years we have made a National Pledge to help South Vietnam defend its independence. And i intend to keep that promise. [ applause ] to dishonor that pledge, to abandon this small and brave nation to its enemies and to the terror that must follow would be an unforgivable wrong. Were also there to strengthen world order around the globe from berlin to thailand. There are people whose wellbeing rests in part on the belief that they can count on us if they are attacked. To leave vietnam to its fate would shake the confidence of all these people and the value of an american commitment and in the value of americas word. The result would be increased unrest and instability and even wider war. We are also there because there are great states in the balance. Let no one think for a moment that retreat from vietnam would bring an end to conflict. The battle would be renewed in one country and then another. The central lesson of our time is that the appetite of aggression is never satisfied. To withdraw from one battlefield means only to prepare for the next. We must say in Southeast Asia as we did in europe in the words of the bible, hither to shalt thou come, but no further. There are those who say that all our effort there will be futile. That chinas power is such that it is bound to dominate all Southeast Asia, but there is no end to that argument until all of the nations of asia are swallowed up. There are those who wonder why we have a responsibility there. Well, we have it there for the same reason that we have a responsibility for the defense of europe. World war ii was fought in both europe and asia, and when it ended, we found ourselves with continued responsibility, for the defense of freedom. Our objective is the independence of South Vietnam and its freedom from attack. We want nothing for ourselves. Only that the people are South Vietnam be allowed to guide their own country in their own way. We will do everything necessary to reach that objective, and we will do only what is absolutely necessary. Ins recent months attacks on South Vietnam were stepped up. Thus, it became necessary for us to increase our response and to make attacks by air. This is not a change of purpose. It is a change in what we believe that purpose requires. We do this in order to slow down aggression. We do this to increase the confidence of the brave people of South Vietnam who have bravely borne this brutal battle for so many years with so many casualties. And we do this to convince the leaders of North Vietnam and all who seek to share their conquests of a very simple fact. We will not be defeated. [ applause ] we will not grow tired. We will not withdraw either openly or under the cloak of a meaningless agreement. We know that our attacks alone will not accomplish all of these purposes, but it is our best and prayerful judgment that they are a necessary part of the surest road to peace. We hope that peace will come swiftly, but that is in the hands of others besides ourselves. And we must be prepared for a long, continued conflict. It will require patience as well as bravery. The will to endure as well as the will to resist. I wish it were possible to convince others with words of what we now find is necessary to say with guns and planes armed hostility is futile. Our resources are equal to any challenge. Because we fight for values, and we fight for principles rather than territory or con colonies. Our patience and our determination are unending. Once this is clear, then it should also be clear that the only path for reasonable men is the path of peaceful settlement. [ applause ] such Peace Demands and independent South Vietnam. Securely guaranteed and able to shape its own relationships to all others. Free outside interference, tied to no alliance, a military base for no country. These are the essentials of any final settlement. We will never be second in the search for such a peaceful settlement in vietnam. [ applause ] there may be many ways to this kind of peace. In discussion or negotiation where the governments concerned. In large groups or in small ones. In the reaffirmation of old agreements or strengthening with new ones. We have stated this position over and over again, 50 times and more, to friend and foe alike, and we remain ready with this purpose for unconditional discussions. [ applause ] and until that right and necessary day of peace, we will try to keep conflict from spreading. We have no desire to see thousands die in battle. Asians or americans. We have no desire to devastate that which the people of North Vietnam have built with toil and sacrifice. We will use our power with restraint and with all the wisdom that we can command. But we will use it. This war like most wars is filled with terrible irony. For what do the people of North Vietnam want . They want their neighbors what they want. Their neighbors also desire. Food for their hunger. Health for their bodies. A chance to learn. Progress for their country, and an end to the bondage of material misery. And they would find all of these things far more readily in Peaceful Association with others, and in the endless course of battling. These countries of southeast shai shai shai asia are homes for millions of impoverished people. Each day these people rise at dawn and struggle through until the night to wrestle existence from the soil. They are often wracked by disease. Plagued by hunger. Death comes at the early age of 40. Stability and peace do not come easily in such a land. Meaner independence nor Human Dignity will ever be won, though, by arms alone. It also requires the work of peace. The American People have helped generously in times past in these works and now there must be a much more massive effort to improve the life of man and that conflicttorn corner of our world. The first [ applause ] the first step is to the countries of Southeast Asia to associate themselves in a greatly expanded cooperative effort for development. We would hope that North Vietnam would take its place in the common effort just as soon as peaceful cooperation is possible. The United Nations is already actively engaged in development in this area and is far back as 1961 i conferred with our authorities in vietnam in connection with their work there, and i would hope tonight that the secretarygeneral of the United Nations could use the prestige of his great office and his deep knowledge of asia to initiate as soon as possible with the countries of that area a plan for cooperation and increased development. [ applause ] for our part, i will ask the congress to join in a billion dollar American Investment in this effort as soon as it is under way. [ applause ] and i would hope that all other industrialized countries, including the soviet union, will join in this effort to replace despair with hope and terror with progress. The task is nothing less than to enrich the hopes and the existence of more than 100 million people, and there is much to be done. The vast nikon river can provide food and water and power on a scale to even more than our own vta. The wonders of modern medicine can be spread through villages where thousands die every year from lack of care. Schools can be established to train people in the skilling that are needed to manage the process of development. And these objectives and more are within the reach the Reach Cooperative and determined effort. I also intend to expand and speed up a program to make available our farm associations to help feed and clothe the needy in asia. [ applause ] we should not allow people to go hungry and wear rags while our own warehouses overflow with an abundance of wheat and corn and rice. [ applause ] so i will very shortly name a special team of outstanding patriotic, distinguished americans to inaugurate our participation in these programs. This team will be headed by mr. Eugene black, the very able former president of the world bank. And areas that are still ripped by conflict, of course, development will not be easy. Peace will be necessary for final success. But we cannot and must not wait for peace to begin this job. [ applause ] this will be a disorderly planet for a long time, in asia as elsewhere that forces the modern world shaking their old ways and uprooting ancient civilizations. There will be turbulence and struggle and even violence. Great social change as we see in our own country now does not always come without conflict. We must also expect that nations will, on occasion, be in dispute with us. It may be because we are rich or powerful, or because we have made some mistakes, or because they honestly fear our intentions. However, no nation need ever fear that we desire their land or to impose our will or to dictate their institutions. [ applause ] but we will always oppose the efforts of one nation to conquer another nation. [ applause ] we will do this because our own security is at stake. But there is more to it than that. For our generation has a dream. It is a very old dream, but we have the power, and now we have the opportunity to make that dream come true. For centuries nations have struggled among each other, but we, we dream of a world where disputes are settled by law and reason. And we will try to make it so. For most of history, man have hated and killed one another in battle. But we dream of an end to war, and we will try to make it so. [ applause ] for all existence, most men have lived in poverty, threatened by hunger, but we dream of a world where all are fed and charged with hope, and we will help to make it so. [ applause ] the ordinary men and women of North Vietnam and South Vietnam, of china and india, of russian america, are brave people. They are filled with the same proportions of hate and fear, of love and hope. Most of them want the same things for themselves and their families. Most of them do not want their sons to ever die in battle or to see their homes or the homes of others destroyed. Well, this can be their world yet. Man now has the knowledge always before denied to make this planet serve the real needs of the people who live on it. I know this will not be easy. I know how difficult it is for a reason to guide passion and love to master hate. The complexities of this world do not bow easily to pure and consistent answers. But the Simple Truths are there just the same. We must all try to follow them as best we can. We often say how impressive power is, but i do not find it impressive at all. The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships are all symbols of human failure. They are necessary symbols. They protect what we cherish, but theyre a witness to human folly. A dam built across a great river is impressive. In the countryside where i was born and where i live, i have seen the night illuminated and the kitchens warmed and the homes heated where once the chilliest night and the ceaseless cold held sway. And all of this happened because electricity came to our area along the humming wires of the rea. Electrification of the countryside. Yes, that, too, is impressive. A rich harvest and a hungry land is impressive. The sight of healthy children in a classroom is impressive. These not mighty arms are achievements which the nation believes to be impressive. And if we are steadfast, the time may come when all other nations will also find it so. Every night before i turn out the lights to sleep, i ask myself this question. Have i done everything that i can do to unite this country . Have i done everything i can to help unite the world, to try to bring peace and hope to all the peoples of the world . Have i done enough . Ask yourselves that question in your homes and in this hall tonight. Have we, each of us, all done all we could . Have we done enough . We may well be living in the time foretold many years ago when it was said, i call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that i have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both thou and thy seed may live. This generation the world must choose destroy or build, kill or aid, hate or understand. We can do all these things on a scale thats never dreamed of before. Well, we will choose life. And so doing, we will prevail over the enemies within man and over the natural enemies of all mankind. To dr. Eisenhower and mr. Garland, and this Great InstitutionJohns Hopkins, i thank you for this opportunity to convey my thoughts to you and to the American People. Good night. [ applause ] announcer youre watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan3, explore our nations past. Cspan3 created by americas tv as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. The contenders about the men who ran for the presidency but lost, but changed political history. Tonight hubert humphrey. The contenders, this week on 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv, on cspan3. Every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan3, go inside a Different College classroom and hear about topics ranging from the american revolution, civil rights and u. S. President s to 9 11. Thanks for your patience and for logging into class. With most College Campuses closed due to the coronavirus, watch professors engage with their students. Gorbachev did most of the work to change the soviet union, but reagan met him halfway, reagan encouraged him, reagan supported him. Freedom of the press, which well get to later, i should just mention, madison originally called freedom of the use of the press, and it is, indeed, freedom to print things and publish things