(UNTITLED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000800170010-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 30, 1999
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: May 19, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
Sanitized - Approved For RMdWe~50A-R?1FAT}40
has done has been done to help ''Vietnam. evading it. The question is this: What jus- At one point, however, if the prey nt trend
Now, he must know what we are doing tifles more and more killing In Vietnam when continues, there will have to be a new defini-
over there will really result not n help- the President's own conditions for an effec- tlon of all the commitments that Have been
Ing but in destroying Vietnam. I-tlve war effort-a government that can gov- given. Our commitment to Saigon orlgi-
Vletnam was never of any 5.trategiC ern and fight In Saigon-are not met? Dally rested on Saigon's commitment to fight
importance to the defense of th United By his own definition, this struggle cannot and govern, neither of which it is now doing
succeed without a regime that commands the effectively. The President's commitments In
States. Certainly it is not now of any respect,sf the South Vietnamese people and,, this war Involve not only a handful of gen-
economic or strategic importance to the a Vietnamese army that can pacify the coun-; erals who seized power, but Involve the Viet-
defense of our country. 1 try. Yet though the fighting qualities of the' namese people and the American people as
Throughout Asia the unfortufia.e facts South Vietnamese are now being demon-I well.
are that we Americans are now regarded strated more and more against one another,. Our commitment was to a "legitimate gov-
as a neocolonial power. In other words, the President's orders are sending more and, ernment" and what we now have in Saigon
.. - - - - - _ mnTn AMn 4 -n- 1-+- +h- 1.-F41_ ?w ..e...l.. ,.-1 7e -.l}1.-- .Hn,-1 H.~-i-11 w-- - ..----._~--. "
,in combat there, we will help depopulate
IN VzerNAM
South Vietnam. We shall be gadding to (By James Heston)
,,the millions of refugees who.~e homes WASHINGTON, May 17.-President Johnson
have been destroyed, President Johnson has been confronted for some time with a
no doubt considered that everything he 4 moral question In Vietnam but he keeps
small. His is not a legitimate govern-' Moral Question In Vietnam." The state-! Plenty of appeals have been made by Prea-
ment. It was based on the military ments made by James Reston are irre Ident Johnson, among others, to Ciarncral Ky.
seizure of power. futable. I ask unanimous consent, Mr.? to "compose his differences" with the Bud-
Premier Nguyen Cao Ky cannot be de- President, that this column be printed; cidhiats vilian and government, but his answcr l to that
pended upon to so run his country that' At this point in the CONGRESSIONAL, was first to Increase his military power by
peaceful preparations for the elections' RECORD as part of my remarks.
I kicking out his rival general In the First
can be held. Another interim head of There being no objection, the article Corps area, and lately vending bin marines
government should be found, and found was ordered to be printed in the RECORb,; to Danang and bringing the country to the
lekly. J as follows: 1-verge of civil war.
?"Mr. YOUNG of Ohio. Mr. President,'- published in the New York Times of May: muntat9 to deal
Prime Minister Ky talks big. He acts. 18. 1968 under the caption, "The Evaded; in the capital..
4110 Yltl Lllallltltltl WLU are 11guh.1[1g- among
establish their huge Indochinese role- themselves.
nial empire and who were fought by the THE Two ornoms
forces of the National Liberation Front, Ever since the start of this latest political
have been succeeded by us. (I crisis In Saigon, the President has had before
In 1953 and 1954 it was unfor unate him two courses of action The first was to
and provocative folly, President Johnson Is
playing a waiting game and bong more
clever than anybody here can we. What he
will do if his latest appeal to Tri Quang is
ignored and followed by more cha:re in the
streets remains to be seen.
war not to replace them On the battlefield.
Our arms were provide?-I to fight the ag.
greasers and not to etas t a civil war. our
promlee was to help South Vietnam not to
destr 1 It
'
.
.
.,
1
but it is a fact, that under Pressident make clear to all the contending South Vlet-) %? T'- ii . !'` ? _ _,
Foster Dulles the United States pr vided going to limit Its reinforcements, its military
massive military aid to the French and and economic aid, its casualties, and Its mill-
in addition to providing war planes, mu- tary operations to the minimum until they
nitions, trucks, machineguns, tank and I had composed their differences.
11 The objective of this course was to try to
bombs, we contemplated making a ae- produce unity, and failing that, to provide
tual military intervention. At that time time for a basic reappraisal of the American
reason finally prevailed and the French gommltmont.
colonial forces of 200,000 withdrew. The second course was to appeal to every-
This, directly after their so-called of- body to get together and meanwhile to keep
fensive base at Dienbienphu which Gen. the war going as best we could with the
Henri Navarre had established and: gar- American forces. President Johnson chose
risoned was and d d ,.the second course. He is appealing and
o erritn
u
s
rreri ere fighting, though he has even less reason to
May 8, 1954. y Velleve In the formation of a stable govern-
Followin that, through the operations meat now than he had at the beginning of
of o> CI we established the first 'pup- )the crisis.
pet g nment in Saigon and President WITAT JUSTIFICATION!
Diem was brought from the Uhi ed Justifying -this historically, and particu-
States to Saigon as President by oil larly, justifying it personally to families of
He called off the elections stipulat the casualties in the coming monsoon often-
the Geneva accords. President Eisen- give will not be easy. If there were a reason- -
hower, in his reminiscences, stated that able expectation of political stability, the
11
had the elections been held as provided thing might be done, but lacking that, It Is
in the Geneva agreement which we ap- hard of see defensive pause.ent rejected the
proved Ho Chi Minh would have received The latest review of the war here with,
80 percent of the vote of the Vietnamese Ambassador jienry Cabot Lodge did not deal
,' living to the north and south of the 1; primarily with fundamental policy, but with .
- demarcation line. operations. It did not focus on where we
Now we are In the unfortunate situa- 1 now stand or where we mean to go from
tion of aggressor and neocolonial op- here, but on what to do about the inflation
pressor. Here is the time and oppor- ? and the shipping in Saigon, and the tactical
problems
tunity for our President to announce a Da and Hue, and how tg
pump a little more sawdust sawdust Into the ruling
pause in bombing and propose a cease- generals in the capital
fire to be followed, we would hope by an There is little reason to believe that Presl-.-
armistice agreed to by delegates repre- dent Johnson's latest "appeal" to the Bud-
senting the National Liberation Front or dhist leader, Thich Tri Quang, will have any
Vietcong, and delegates of the Hanoi more effect than the other Innumerable ap-
peals that have been made to that militant
t
d
governmen
an
our own delegates and
those of the Saigon regime, monk by other Americans in the last few
weeks.
Mr. President, the hour is late. The i, He is clearly not thinking much about put-
opportunity for a suspension of bombing ting aside "the lesser Issues In order to get
of North Vietnam and putting an end';1 on with the great national tasks." He le
' to waging an American ground and air , summoning his followers to new demonstra-
war in Vietnam is here. That highly tions against the military junta in Saigon
respected columnist, James Reston, re- and the generals in the Government are
!erred to the situation In 11s, Column ;1 moving aft t of tth operations against Infantry ~-
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000800170010-8