Lyndon B. Johnson speech on the Vietnam War, September 29, 1967: transcript

Key points

• Johnson says he came to speak about Vietnam and acknowledges that many sincere Americans doubt the commitment made by three presidents and half a million young men.
• He describes the problems of Vietnam as a mixture of political turmoil, poverty, religious and factional strife, and a longing for freedom.
• He calls Vietnam the place where communist expansionism is most aggressively at work, crossing frontiers, killing and kidnapping.
• He asks why America defends a nation more than 10,000 miles away, citing freedom, self-determination and opposition to political murder.
• He says the key question for every president is whether aggression threatens the United States and world peace.
• He cites the Senate's 82 to 1 vote ratifying the Southeast Asia treaty in 1955 and the 1964 resolution supporting necessary steps, including armed forces.

Chapters

1. 0:00Greetings and public doubt over Vietnam
2. 1:04The complexity of Vietnam and the aggression there
3. 2:24Why America chose to defend Vietnam
4. 3:45Congressional backing: treaty and 1964 resolution

Full transcript

0:00Speaker Barnes, Governor Hughes, Governor Smith, Congressman Kazin, Representative Grimm, most distinguished legislators, ladies and gentlemen. I deeply appreciate this opportunity to appear before an organization whose members contribute every day such important work to the public affairs of our state and of our country. this evening I came here to speak to you about Vietnam I do not have to tell you that our people are profoundly concerned about that struggle there are passionate convictions about the wisest course for our nation to follow there are many sincere and patriotic Americans who harbor doubts about sustaining the commitment that three presidents and a half a million of our young men have made

1:04doubt and debate are enlarged because the problems of vietnam are quite complex they are a mixture of political turmoil Of poverty, of religious and factional strife, of ancient servitude, and modern longing for freedom. Vietnam is all of these things. Vietnam is also the scene of a powerful aggression that is spurred by an appetite for conquest.

1:39It is the arena where communist expansionism is most aggressively at work in the world today, where it is crossing international frontiers in violation of international agreements, where it is killing and kidnapping, where it is ruthlessly attempting to bend free people to its will. And into this mixture of subversion and war, of terror and hope, America has entered with its material power and with its moral commitment.

2:24Why? Why should three presidents and the elected representatives of our people have chosen to defend this Asian nation? More than 10,000 miles from American shores. We cherish freedom, yes. We cherish self-determination for all people, yes. We abhor the political murder of any state by another, and the bodily murder of any people by gangsters of whatever ideology.

3:04And for 27 years, since the days of Lend-Lease, we have sought to strengthen free people against domination by aggressive foreign powers. But the key to all that we have done is really our own security. At times of crisis, before asking Americans to fight and die to resist aggression in a foreign land, every American president has finally had to answer this question.

3:45is the aggression a threat not only to the immediate victim but to the United States of America and to the peace and security of the entire world of which we in America are a very vital part. That is the question which Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson had to answer in facing the issue in Vietnam.

4:20That is the question that the Senate of the United States answered by a vote of 82 to 1, when it ratified and approved the CETO Treaty in 1955 to which the members of the United States Congress responded. The United States, the Senate said, in a resolution that it passed in 1964 by a vote of 542, 2, the United States is therefore prepared, as the President determines, to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed forces, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Treaty requesting assistance in defense of freedom.

Source and licence

Recording: File:Lyndon B. Johnson speech (September 29, 1967).ogv by Lyndon B. Johnson (1967-09-29), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.