Renunciation Speech

VIP专免

3.0 文海小编2 2024-10-06 999+ 46.05KB 21 页 3.9贝壳海报

侵权投诉

Renunciation Speech

Lyndon Baines Johnson: Renunciation Speech

Good evening, my fellow Americans:

Tonight I want to speak to you of peace in Vietnam

and Southeast Asia. No other question so preoccupies our

people. No other dream so absorbs the 250 million human

beings who live in that part of the world. No other goal

motivates American policy in Southeast Asia.

For years, representatives of our Governments and

others have traveled the world seeking to find a basis

for peace talks. Since last September they have carried

the offer that I made public at San Antonio. And that

offer was this:

That the United States would stop its bombardment of

North Vietnam when that would lead promptly to productive

discussions -- and that we would assume that North

Vietnam would not take military advantage of our

restraint.

Hanoi denounced this offer, both privately and

publicly. Even while the search for peace was going on,

North Vietnam rushed their preparations for a savage

assault on the people, the government, and the allies of

South Vietnam. Their attack -- during the Tet holidays --

failed to achieve its principal objectives. It did not

collapse the elected Government of South Vietnam or

shatter its army -- as the Communists had hoped. It did

not produce a "general uprising" among the people of the

cities, as they had predicted. The Communists were unable

to maintain control of any of the more than 30 cities

that they attacked. And they took very heavy casualties.

But they did compel the South Vietnamese and their allies

to move certain forces from the countryside into the

cities. They caused widespread disruption and suffering.

Their attacks, and the battles that followed, made

refugees of half a million human beings.

The Communists may renew their attack any day. They

are, it appears, trying to make 1968 the year of decision

in South Vietnam -- the year that brings, if not final

victory or defeat, at least a turning point in the

struggle.

This much is clear: If they do mount another round of

heavy attacks, they will not succeed in destroying the

fighting power of South Vietnam and its allies. But

tragically, this is also clear: Many men -- on both sides

of the struggle -- will be lost. A nation that has

already suffered 20 years of warfare will suffer once

again. Armies on both sides will take new casualties. And

the war will go on. There is no need for this to be so.

There is no need to delay the talks that could bring an

end to this long and this bloody war.

Tonight, I renew the offer I made last August: to

stop the bombardment of North Vietnam. We ask that talks

begin promptly, that they be serious talks on the

substance of peace. We assume that during those talks

Hanoi will not take advantage of our restraint. We are

prepared to move immediately toward peace through

negotiations. So tonight, in the hope that this action

will lead to early talks, I am taking the first step to

de-escalate the conflict. We are reducing --

substantially reducing -- the present level of

hostilities, and we are doing so unilaterally and at

once.

Tonight, I have ordered our aircraft and our naval

vessels to make no attacks on North Vietnam, except in

the area north of the demilitarized zone where the

continuing enemy buildup directly threatens allied

forward positions and where the movements of their troops

and supplies are clearly related to that threat. The area

in which we are stopping our attacks includes almost 90

文档加载中……请稍候！
如果长时间未打开，您也可以点击刷新试试。

下载文档到电脑，查找使用更方便

立即下载 VIP免费下载

摘要：

RenunciationSpeechLyndonBainesJohnson:RenunciationSpeechGoodevening,myfellowAmericans:TonightIwanttospeaktoyouofpeaceinVietnamandSoutheastAsia.Nootherquestionsopreoccupiesourpeople.Nootherdreamsoabsorbsthe250millionhumanbeingswholiveinthatpartoftheworld.NoothergoalmotivatesAmericanpolicyinSoutheastA...

展开>> 收起<<

Renunciation Speech.docx

共21页,预览5页

还剩页未读，继续阅读