VIETNAM WAR QUOTES II
quotations about the Vietnam War
We are fighting a war with no front lines, since the enemy hides among the people, in the jungles and mountains, and uses covertly border areas of neutral countries. One cannot measure progress by lines on a map.
WILLIAM C. WESTMORELAND
speech to a joint session of Congress, April 28, 1967
It is a key fact about American policy in Vietnam that the withdrawel of American troops was built into it from the start. None of the presidents who waged war in Vietnam contemplated an open-ended campaign; all promised the public that American troops would be able to leave in the not-too-remote future. The promise of withdrawal precluded a policy of occupation of the traditional colonial sort, in which a great power simply imposes its will on a small one indefinitely.
JONATHAN SCHELL
The Real War
America: Love It or Leave It.
ANONYMOUS
Pro-Vietnam War slogan
Now we have a problem in trying to make our power credible, and Vietnam looks like the place.
JOHN F. KENNEDY
interview with New York Times reporter James Reston, June 1961
We fought in a very terrible war. We were subjected to Agent Orange.... I was blinded in one eye and have heart, lung and breathing problems. I know I have all these problems from Vietnam, plus loss of hearing.... I just think all of us vets need more help than what we get.
LESLIE ELLER
"Honoring Vietnam vets, who fought in the war some Americans would like to forget", Lancaster Online, April 9, 2017
For many Americans, the enduring memory of the Vietnam War is of the protests that defined a generation and shattered the illusion of America's purity on the world stage. But for the 3 million men and women who served in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and early 1970s, the memories are more visceral: the fog of combat, the stench of death, the sting of returning to a seemingly ungrateful nation.
EDITOR
"Agent Orange still poisons many Vietnam War veterans", Daily Hampshire Gazette, April 25, 2017
Big John's son Little John did badly in high school, and the police caught him selling dope. So he joined the Army while the Vietnam War was going on. And the first time he came home in uniform, I never saw Big John so happy, because it looked to him as though Little John was all straightened out and would amount to something. But then Little John came home in a body bag.
KURT VONNEGUT
Bluebeard
Vietnam was always, in a single moment, dreadful, funny, nightmarish, ecstatic. In its moments of highest drama, it was always its own best and worst parody.
PHILIP D. BEIDLER
American Literature and the Experience of Vietnam
As I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the ideologies of the Liberation Front, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
speech at Riverside Church in New York City, "A Time to Break Silence", April 4, 1967
Hey, Hey LBJ, How many kids did you kill today?
ANONYMOUS
popular protest chant, 1967
Vietnam was what we had instead of happy childhoods.
MICHAEL HERR
"Colleagues", Dispatches
It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.
ANONYMOUS U. S. MAJOR
statement regarding the bombing of Ben Tre, South Vietnam, "Major Describes Move", New York Times, February 8, 1968
In revealing the workings of government that led to the Vietnam War, the newspapers nobly did precisely that which the Founders hoped and trusted they would do.
HUGO L. BLACK
judicial opinion, June 30, 1971
Combat is fast, unfair, cruel, and dirty. It is meant to be that way so that the terrible experience is branded into the memory of those who are fortunate enough to survive. It is up to those survivors to ensure that the experience is recorded and passed along to those who just might want to try it.
BRUCE H. NORTON
Force Recon Diary, 1969: The Riveting, True-to-Life Account of Survival and Death in One of the Most Highly Skilled Units in Vietnam
The Vietnam War required us to emphasize the national interest rather than abstract principles.
HENRY KISSINGER
Wall Street Journal, March 11, 1985
It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home for Christmas.
RONALD REAGAN
interview, Fresno Bee, October 10, 1965
Vietnam was the first war ever fought without any censorship. Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.
WILLIAM WESTMORELAND
Time Magazine, April 5, 1982
But also out here in this dreary, difficult war, I think history will record that this may have been one of America's finest hours, because we took a difficult task and we succeeded.
RICHARD NIXON
remarks to American troops of the First Infantry Division, Di An, Vietnam, July 30, 1969
I think we have all underestimated the seriousness of this situation. Like giving cobalt treatment to a terminal cancer case. I think a long protracted war will disclose our weakness, not our strength.
GEORGE W. BALL
remarks to U.S. President Lyndon Johnson during a White House meeting, July 21, 1965
During the day on Monday, Washington time, the airport at Saigon came under persistent rocket as well as artillery fire and was effectively closed. The military situation in the area deteriorated rapidly. I therefore ordered the evacuation of all American personnel remaining in South Vietnam.
GERALD FORD
statement announcing the evacuation of U.S. personnel from the Republic of Vietnam, April 29, 1975