President On Vietnam: Offers Peace Talks, Proposes Aid Program
President On Vietnam: Offers Peace Talks, Proposes Aid Program
The President projects America's policy on Vietnam in a speech at Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Johnson says the United States is ready to begin, without conditions, diplomatic discussions to end the war in Vietnam. He then states that the United States is ready to start a billion dollar investment to bring economic independence to all of Southeast Asia, including North Vietnam. The speech at Hopkins is regarded as one of the most important on policy-making. Baltimore, Maryland and South Vietnam Lyndon B. Johnson Address at Johns Hopkins University: "Peace Without Conquest." April 7th, 1965. "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." Male students in the audience. Parents and professors in the audience. LBJ, "Such peace demands an independent South Vietnam - securely guaranteed and able to shape its own relationships to all others, free from outside interference, tied to no alliance, a military base for no other country." Small village in Vietnam with the people wearing coolie hats made of straw, small boats in the river and military presence. A bridge being repaired. A dam providing electicity. LBJ, "For our part I will ask the Congress to join in a billion dollar American investment in this effort as soon as it is underway. 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." South Vietnam people working in the rice paddies. Doctors giving a physical exam. Medical research. Ladies working in a factory. Vietnam people walking and shopping. Vietnam people carrying heavy loads on their heads and shoulders. LBJ, "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.' ... Well, we will choose life. In so doing we will prevail over the enemies within man, and over the natural enemies of all mankind."