 October 2004
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Sara Burke, Managing Editor Sam Diener, Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
A Speech for Lyndon B. Johnson Howard Zinn, historian and educator, is author of many books and plays, including A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present. He wrote the 'speech' excerpted below in 1967 to offer Lyndon B. Johnson a way to withdraw US troops from Vietnam. From Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal, Beacon Press, 1967. My Fellow Americans: Not long ago I received a letter from my fourth-grade school teacher who still lives back in the little town where I grew up. Let me share her letter with you; I am sure she will not mind. Dear Lyndon; You know I have always had faith in you and knew you would do what is right. And you have been trying your best on this Vietnam situation. But nothing seems to be going right. So many people are getting killed. Not only our boys, but all those poor people over there. You have tried talking peace. And you have tried bombing, and what not. But there is no end in sight. I hear people in town saying: "We should never have gotten in, but now that we are in, we don't seem able to get out." Lyndon, can't you get us out? I am getting on now in years and would like to see peace again." Sincerely, Mrs. Annie Mae Lindley Now let me read just one more letter to you. It came to me from a young man fighting with the First Marine Division in South Vietnam: Dear Mr. President: I have been in Vietnam six months now, and I have seen a lot. Three days ago my closest buddy was killed. Yesterday our outfit destroyed a hamlet that Intelligence said had been used by the VC as a base. We burned the huts and threw grenades down the tunnels. But there were no VC there. In one of the tunnels there were two women and three kids. Of course we didn't mean to kill any kids. But we did. And that's war. I know you need sometimes to do nasty things for an important cause. The trouble is -- there doesn't seem much of a cause left here in Vietnam. We're supposed to be defending these people against the VC. But they don't want us to defend them. They just want to be left in peace. So, more and more, my buddies and I wonder -- what are we doing here? We're not afraid. And we'll go on like this if you ask us to. But somehow it seems wrong. I don't know what we should do, but I just thought I'd let you know how some of us feel.
Sincerely, My fellow Americans, let me tell you, I have read and reread these two letters, and they have been on my mind. What have been our objectives in Vietnam? I have said many times that what we wanted was for Vietnam to be free to determine its own affairs -- that this is why we were fighting. We have tried every possible way to gain this objective. We have offered negotiations. And we have fought -- hard, and courageously, on unfamiliar territory -- with an increasing commitment of planes, ships, and ground forces, all designed to bring the war to an end with honor. I don't need to tell you that we have not been successful. We have not destroyed the Vietcong's will to fight. This is not a pleasant fact to report, but it is a fact. There is another unpleasant fact to report. The government we have been supporting in Vietnam has not succeeded in gaining the respect of its own people there. No matter how valiant our men are, they cannot fight a war that is not supported by the people of the country we committed ourselves to defend. No one in the world needs to be told how powerful we are. We can stay in Vietnam as long as we like. We can reduce the whole country to ashes. We are powerful enough to do this. But we are not cruel enough to do this. I, as your President, am not willing to engage in a war without end that would destroy the youth of this nation and the people of Vietnam. As Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, I have ordered that, as of midnight tonight, our Air Force and our Navy will halt the bombings in North and South Vietnam. Too many have died. Too many have suffered. Let us speak frankly now about the consequences of this decision. We may see a period of turmoil and conflict in Vietnam. But that was true before we arrived. That is the nature of the world. It is hard to imagine, however, any conflict that will be more destructive than what is going on now. Our departure will inevitably diminish the fighting. It may end it. To the extent that the United Nations can mediate in helping to bring tranquility to Vietnam, we will happily lend our moral and financial support. We have made an important decision. It is a decision based on a fundamental American belief that human life is sacred, that peace is precious, and that true power does not consist in the brute force of guns and bombs, but in the economic well-being of a free people. My fellow Americans, good night and sleep well. We are no longer at war in Vietnam.
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