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Remarks During a Weekend Tour of Military Installations. February 17-18, 1968

[1.] Remarks at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
February 17, 1968
General Seitz, General Johnson, General Walt, troopers:

Wherever you are, wherever you go, each of you knows that you have with you always the devotion, the concern, the prayers of all of those dear to you and to whom you are very dear.

As you depart once again to answer thecall from afar, I come here today as your President to tell you that on your journey the hearts of this Nation and the hopes of men in many nations fly with you and will follow with you until this duty is done.

It is never easy for men to leave. It is never easy to ask men to leave home and happiness for duty far, far away.

But the duties of freedom have never been easy. For your Nation, for all of its people, those duties may become more demanding, the trials may become more difficult, the tests more challenging, before we or the world shall know, again, that peace on this planet is once more secure.

In every capital where there was a prospect, in every forum where there was a promise, your Nation and its leadership has sought peace.

The answer of the enemy in Vietnam has been pillage. The enemy has launched a major counter offensive against the Government and the people of South Vietnam. He has marshaled his power around the cities of South Vietnam, in I Corps and elsewhere.

After 2 1/2 years in which he has seen his grip on the people weaken, he has finally decided to try to win now—this year. His aim is to shake the Government of South Vietnam to its foundations, to shake the confidence of the South Vietnamese people, to destroy the will of your people—the American people—to see this struggle through.

In his first attempt 3 weeks ago, he failed. He did inflict terrible wounds on the people, and he took terrible losses himself. He did prove, again, what the world has long known—that terrorists can strike and can kill without warning before the forces of order can throw them back.

And now he has struck again. At this very hour, a second wave of terrorists is striking the cities. Our forces are ready. I know they will acquit themselves, as they always have, however tough the battle becomes, and wherever it comes.

There has never been a finer fighting force wearing the American uniform than you and the one that you are going to join.

We long to see this bloodshed come to an end. Month after month we sought to find an honorable solution to the struggle that has torn Vietnam for 20 years. The enemy’s answer was clear. It is written in the towns and the cities that he struck 3 weeks ago-in the homeless thousands who fled the scenes of battle—in the army that he has massed in the North near the DMZ.

And our answer—your answer—must be just as clear: unswerving resolution to resist these ruthless attacks, as we have resisted every other.

Now remember this: You, each of you, represent America’s will—America’s commitment-in a land where our own security, as well as South Vietnam’s freedom, is now facing a deadly challenge. Men who have never been elected to anything are threatening an elected government and the painfully achieved institutions of democracy.

You—each of you—have a great role to play in this struggle. I believe—I know-that you will serve the cause of freedom just as your forefathers served it. You will serve it with bravery, you will serve it with skill, you will serve it with devotion.

We—all America—are proud of you. I came here to speak in behalf of all America, and to tell you that you are our finest because you are the Airborne.

[At this point the troops responded with "All the way, sir." The President then resumed speaking.]

God bless you and keep you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 5:05 p.m. In his opening words he referred to Maj. Gen. Richard J. Seitz, Commander of the 82d Airborne Division, Gen. Harold K. Johnson, Army Chief of Staff, and Lt. Gen. Lewis W. Walt, Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps.

[2.] Remarks at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, California.
February 17, 1968
General Walt, General Kyle, General Quilter, General Thrash, General Sawyer, troopers:

Tonight, I have come to bid you Godspeed as you leave—some of you for the second time—to defend your Nation’s cause.

Your destination—I Corps in Vietnam-is torn and scarred tonight. More than any other stretch of territory, it is a place where the meaning of this war is clearly revealed.

The enemy, who set out 9 years ago to conquer South Vietnam by force, is showing precisely what he intends in I Corps. He makes no pretense of talking about land reform, or of improving the lives of the people. He wants, instead, his neighbor’s land. He believes the way to get it is at the point of a gun.

He is undertaking what he calls his "Route 9 Offensive." He plans to strike along that route and to plant his flag on the free soil of the Republic of Vietnam. Defeated in every other part of the country, he has concentrated his major effort there, with regular forces of the North Vietnamese Army. At Quang Tri—at Hue—at Danang—at Khe Sanh—tonight United States Marines stand squarely in the path of his plan.

Freedom’s defense could not be in better hands.

The Marines in Vietnam have not only shown how bravely they can fight. They have also pioneered in an effort that has no precedent whatever in warfare. They have shown the Vietnamese people, whose lives and homes they defend, how to hope. Side by side with their allies, they have planted seeds of freedom in hundreds of villages. They have inspired new courage, new confidence, in all the people. And the people will not forget.

And now the enemy has brought new heartbreak to the land he has invaded. He has marked his path with flame and terror—and the time of testing is still not over.

This is a decisive time in Vietnam. The eyes of the Nation and the eyes of the entire world—the eyes of all of history itself—are on that little, brave band of defenders who hold the pass at Khe Sanh and the area that is around it.

We do not doubt the outcome.

General Walt, who is here with me tonight, who has flown across the land with me today, tells me that he has walked every mile of I Corps. And General Walt believes it can be defended. And I read that same message in your eyes.

The enemy’s tide will be broken. The villages-and the treasured city of Hue—will be rebuilt. Freedom will survive—because brave men like you are going there to preserve it.

You—and the men of the Airborne to whom I spoke earlier today at Fort Bragg-are the sons of America’s best years, the best years any nation, any people, have ever known. Whatever the station from which you come, you—and your families—are living a life that no others have ever lived.

If there is goodness in our American life, it flows from the reality that we live in peace—without fear of our neighbors—without threat from aggressors—without hating or knowing that we are hated by ancient foes.

Peace has been, and peace is, the great American blessing. It is peace that we seek to help others find so that they may live as we in America are privileged to live.

When men cry, "Peace," do they not know that Americans cannot give peace to the world by ever abandoning it to aggressors? When men cry, "Peace," do they not understandthat we cannot keep peace for ourselves by withdrawing from the challenges that the enemies of peace present?

But nations—like men—are never privileged to know and never able to choose the precise moment when their destiny is determined. We can only know—and we can only strive to answer—the call of duty when that call comes, and the call has come tonight.

The men at Khe Sanh, in I Corps, need help. They have asked for it. If you were there and they were here, they would come to help you.

I have asked you to go and help them. And I know you will do your duty and that you will get the job done. Our hearts and our hopes fly with you as you leave on this weekend.
May God keep you safely and someday bring you—and all with whom you stand-to live in a nation and to live in a world that is made peaceful by the duty that you now undertake.

May God bless and keep each of you. We are proud of you. Your Nation is proud of you. And we will be prouder when you come marching home after you have done the job.
Thank each of you, and good night.

NOTE: The President spoke at 8:42 p.m. In his opening words he referred to Lt. Gen. Lewis W. Walt, Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, Maj. Gen. Wood B. Kyle, Commander of the 3d Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, Calif., Maj. Gen. Charles B. Quilter, Commander of the 3d Marine Aircraft Wing, Maj. Gen. William G. Thrash, Commander of Marine Corps Air Bases West and Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, and Brig. Gen. Webb D. Sawyer, Assistant Commander, 3d Marine Division.

[3.] Remarks on the Flight Deck of the U.S.S. Constellation. February 18, 1968 Admiral Roeder, Captain Flanagan, men of the "Constellation":

It is good to be here this morning with all of you who are here.

When you see them next, please convey the regards of the Commander in Chief to those men who were not contacted and had to spend Saturday night ashore.

As an old Navy man myself, from an earlier day, I know how deeply they all regret not being here with us this morning.

I am very privileged to be in your company.

Three times this ship stood on Yankee Station—this last time flying 10,000 sorties, 110 major strikes, against the heaviest concentrations of air defenses in the entire history of war. And I am very proud to say to you this morning, Captain, and to all the officers and all of the men of the Constellation: Well done.

I must depart shortly to the duties which always await. Having made this journey, I shall return with renewed gratitude and quickened pride for the men and women and the families of the services which keep my country secure.

It is a duty that no man should covet to decide that the sons of this Nation should be asked to go to the heart of danger. But when, from where the danger lies, there comes a call for support, it is a source of abiding gratification to know that the Nation can, and the Nation will, answer in full.

The call has come. I have seen your comrades of the Army, of the Marines, and of the Air Force—all working together as a team in harness to answer with a sureness and with a swiftness never known, never possible, before. Many men to whom I bade Godspeed only yesterday are giving the second measure, as many of you have alreadygiven, and are willing to give again. And to each of you givers, I salute you.

No money, no benefits, no privileges can compensate men for the duty which country asks and cause demands. In these times, as in all times past, the cause of freedom is a most demanding cause. It demands courage of those who must bear the battles. It demands constancy of those at home for whom the battles are borne.

Men may debate and men may dissent, men may disagree—and God forbid that a time should come when men of this land may not—but there does come a time when men must stand. And for America, that time has now come.

In Vietnam today, the foes of freedom are making ready to test America’s will. Quite obviously, the enemy believes—he thinks-that our will is vulnerable. Quite clearly, the enemy hopes that he can break that will. And quite certainly, we know that the enemy is going to fail.

So we have taken our stand. We shall do all to stand—all that is asked—and all that may be required. The will of this generation of Americans will never be found wanting, abroad or at home.

You know—no men know better—that the tasks of war are tasks that all Americans abhor. But the tests of freedom are tests from which Americans will never turn.

Few of those tests are to be met by the tools or the tactics of war. The demanding cause that we champion never is more demanding than when it asks of us that we be a responsible nation—steadfast in our resolve, but no less steadfast in our restraint.

The past of nations, the past of powers, cannot guide or govern a nation whose power is greater than all the power of all nations past. Ours is such a power. We shall use it, as you have used it, with precision on the fronts of war, and with principle on the fronts of peace, praying always, as we prayed this morning, that our use will be wise and that the end will be just.

For you, for the Navy, Yankee Station is today. But the Navy that reaches out from there also has a mission for tomorrow. You are the picket ships in a line of freedom that stretches all the way around the world. All of you, the men who fly from these decks, the men who labor so faithfully and so competently and so unselfishly on those decks and below them, have a vigil to keep for peace.

I came here to spend the night with you, to look you in the eye and to tell you on behalf of all Americans that we are grateful to you and thankful for you. Our hearts will be with you when you leave your loved ones to return by summer to the duties that only you know so well.

But until freedom stands tall and strong in Asia, until this vast Pacific is a great community of peace, until the gun and the knife are sheathed, and until neighbors fear neighbors no more, Americans cannot rest, and Americans cannot sleep, and you Americans cannot be idle.

I am grateful that you are safely back home for the moment. And all the Nation is grateful for men like you.

As I prepare to leave you for the moment, as I greeted you yesterday, on behalf of all of your fellow countrymen, your Commander in Chief says God bless you and God keep you.

Each of you knows that there is a lot riding on you and that for you and your grandchildren, the kind of a world that they are going to live in is going to be determined by how well you do your job now and in the days ahead. The fact that you will do it well is not doubted by any.
Goodby and thank each of you.

Now I am going to run along to see a President of yesteryear—President Eisenhower.

As we look back on today in the years to come, when this moment is just a memory of times gone by, and people ask you the question, "Where were you in the time of testing and when your country was challenged?" each of you, with great pride, can answer, "I was with the Constellation."
Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:14 p.m. In his opening words he referred to Vice Adm. Bernard F. Roeder, Commander of the First Fleet, and Capt. William R. Flanagan, Commander of the U.S.S. Constellation.