Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3,3 NND Project Number: NND 63316 . By: NWD Date: 2011
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I am reaely to talk \\,ith no Chi 11inh, and other chiefs of state concerned, tomorrow . .I am ready to ha\'e SecretaI)' JZusk meet with their for eign minister tomorro\\'. I am ready to send a trusted represcntati\'e of i\.rllcrica to any spot on this earth to talk in j)ublic or private \\,ith a spokesman of Hanoi. \Ve have t\\'ice sought to hZ:1.vC the issue ~f Vietnam dea1t with by the ' United Katiom-and twice H::moi has refused. , Our desire to negotiate peace-through the United Kations or out-has been made wry, very clear to Hanoi-directly and many times through third parties. : As we have told Hanoi time and time and tim e again, the heart of the matter really is this: The United States is willing to stop all aerial and naval bombardment of North Vietnam when this willlcad promptly to productive discussions. '\ \' e, of course, assume that while discussions proceed, North Vietnam \\'oulcl not take advantage of the bombi ng ccssa tion or limit ation. But Hanoi has not accepled any of these proposals. So it is by Hanoi's choice-- and not ours, and not the rest of the wor1d's-that the war continues. ' ,
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'Why, in the face of military flnd political progress in the South, and the burden of our bombing in the Korth, do they insist and persist \\,ith the war? , From many sources the answer is the same. They still hope that the people of the United States \v'ill not see this struggle through to the very end, As one \\restern diplomat reported to me only this week-he had just b een in Hanoi-"They believe their staying power is greater than ours and that th ey can't lose." A visitor from a Communist capital had this to say: "They expect the war to be long, and that the Americans in the end will be defeat ed by a breakdown in morale, fati gue, and pSyc110loaical factors." The Premier of North Vietnam said as far back as 1962: ;:, "Americans do not like long, ,inconclusive war. " Thus \\'e are sure to win in the end." Are the North Vietnamese right about us? ,
, I think not: No. I think they are 路wrong. I think it is the common failing of totalitarian regim'es, that they cannot real1y unders tand the nature, of our democracy : -'They mistake dissent for disloyalty; -They mistake' restlessness for a rejection of policy; -They mistake a few committees for a country; ,-They misjudge individu ~l speeches for public policy. They are no bette r suited to judge the strength and perseverance of America than the Nazi and the Stalinist propagandists ,\'ere able to judge it, It is a tragedy that they must discover these qualities in the American people, and discover them through a bloody war. '
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