Viewpoint
The following exerpts are from a speech delivered by General Wallace M. Greene to the American Legion at its annual convention on August 30, 1967. They are printed for the reader's edification.
"Less than three weeks ago I returned from my sixth trip to Vietnam. While there I visited units from all the American Armed Forces, all over the country. I found their morale so exceptionally high, their enthusiasm and rock-solid belief in what they are doing so contagious, that I came home with my own spirits lifted-my own outlook completely bouyed-up by the few days I was able to spend with them.
Then I started to catch up on my news. And what did I find? Almost a complete reversal of attitude I had experienced with the Marines.
I left an atmosphere of optomism, and returned to read and hear phrases of pessimism.
Is the war in Vietnam more important than our urban unrest---our domestic turmoil?
When the Communists launched their assault on South vietnam, we heard a cry for help. and we had the collective American courage and the national leadership to respond to that cry!
I think it is a foregone conclusion that Vietnam, had we ignored her pleas, would be reunited right now---under Communism.
And where, I ask you, would we find Loas, Cambodia, Thailand and, yes, even Malaysia and Indonesia after more Communist agression, unopposed by any major power?
Would we now be ignoring the pleas from the Philippines, Australia, and Nationalist China? Or would we be fighting an even larger war, with fewer Allies, against a stronger enemy, closer to home, and at a far greater price than what we are paying now?
If we do not stop this Chinese Communist theory of World Revolution, and stop it now...then our domestic problems and our pocketbooks are going to become mighty unimportant in the future.
Is the war in Vietnam any less important than our domestic problems? I say it is not! I say it is our most pressing problem. And it has got to be won!
I want to respond to the crowd which shouts, "Stop the bombing!"
Oh yes, "Stop the bombing," they say, "and we'll have peace."
They forget that we have previously stopped our pressure on North Vietnam without any result, without even a sign, of peace. They ignore our previous truces and the simultaneous pleas for any profitable negotiations. They forget the fact that our last bombing halt of more than 5 days during the Vietnamese New Year saw enemy re-supply traffic multiplied by more than 20 times its normal density.
Above all, they do not connect the periods of our cease-fires to the inevitable and intensive Communist attacks which follow. They won't recognize that any commander, any aggressor, will use any respite to muster his forces and get ready for another offensive.
Now to the issue as to whether or not we should get out of Vietnam.
I need not dwell here too long. I have already traced the Chinese Communist blueprint for the world conquest.
Our national security is one of our great stakes in South Vietnam; the integrity of Southeast Asia is another and more immediate stake; the freedom for 16 million South Vietnamese people is a vital and humane part of the entire issue.
And those are all good reasons for staying, and winning. But there are more.
We have nearly a half million of our finest young Americans out there.
We've had these young men there for almost 2½ years.
What good is it now to argue about whether they should be, or should not be there, fighting a land war in Southeast Asia? What good is it now to argue about the diplomatic actions that should have been accomplished in 1947, or 1954, or 1963?
Are we going to back them; help them; let them win?
Or do we have them come home on their knees? And ask, "Why?"
Now about that so-called "stalemate". Some of the news media have said that "stalemate" is a dirty word in military circles. You bet it is. Because it is not true.
I'll grant anyone that---outside of the lop-sided ground victories---there are no spectacular successes in this war. It's just that kind of war.
We're not conquering North Vietnam. We're suppressing an insurgency in, and defeating an invasion of, South Vietnam.
We are fighting a limited war, for limited objectives, in a limited area, and with limited means.
And the signs of progress come in limited packages, too, over periods of time.
If those who cry "stalemate" want major signs of progress they might well consider the prices of a major war.
Those who question our success in Vietnam---a nation about the size of Missouri---had best broaded their horizons to include all of Southeast Asia. Because the true measure of our success, in the first battle of the Chinese Communist concept of World Revolution, is NOT what has been reclaimed. It's not what has been reversed. It's what has been prevented.
The preceeding exerpts were from a speech delivered by General Wallace W. Greene to the American Legion at its annual convention on August 30, 1967.
