LBJ Expresses Determination on Viet Policy

Feb. 17, 1965 - President Johnson said today the United States would persist in the defense of South Vietnam and would continue actions that are justified and necessary.

The President spoke as debate on Vietnam began again in Congress. The Republican leadership strongly supported his policy of retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnam, while some Democrats urged a negotiated withdrawal from Vietnam.

Johnson also held a surprise meeting with former President Dwight D. Eisenhower on policy in Vietnam.

General Eisenhower made no statement after the meeting. The White House press secretary, George Reedy, said the two men talked for more than two hours during the morning and then had lunch together just before Johnson’s speech.

Johnson’s statements on Vietnam were made at the conclusion of what was primarily an economic address before the National Industrial Conference Board.

He neither threatened to continue air strikes against North Vietnam nor gave the Asian Communist capitals any assurance that they would stop.

The President again declared that “we seek no wider war,” but added: “We will persist in the defense of freedom, and our continuing actions will be those which are justified and those that are made necessary by the continuing aggression of others. Those actions will be measured, fitting, and adequate. Our stamina and the stamina of the American people is equal to the task.”

The Administration believes that high priority should again be given to vigorous anti-guerrilla warfare in South Vietnam, some sources said. But they did not rule out further air strikes if provocation from North Vietnam made them necessary.

Johnson was believed to have put deliberate stress on the need for “stamina,” since even successful combat against the Viet Cong would be protracted.

Meanwhile, two Democratic Senators called for an end of the American commitment through negotiation.

Senator George McGovern (D-S.D.) said his mail was running 15-1 in favor of a negotiated settlement in Vietnam. He added that military victory in Vietnam appeared impossible.

Senator Frank Church (D-Ida.) also called for negotiations and said that “systematic and sustained bombing of North Vietnam” unattended by any offer of recourse to the bargaining table “can only lead us into war.”

However, a statement by the joint Senate-House Republican leadership said “there can be no negotiations” in Vietnam so long as there is infiltration of South Vietnam from the Communist North.

“We urge the President to make this clear to the world,” said the group, headed by the Senate Republican leader, Everett Dirksen of Illinois, and the House Republican leader, Gerald Ford of Michigan.

Former President Harry S. Truman also issued a statement yesterday in support of the Johnson policy in Vietnam.

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