Apr. 3, 1964 - Senator Wayne Morse (D-Ore.) (left) quoted President Johnson today as disagreeing with South Vietnam’s Premier, Maj. Gen. Nguyen Khanh, in his called Morse “a traitor” to United States interests. In a speech to the Senate after attending a White House conference with Congressional leaders, Morse said he told the President that “I am the only one around this table who has been branded as a traitor by that tyrant we are supporting in South Vietnam.”
“I think I am violating no confidence,” Morse told the Senate, in saying the “President made it clear that no one considers the Senator from Oregon [Morse] a traitor.”
Morse has been making a daily Senate speech criticizing U.S. aid and policies in South Vietnam and demanding withdrawal of U.S forces.
Senator Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.), assistant majority leader, said that at the White House meeting President Johnson “made it crystal clear that all present regarded Senator Morse as a patriot.”
Earlier, in a Senate speech, Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana, the majority leader who has also been critical of U.S. policy in Vietnam, criticized Gen. Khanh for “disparaging remarks about the patriotism of the Senator from Oregon.”
Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s