June 16, 1964 - Texas Republicans today pledged their 56 national convention votes to Senator Barry Goldwater and crowed that they gave him all he needed to clinch the Presidential nomination.
Convention leaders in Dallas said the unanimous vote gave Goldwater 674 votes, 19 more than he needs. However, not all of these are firmly committed to Goldwater.
The 11,000 Republicans at the state convention bellowed approval of the Arizona front-runner and his policies. Goldwater tore the house down with a charge that the U.S. under a Democratic Administration was “sacrificing the lives of its men to the whims of its politicians” in places like Vietnam.
No organized sentiment for Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton was in evidence.
Goldwater cited the story of Edwin Shank, an Air Force captain slain in Vietnam whose letters home to his wife created a stir.
“I charge that the death of men like Captain Shank, sent to die in obsolete planes, must lie heavily upon the consciences of the defense and foreign policy planners who have directed the failure in Vietnam so far,” Goldwater said.
“When will this, the mightiest nation on earth, stop sacrificing the lives of its men to the whims of its politicians? Not a single new major strategic weapon has been introduced in the last three years. This means America stands still while the Soviet Union is free to advance.”
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