President Richard Nixon addresses to the Nation on the Situation in
Southeast Asia on April 30, 1970
Good evening my
fellow Americans:
Ten days ago, in my
report to the Nation on Vietnam, I announced a decision to withdraw an
additional 150,000 Americans from Vietnam over the next year. I said then that
I was making that decision despite our concern over increased enemy activity in
Laos, in Cambodia, and in South Vietnam.
At that time, I
warned that if I concluded that increased enemy activity in any of these areas
endangered the lives of Americans remaining in Vietnam, I would not hesitate to
take strong and effective measures to deal with that situation.
Despite that
warning, North Vietnam has increased its military aggression in all these
areas, and particularly in Cambodia.
After full consultation
with the National Security Council, Ambassador Bunker, General Abrams, and my
other advisers, I have concluded that the actions of the enemy in the last 10
days clearly endanger the lives of Americans who are in Vietnam now and would
constitute an unacceptable risk to those who will be there after withdrawal of
another 150,000.
To protect our men
who are in Vietnam and to guarantee the continued success of our withdrawal and
Vietnamization programs, I have concluded that the time has come for action.
Tonight, I shall
describe the actions of the enemy, the actions I have ordered to deal with that
situation, and the reasons for my decision.
Cambodia, a small
country of 7 million people, has been a neutral nation since the Geneva
agreement of 1954 agreement, incidentally, which was signed by the Government
of North Vietnam.
American policy
since then has been to scrupulously respect the neutrality of the Cambodian
people. We have maintained a skeleton diplomatic mission of fewer than 15 in Cambodia's
capital, and that only since last August. For the previous 4 years, from 1965
to 1969, we did not have any diplomatic mission whatever in Cambodia. And for
the past 5 years, we have provided no military assistance whatever and no
economic assistance to Cambodia. North Vietnam, however, has not respected that
neutrality.
For the past 5
years as indicated on this map that you see here North Vietnam has occupied
military sanctuaries all along the Cambodian frontier with South Vietnam. Some
of these extend up to 20 miles into Cambodia. The sanctuaries are in red and,
as you note, they are on both sides of the border. They are used for hit and
run attacks on American and South Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam.
These Communist
occupied territories contain major base camps, training sites, logistics
facilities, weapons and ammunition factories, airstrips, and prisoner-of-war
compounds.
For 5 years,
neither the United States nor South Vietnam has moved against these enemy
sanctuaries because we did not wish to violate the territory of a neutral
nation. Even after the Vietnamese Communists began to expand these sanctuaries
4 weeks ago, we counseled patience to our South Vietnamese allies and imposed
restraints on our own commanders.
In contrast to our
policy, the enemy in the past 2 weeks has stepped up his guerrilla actions and
he is concentrating his main forces in these sanctuaries that you see on this
map where they are building up to launch massive attacks on our forces and
those of South Vietnam.
North Vietnam in
the last 2 weeks has stripped away all pretense of respecting the sovereignty
or the neutrality of Cambodia. Thousands of their soldiers are invading the
country from the sanctuaries; they are encircling the capital of Phnom Penh.
Coming from these sanctuaries, as you see here, they have moved into Cambodia
and are encircling the capital.
Cambodia, as a
result of this, has sent out a call to the United States, to a number of other
nations, for assistance. Because if this enemy effort succeeds, Cambodia would
become a vast enemy staging area and a springboard for attacks on South Vietnam
along 600 miles of frontier a refuge where enemy troops could return from
combat without fear of retaliation.
North Vietnamese
men and supplies could then be poured into that country, jeopardizing not only
the lives of our own men but the people of South Vietnam as well.
Now confronted with
this situation, we have three options.
Now faced with
these three options, this is the decision I have made.
In cooperation with
the armed forces of South Vietnam, attacks are being launched this week to
clean out major enemy sanctuaries on the Cambodian-Vietnam border.
A major
responsibility for the ground operations is being assumed by South Vietnamese
forces. For example, the attacks in several areas, including the Parrot's Beak
that I referred to a moment ago, are exclusively South Vietnamese ground
operations under South Vietnamese command with the United States providing air
and logistical support.
There is one area,
however, immediately above Parrot's Beak, where I have concluded that a
combined American and South Vietnamese operation is necessary.
Tonight, American
and South Vietnamese units will attack the headquarters for the entire
Communist military operation in South Vietnam. This key control center has been
occupied by the North Vietnamese and Vietcong for 5 years in blatant violation
of Cambodia's neutrality.
This is not an
invasion of Cambodia. The areas in which these attacks will be launched are
completely occupied and controlled by North Vietnamese forces. Our purpose is
not to occupy the areas. Once enemy forces are driven out of these sanctuaries
and once their military supplies are destroyed, we will withdraw.
These actions are
in no way directed to the security interests of any nation. Any government that
chooses to use these actions as a pretext for harming relations with the United
States will be doing so on its own responsibility, and on its own initiative,
and we will draw the appropriate conclusions.
Now let me give you
the reasons for my decision.
We take this action
not for the purpose of expanding the war into Cambodia but for the purpose of
ending the war in Vietnam and winning the just peace we all desire. We have
made we will continue to make every possible effort to end this war through
negotiation at the conference table rather than through more fighting on the
battlefield.
Let us look again
at the record. We have stopped the bombing of North Vietnam. We have cut air
operations by over 20 percent. We have announced withdrawal of over 250,000 of
our men. We have offered to withdraw all of our men if they will withdraw
theirs. We have offered to negotiate all issues with only one condition and
that is that the future of South Vietnam he determined not by North Vietnam,
and not by the United States, but by the people of South Vietnam themselves.
The answer of the
enemy, has been intransigence at the conference table, belligerence in Hanoi,
massive military aggression in Laos and Cambodia, and stepped-up attacks in
South Vietnam, designed to increase American casualties.
This attitude has
become intolerable. We will not react to this threat to American lives merely
by plaintive diplomatic protests. If we did, the credibility of the United States
would be destroyed in every area of the world where only the power of the
United States deters aggression.
Tonight, I again
warn the North Vietnamese that if they continue to escalate the fighting when
the United States is withdrawing its forces, I shall meet my responsibility as
Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces to take the action I consider necessary
to defend the security of our American men.
The action that I
have announced tonight puts the leaders of North Vietnam on notice that we will
he patient in working for peace; we will be conciliatory at the conference
table, but we will not be humiliated. We will not be defeated. We will not
allow American men by the thousands to be killed by an enemy from privileged
sanctuaries.
The time came long ago
to end this war through peaceful negotiations. We stand ready for those
negotiations. We have made major efforts, many of, which must remain secret. I
say tonight: All the offers and approaches made previously remain on the
conference table whenever Hanoi is ready to negotiate seriously.
But if the enemy
response to our most conciliatory offers for peaceful negotiation continues to
be to increase its attacks and humiliate and defeat us, we shall react
accordingly. My fellow Americans, we live in an age of anarchy, both abroad and
at home. We see mindless attacks on all the great institutions, which have been
created by free civilizations in the last 500 years. Even here in the United
States, great universities are being systematically destroyed. Small nations
all over the world find themselves under attack from within and from without.
If, when the chips
are down, the world's most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts
like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will
threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.
It is not our power
but our will and character that is being tested tonight. The question all
Americans must ask and answer tonight is this: Does the richest and strongest
nation in the history of the world have the character to meet a direct
challenge by a group which rejects every effort to win a just peace, ignores
our warning, tramples on solemn agreements, violates the neutrality of an
unarmed people, and uses our prisoners as hostages?
If we fail to meet
this challenge, all other nations will be on notice that despite its
overwhelming power the United States, when a real crisis comes, will be found
wanting.
During my campaign
for the Presidency, I pledged to bring Americans home from Vietnam. They are
coming home.
I promised to end
this war. I shall keep that promise.
I promised to win a
just peace. I shall keep that promise.
We shall avoid a
wider war. But we are also determined to put an end to this war. In this room,
Woodrow Wilson made the great decisions, which led to victory in World War I.
Franklin Roosevelt made the decisions which led to our victory in World War II.
Dwight D. Eisenhower made decisions, which ended the war in Korea and avoided
war in the Middle East. John F. Kennedy, in his finest hour, made the great
decision, which removed Soviet nuclear missiles from Cuba and the Western
Hemisphere.
I have noted that
there has been a great deal of discussion with regard to this decision that I
have made and I should point out that I do not contend that it is in the same
magnitude as these decisions that I have just mentioned. But between those
decisions and this decision there is a difference that is very fundamental. In
those decisions, the American people were not assailed by counsels of doubt and
defeat from some of the most widely known opinion leaders of the Nation.
I have noted, for
example, that a Republican Senator has said that this action I have taken means
that my party has lost all chance of winning the November elections. And others
are saying today that this move against enemy sanctuaries will make me a
one-term President.
No one is more
aware than I am of the political consequences of the action I have taken. It is
tempting to take the easy political path: to blame this war on previous
administrations and to bring all of our men home immediately, regardless of the
consequences, even though that would mean defeat for the United States; to
desert 18 million South Vietnamese people, who have put their trust in us and
to expose them to the same slaughter and savagery which the leaders of North
Vietnam inflicted on hundreds of thousands of North Vietnamese who chose
freedom when the Communists took over North Vietnam in 1954; to get peace at
any price now, even though I know that a peace of humiliation for the United
States would lead to a bigger war or surrender later.
I have rejected all
political considerations in making this decision.
Whether my party
gains in November is nothing compared to the lives of 400,000 brave Americans
fighting for our country and for the cause of peace and freedom in Vietnam.
Whether I may be a one-term President is insignificant compared to whether by
our failure to act in this crisis the United States proves itself to be
unworthy to lead the forces of freedom in this critical period in world
history. I would rather be a one-term President and do what I believe is right
than to be a two-term President at the cost of seeing America become a
second-rate power and to see this Nation accept the first defeat in its proud
190-year history.
I realize that in
this war there art honest and deep differences in this country about whether we
should have become involved. That there are differences as to how the war
should have been conducted. But the decision I announce tonight transcends
those differences.
For the lives of
American men are involved. The opportunity for 150,000 Americans to come home
in the next 12 months is involved. The future of 18 million people in South
Vietnam and 7 million people in Cambodia is involved. The possibility of
winning a just peace in Vietnam and in the Pacific is at stake.
It is customary to
conclude a speech from the White House by asking support for the President of
the United States. Tonight, I depart from that precedent. What I ask is far
more important. I ask for your support for our brave men fighting tonight
halfway around the world not for territory not for glory but so that their
younger brothers and their sons and your sons can have a chance to grow up in a
world of peace and freedom and justice.
Thank you and good
night.
Go to Chronology of Cambodian History
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