Editing 79-04-A4 (section)

= POW =

<TABLE BORDER="0"><TR><TD WIDTH="60%" ROWSPAN="2">
=== Transcript ===
A few weeks ago the UN was asked to deal with the matter of China's attack on
Vietnam and Vietnam's attack on Cambodia. Specifically, a resolution called for
each side to withdraw its forces to within its own borders. China's Teng Hsia-ping
immediately proclaimed his support of such a plan.

If memory serves me correctly, President Lyndon Johnson asked the UN on more
than one occasion to involve itself in the Vietnam situation when we were fighting
there. The. UN remined obstinately aloof and silent.

Regarding the present resolution I think an amendment would be appropriate.
Yes the Chinese should return to their own border and, yes, the Vietnamese should
return to theirs; the North Vietnamese, who broke their pledged word given in the Paris
Peace Accords, conquered an independent neighbor, South Vietnam. The Vietnam war
was not a civil war. They have been separate nations for centuries. Let the
resolution be amended to read that North Vietnam will not only leave Cambodia, but
will leave South Vietnam as well. And while they are at it they could also withdraw
from Laos, which turned out to be one of the dominoes we were told would fall if
North Vietnam had its way. You'll remember how some apologists ridiculed the
"domino theory."

We've been treated to news photos of prisoners taken by the North Vietnamese
in the present fighting. Someone had better be sure provision is made for their
release in view of the Vietnamese record. Those photos bring back some unhappy
memories.

A U. S. Navy fighter pilot, Jim Stockdale, parachuted from his crippled plane
over North Vietnam on September 9, 1965. He was released almost eight years later
on February 12, 1973, after 2,714 days in prison including three years in solitary
confinement and over a year in total isolation.

He was tortured for days on end throughout those years and reduced, as he put it,
to total submission on 15 occasions by his own count. In 1969 when his captors
wanted to use him in a propaganda film he beat his own face to a pulp with a wooden
stool and inflicted wounds on his head and face with a razor. He was not used in
the film.

Months later, fearing that he might be so weakened he would eventually reveal
secrets to the enemy, he stabbed both his wrists with broken glass to end an
interrogation. He said he felt the only way he could stop the questioning was to make
them believe he was willing to die rather than yield. For this he has received
the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Today, Vice Admiral James Stockdale is an instructor in the Naval War college
teaching mid-career officers philosophy. It is a philosophy designed to help the
military "regain our bearings".

Admiral Stockdale says, "a lot of training in the military tells you how you
should act but doesn't give you the why". And he adds, "No philosophical survival
kits are issued when man goes to war."

What about us? Don't we have a moral obligation to continue reminding the
world that the South Vietnamese are a conquered people? 

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="10%" ROWSPAN="2">&nbsp;</TD>
<TD VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT="250">
=== Details ===
<TABLE BORDER="0" WIDTH="80%">
<TR><TD WIDTH="150">Batch Number</TD><TD WIDTH="150">{{PAGENAME}}</TD></TR>
<TD>Production Date</TD><TD>6-Mar[[Radio1979|1979]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Book/Page</TD><TD>[[Radio_Commentary_Books#Reagan.27s_Path_to_Victory|RPtV-422]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Audio</TD><TD></TD></TR>
<TD>Youtube?</TD><TD>No</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
</TD></TR>
<TR><TD VALIGN="TOP">
===Added Notes===

</TD></TR>
</TABLE>