79-04-A4

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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.		Details Batch Number 79-04-A4 Production Date 6-Mar1979 Book/Page RPtV-422 Audio Youtube? No
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