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September 15, 2007
Eleven months ago President Bush, commenting to George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, said that the comparison between Iraq and the 1968 Tet offensive could be accurate. Many public pronouncements since then by sundry military and political figures have brought again and again to my own mind the public statements and images of that time in our national life and the patients for whom I cared during those years, especially during the months of the Tet carnage.
According to an Associated Press report, 3,773
members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war began in March, 2003.
At least 27,767 have been wounded.
I re-opened some of the files I had compiled almost forty years
ago and was struck by the similarities, then and now.
"We would all like to think the war there might be successfully
concluded in the next calendar year."
John Foster Dulles
Secretary of State
Paris, France
December, 1953
"There is going to be no involvement of America in war
unless it is the result of the Constitutional process that is placed upon Congress
to declare it. Now let us have that clear."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
President of the United States
Washington, D.C.
March 10, 1954
"I can safely say that the end of the war is in sight."
General Paul D. Harkins
United States Commander, South Vietnam
Tokyo, Japan
October 31, 1963
"I do not believe under certain circumstances a greater
job could be done, to use your words, 'in Vietnam' with the introduction of
U.S. combat forces. I say that because this is a war which depends for success
upon suport from local people primarily.
"So I really personally believe the introduction of U.S. ground troops
in South Vietnam today would hinder rather than help the campaign against the
insurgency."
Robert S. McNamara
Secretary of Defense
Washington, D.C. February 17, 1964
"For most Americans this is an easy war. Men fight and
men suffer and men die, as they always do in war. But the lives of most of us
in this room and those listening to me this morning are untroubled. Prosperity
rises, abundance increases, the nation flourishes.
Lyndon B. Johnson
President of the United States
Washington, D.C.
May 13, 1965
"The commitment of American boys anywhere on the Asian
mainland is a mistake."
Barry Goldwarer
Former Senator from Arizona
Washington, D.C.
February 13, 1966
"This is and was the wrong place to make a stand. I don't
think we can roll back the area controlled by the Vietcong for ten years and
I question the wisdom of investing the lives of other people in trying."
John Kenneth Galbraith
Former United States Ambassador to India
Washington, D.C.
April 25, 1966
"It can be said now that the defeat of the Communist forces
in South Vietnam is inevitable. The only question is how soon?"
Richard M. Nixon
Former Vice-President of the United States
Saigon, South Vietnam
April 17, 1967
"First, we we making the effort there so that people would
have their own right to decide their own future, and could select their own
form of government...
"Now we're saying we're going to fight there so that we don't have to fight
in Thailand, so we don't have to fight on the West Coast of the United States,
so that they won't move acroos the Rockies.
"Our whole moral position, it seems to me, changes tremendously."
Robert F. Kennedy
Senator from New York
Washington , D.C.
November 26, 1967
"What the Vietnam war amounts to is civil strife between
those crooks in Saigon and Vietnamese nationals seeking a better life."
David M. Shoup
Former Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps
Washington, D.C.
December 18, 1967