On April 7, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:55 pm and 4:09 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 246-018 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.
My fellow Americans, over the past several weeks, you've heard a number of reports on TV, radio, and in your news speakers of the situation at Salome Station.
It's come from me as President and as Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces to put these reports in perspective, to lay all the pertinent facts before you, and to let you judge for yourselves as to the success or failure of our policy.
I will begin my report by announcing that I have decided to increase the rate of American troop withdrawals for the period from May 1 to December 1.
Before going into details, I'd like to review briefly what I found when I came into office.
The progress we have made today in reducing American forces, and the reason why I'm able to announce a stepped-up withdrawal without jeopardizing our remaining forces in Vietnam, and without endangering our own goal of ending American involvement in a way which will increase the chances of a lasting peace in the city and the world.
I met Washington in January 1961 after serving eight years as Vice President for President Eisenhower.
There were no American combat forces in Vietnam.
All Americans had died in combat.
I returned to Washington.
As President, eight years later, there were 540,000 American troops in Vietnam.
1,000 had died there.
300 Americans were being lost in the region.
There was no comprehensive plan to end the war.
I implemented a plan.
I implemented a plan to train and equip the South Vietnamese
to withdraw American forces and to end American involvement in the war just as soon as the South Vietnamese had developed the capacity to mend their country against the communist aggression.
It's hard to even see how our plan has succeeded.
In the month of 1969, I announced the withdrawal of 35,000 men.
In September, 40,000 men.
In December, 50,000.
And in April of 1970, 150,000.
By the first of next month, we will have brought home more than 265,000 Americans, almost half the troops of Vietnam on active combat.
The progress we have made is in reducing American casualties.
Casualties were five times as great in the first three months of 1969 as they were in the first three months of 1971.
The Vietnamese captains have also dropped significantly in the last few years, and our combat is one of the best.
Our goal is no
I'm aware I can fight and die any place in the world.
Every decision I've made in the past and every decision I think in the future will have the purpose of achieving that goal.
Let me review how two decisions I've made which have contributed to the achievement of our goals in Vietnam.
This was the destruction of enemy bases, now home.
At the time of that decision, many expressed fears that we had widened the war, that our categories would increase, that our troop withdrawal program would be delayed.
I do not question the sincerity of those who expressed those fears, but we can see now that they were wrong.
American troops were out of Cambodia in 60 days, as I pledged to them.
American casualties did not rise after Cambodia.
They were cut in half.
American troop withdrawals were not all under delay.
They continued at an accelerated pace.
we turned to the Laotian operation, undertaken by South Vietnamese ground forces with American air support, against North Vietnamese troops, which had been using Laotian territory for six years to attack American and allied forces.
At the completion of that operation, there had been a great deal of understandable speculation, as there was out of Cambodia, as to whether it was a success or failure, a victory or a defeat.
As in Cambodia,
What is important is not the instant analysis of the moment, but what happens in the future.
The Laotian operation contributed to the goals we sought.
I have just completed my assessment of the operation.
Here are my conclusions.
First, South Vietnamese demonstrated that without American advisers, they could fight effectively against the best troops in North Vietnam, including the Vietnamese.
Second,
the South Vietnamese suffered heavy casualties.
By conservative estimates, the casualties suffered by the enemy were far greater.
Third, and most important, the disruption of enemy supply lines, the consumption of ammunition and arms in the battle, has been even more damaging to the tenacity of the North Vietnamese to sustain major offensives in South Vietnam, to sustain major offensives in South Vietnam than were the operations in Cambodia ten months ago.
Monday the 9th, I can report that Vietnamization has succeeded.
Because of the increased strength of the South Vietnamese, because of the success of the Cambodian operation, because of the achievement of the South Vietnamese operation in Laos, I am announcing an increase in the rate of American troops.
Between May 1 and December 1 of this year, 100,000 more American troops will be drawn home from South Vietnam.
This will bring the total number of American troops that have drawn from South Vietnam
365,000.
Over two-thirds of the number who were there when I came into office.
As you can see, at this point, as you can see from the chunk, as you can see, I refer to the chunk so that you can see, that South Vietnam fully supports our decision.
Now look at the future.
You can see the progress we have made today by this announcement tonight.
The American involvement in Vietnam is coming to an end.
The day South Vietnamese can take over their own defenses inside.
Our goal is a total American withdrawal from Vietnam.
And we will reach that goal through our program of Vietnamization.
We would infinitely prefer to reach it even sooner, through negotiations.
You will recall on October 7th, the national TV broadcast, I proposed an immediate ceasefire to radical China.
the immediate release of all prisoners of war in the eastern China area, and all of the China peace conflict, and complete withdrawal of all outside forces, and a political settlement.
Tonight I again call on Hanoi to engage in serious negotiations to speed the end of the war.
I especially call on Hanoi to agree to the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of war who are in China.
It is time for Hanoi to end the barbaric use of our prisoners as negotiated bonds under justice and a humane act that will free their hands
As well as ours.
Let me turn now to a proposal which first lends a great deal of appeal to the American people.
Our goal is to control all our forces.
Why not announce the date now for ending our law?
The difficulty in making such an announcement to the American people is that I'd also be making the announcement to the enemy.
It would serve the enemy's purpose, not our own.
If the United States should announce that we will quit regardless of what the enemy does, we would have thrown away our principal firing encounter to win the release of American prisoners at war.
We would remove the enemy's strongest incentive to end the war soon by negotiation.
And we would have given enemy commanders the exact information they need to marshal their attacks against our remaining forces in their most vulnerable time.
The issue very simply is this.
Shall we leave Vietnam in a way
that by our own actions consciously turns the country over to the communists?
Or shall we leave in a way that gives the South Vietnamese a reasonable chance to survive as free people?
My plan will end American involvement in a way that will provide that chance.
The other would end it precipitately and give victory to the communists.
Ever since, we face the choice of ending our involvement in this war in a note of despair or a note of hope.
I believe, as Thomas Jefferson did, that Americans will always choose hope over despair.
We have it in our power to lead Vietnam in a way that offers a brave people a realistic hope of freedom.
We have it in our power to prove to our friends in the world that America's sense of responsibility remains the world's greatest symbol of hope for peace.
We have it in our power to close the difficult chapter in American history, not meanly, but knowingly.
So that each one of us can come out of this theory of experience with a measure of pride in our nation, confidence in our own character, hope for the future of the spirit of America.
There are those who want us to believe I should move in this war without regard to what happens to some of you and not.
This way, we would abandon our country.
And even more importantly, we would abandon ourselves.
We would find from the anguish of war into a nightmare of recrimination.
We would lose respect for this nation.
Respect for one nation, respect for ourselves.
I understand the deep concerns of people raised in this country, banned by reports through television in Vietnam.
Let me put this into perspective.
I've visited Vietnam many times, and as commander-in-chief of our armed forces, I feel it is my duty to speak up for the two and a half million fine and young Americans who have served in Vietnam.
Passing charges in individual cases should not and cannot be allowed to reflect on their courage and their self-sacrifice.
Those are terrible and cruel.
particularly for those who bear the burden of fighting.
Never in history have men fought for less selfish ones.
Not for conquest, not for glory, but only for the right of people far away to choose to die.
They wish.
We hear very much of isolated acts of cruelty.
We do not hear enough of the tens of thousands of individual American soldiers who built schools, roads, hospitals, clinics, who through countless acts of generosity and kindness
and try to help the people of South Vietnam.
We can and we should be proud of these men.
They are strong, but our admiration and our deepest appreciation is to end America's participation in this conflict, not in failure or in defeat, but in achievement of the great goals for which they fought.
A South Vietnam free to determine its own future, and an America no longer divided by war and united by peace.
That's why it is so important how we end this war.
By our decision, we will demonstrate the kind of people we are, the kind of country we will become.
That is why I have chartered the course out of my ground.
To end it well, but to end it in a way that will strengthen the trust for America around the war, not under one.
In a way that will redeem the sacrifices it has made, not insult it.
In a way that will heal this nation, not tear it apart.
We are following this on these things.
According to television reports, David's casual figures and angry debate at home, these have all inflicted wounds on the American spirit.
A long, difficult trial for him.
But I can assure you tonight with confidence that American involvement in this war is coming to an end.
But can you believe this?
I understand why this question is raised by many honest and serious people.
Many times in the past, this war was difficult for us.
Actions have been announced from Washington.