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Should I become President...I will not risk American lives...by permitting any other nation to drag us into the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time through an unwise commitment that is unwise militarily, unnecessary to our security and unsupported by our allies.
John F. Kennedy, speech, New York Times, October 13, 1960
We still seek no wider war.
Lyndon B. Johnson, statement after Gulf of Tonkin incident, August 4, 1964.
It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home for Christmas.
Ronald Reagan, interview, Fresno Bee, October 10, 1965
We seem bent upon saving the Vietnamese from Ho Chi Minh, even if we have to kill them and demolish their country to do it....I do not intend to remain silent in the face of what I regard as a policy of madness which, sooner or later, will envelop my son and American youth by the millions for years to come.
George McGovern, speech to U.S. Senate, April 25, 1967
It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.
Unidentified U.S. Army major, on decision to bomb Bentre, Vietnam, February 7, 1968
One reason the Kennedy and Johnson administrations failed to take an orderly, rational approach to the basic questions underlying Vietnam was the staggering variety and complexity of other issues we faced. Simply put, we faced a blizzard of problems, there were only twenty-four hours in a day, and we often did not have time to think straight.
Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect, 1995
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