Friday, April 28, 1972
Pullout to Continue
Nixon: Won't Halt Bombing
The
President's announcement, delivered in a nationwide radio and television address
from his White House office, meant that American troop strength would be down to
49,000 men within two months. The new rate of withdrawal was 10,000 a month,
compared to about 23,000 per month under Nixon's last withdrawal statement.
Still, the
President said his Vietnamization program had "proved itself sufficiently"
in the month-old Communist offensive "that we can continue our program of
withdrawing American forces without detriment to our over-all goal of ensuring
South Vietnam's survival as an independent country."
While
continuing the U.S. air and naval assault on military-targets in North Vietnam,
Nixon said, the United States is going back to the bargaining table in Paris
with the first order of business: "To get the enemy to halt his invasion of
South Vietnam, and to return the American prisoners of war."
The
President said ambassador William J. Porter was not resuming the Paris talks "simply
in order to hear more empty propaganda and bomblast" from the Communists
but "with the firm expectation that productive talks leading to rapid
progress will follow through all available channels."
Unlike his
previous troop withdrawal announcements, Nixon did not promise at the same time
Wednesday night to make another similar announcement when the next withdrawal
phase is completed by July 1.
But neither
did the President speak of any "residual force" of American support
personnel and military advisers which would remain in Vietnam indefinitely, as
has been widely predicted.
He said
simply that "the South Vietnamese have made great progress and are now
bearing the brunt of the battle. We can now see the day when no more Americans
will be involved there at all."
By leaving
open the departure date for the 49,000 Americans remaining in Vietnam after July
1, the President could be using the prospect of a U.S. "residual force"
as a bargaining point for Communist release of American prisoners of war, while
giving himself room for additional withdrawals before the November elections.
In a
briefing for reporters in the White House East Room before the President went on
the air, Henry A. Kissinger, his national security affairs adviser, refused to
speculate on any rock-bottom residual force.
"I have
flatly rejected the proposal that we stop the bombing of North Vietnam as a
condition for returning to the negotiating table," Nixon said. "They
sold that package to the United States once before, in 1968, and we are not
going to buy it again in 1972."
The tone of
much of Nixon's speech was a call for domestic persistence and steadfastness at
a time when he pictured American involvement in the long and costly war as
drawing to a close.
"We
must not falter," he said at one point.
"Let us
then unite as a nation in a firm and wise policy of peace -not the peace of
surrender, but peace with honor - not only peace in our time, but peace for
generations to come."" NIXON: WON'T HALT BOMBING", by Saigon (UPI), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Friday, April 28, 1972 and reprinted with permission from European and Pacific Stars and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.