We are there because the people of South Vietnam have as much right to remain non-Communist—­if that is what they choose—­as North Vietnam has to remain Communist.

We are there because the Congress has pledged by solemn vote to take all necessary measures to prevent further aggression.

No better words could describe our present course than those once spoken by the great Thomas Jefferson: 

“It is the melancholy law of human societies to be compelled sometimes to choose a great evil in order to ward off a greater.”

We have chosen to fight a limited war in Vietnam in an attempt to prevent a larger war—­a war almost certain to follow, I believe, if the Communists succeed in overrunning and taking over South Vietnam by aggression and by force.  I believe, and I am supported by some authority, that if they are not checked now the world can expect to pay a greater price to check them later.

That is what our statesmen said when they debated this treaty, and that is why it was ratified 82 to 1 by the Senate many years ago.

You will remember that we stood in Western Europe 20 years ago.  Is there anyone in this Chamber tonight who doubts that the course of freedom was not changed for the better because of the courage of that stand?

Sixteen years ago we and others stopped another kind of aggression—­this time it was in Korea.  Imagine how different Asia might be today if we had failed to act when the Communist army of North Korea marched south.  The Asia of tomorrow will be far different because we have said in Vietnam, as we said 16 years ago in Korea:  “This far and no further.”

I think I reveal no secret when I tell you that we are dealing with a stubborn adversary who is committed to the use of force and terror to settle political questions.

I wish I could report to you that the conflict is almost over.  This I cannot do.  We face more cost, more loss, and more agony.  For the end is not yet.  I cannot promise you that it will come this year—­or come next year.  Our adversary still believes, I think, tonight, that he can go on fighting longer than we can, and longer than we and our allies will be prepared to stand up and resist.

Our men in that area—­there are nearly 500,000 now—­have borne well “the burden and the heat of the day.”  Their efforts have deprived the Communist enemy of the victory that he sought and that he expected a year ago.  We have steadily frustrated his main forces.  General Westmoreland reports that the enemy can no longer succeed on the battlefield.

So I must say to you that our pressure must be sustained—­and will be sustained—­until he realizes that the war he started is costing him more than he can ever gain.

I know of no strategy more likely to attain that end than the strategy of “accumulating slowly, but inexorably, every kind of material resource”—­of “laboriously teaching troops the very elements of their trade.”  That, and patience—­and I mean a great deal of patience.