Speech #910018025

I expressed my belief then and I repeat it todayour present military strategy is killing young Americans and wasting billions of dollars in efforts that have no real relevance either to the diplomacy of Paris or the politics of Saigon. Two weeks ago I appeared before the Action Conference on National Priorities and urged that we quit worrying so much about saving face and begin instead to save lives. I noted on that occasion that "while we gather in this comfortable room. young Americans are still dying half a world away. undernourished guerrilla fighters still huddle in their cavesand they are human beings. tooand tunnels and spill their blood in countless rice paddies. 3 million Vietnamese refugees still languish in miserable campshomeless. neglected. and despondent." Now. Mr. President. the accelerating casualty rate. the increase in battalionsize operationswhich has been dramatic and unprecedentedthe sustained pace of U.S. air sorties over South Vietnam. all belie the evident fact that the war has been escalating. on the ground and in the air. throughout South Vietnam.