○  renunciation speech  ○

ever be forgotten: peace will come also because america sent her sons to help secure it.

it has not been easy -- far from it. during the past four and a half years, it has been my fate and my responsibility to be commander in chief. i have lived daily and nightly with the cost of this war. i know the pain that it has inflicted. i know perhaps better than anyone the misgivings that it has aroused. and throughout this entire long period i have been sustained by a single principle: that what we are doing now in vietnam is vital not only to the security of southeast asia, but it is vital to the security of every american.

surely, we have treaties which we must respect. surely, we have commitments that we are going to keep. resolutions of the congress testify to the need to resist aggression in the world and in southeast asia.

but the heart of our involvement in south vietnam under three different presidents, three separate administrations, has always been america's own security. and the larger purpose of our involvement has always been to help the nations of southeast asia become independent, and stand alone, self-sustaining as members of a great world community, at peace with themselves, at peace with all others. and with such a nation our country -- and the world -- will be far more secure than it is tonight.

i believe that a peaceful asia is far nearer to reality because of what america has done in vietnam. i believe that the men who endure the dangers of battle there, fighting there for us tonight, are helping the entire world avoid far greater conflicts

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