University of Virginia Library

Stats On The War Games

Election '72

No issue has troubled our
nation more in the past decade
than the war in Indochina.

In 1968, the American
people elected Richard Nixon
after he declared, "If in
November this war is not over
after all of this power has been
at their disposal, then I say
that the American people will
be justified to elect new
leadership and I pledge to you
that the new leadership will
end the war."

We are told that Mr Nixon
has brought our combat troops
home from Vietnam: that he
has Vietnamized the war on
the ground. But we are not
often reminded that U.S. air
power and bombing have
reached record levels.

The Nixon Administration
has dropped more bombs on
Indochina than were dropped
in all previous years of the war
put together. This
Administration has exploded
more bombs in just 3½ years
than were expended in World
War II and Korea combined. In
the minute you have been
reading, two tons of bombs
have fallen, as they have every
minute of this Administration.

More than half a million
South Vietnamese civilians
have been killed or wounded
by both sides during the last
three and one-half years
according to the Senate
Refugee Subcommittee

Since this Administration
took office, more Indochinese
have been killed than the
combined populations of
Alaska and Wyoming

All told more than 6
million people in Indochina
have been killed, wounded.
or made homeless. including
over one-quarter of the
population of and
Cambodia in the last 3½ years.

Altogether Mr. Nixon has
squandered more than
billion on the war he promised
to end. more than $300 for
every man, woman, and child
in the United States. In this
year alone each family could
pay $180 less income tax if Mr.
Nixon had ended the war.

This money could instead
be used to build 150 580-bed
hospitals and over 1,300 local
health centers each treating
40,000 people annually.

If the President put the
welfare of our POW's and our
country's desire for peace
above his abstract desire for
honor. he could end the war
He could get us out of
Indochina and allow the people
who live there to determine
their own future

George McGovern has a
public plan for peace On
Inauguration Day he would
immediately halt the bombing
in Indochina and all American
military and to General Thieu
Within 90 days he would bring
all Americans home He would
end the war within 90 days

Not just but all of our
POWs would be home within
90 days. The French POWs
were returned within 90 days
of the completion of the
Geneva Agreements in 1954.
And the North Vietnamese
have agreed to do the same
today. After the POWs come
home and the missing are
accounted for, Senator
McGovern would also remove
American air power from
Thailand and the Gulf of
Tonkin.

George McGovern will detail
the specifics of his public plan
to end the war tonight at 7:30
p.m. on CBS television. Would
Richard Nixon do the same?

It is said that The War is no
longer an issue. It is said that
Americans are no longer
concerned because it is Asians
who are dying. If this is the
case, we are truly morally
bankrupt as a nation. Yet
George McGovern offers us the
opportunity to reassert our
ideals by ending our
involvement in this costly
conflict once and for all.