University of Virginia Library

Necessary Commitment

The government was
severely criticized in 1964 for
the escalation of the war. Mr.
Rusk's response to this was,
"We felt we had to make a
commitment to take steps to
'meet a common danger' in the
words of the SEATO Treaty,
because we felt the security of
Southeast Asia was of vital
importance to the security of
the U.S. and world peace.
People can say that's not true
anymore, but that was the
basis we were working on."

After having taken a
"hawkish" view of the war for
several years, Mr. Rusk
supported Mr. Johnson's
de-escalation policy in 1968.
He claims he had always been
primarily concerned with the
welfare of the Vietnamese
citizens, and now believed that
a pacifistic policy was the
quickest way to end the war.

With the publication of the
"Pentagon Papers," Mr. Rusk
was criticized for failing to
adequately publicize American
war policy. He said, however,
that the policies exposed in the
Papers were not the true U.S.
policies, but solely thoughts on
the subject that had been
written down as memoranda.

Since leaving the State
Department, Mr. Rusk has
taught law at the University of
Georgia.