University of Virginia Library

Nixon: War Settlement Must Be Sought

By John Kwapisz

Mr. Kwapisz is a second-year
graduate student in Economics and
Russian-Communist studies. He is
Chairman of Students for a Free
Society and a Youth for Nixon
coordinator.

Resolution of the Vietnam war
remains a fundamental, if not the
major concern of the American
electorate. And although his
opponents have alleged otherwise,
Richard Nixon has spoken
thoroughly and cogently on his
attitude and approaches to the war
and its termination. In order to
present his position with accuracy
and reduce interpretive distortion,
permit me to quote extensively
from Nixon's Statement on
Vietnam submitted to the
Republican Resolutions Committee
in Miami on August 1.

Mr. Nixon said: "The manner in
which we conduct ourselves on this
issue can bear heavily on the
chances for peace. . . What I intend
to do, and what I believe the party
should do, is to separate those
questions that can responsibly be
discussed from those that cannot.
The present Administration's
emissaries in Paris must be able to
speak with the full force and
authority of the United States.
Nothing should be offered in the
political arena that might undercut
their hand.

"But there is much that can and
should be discussed. The war must
be ended. It must end honorably,
consistent with America's limited
aims and with the long term
requirements of peace in Asia. We
must seek a negotiated settlement.
This will require patience.

"Until it is ended. . .rather than
further escalation on the military
front, what it requires now is a
dramatic escalation of our efforts
on the economic, political,
diplomatic and psychological fronts.
It requires a new strategy, which
recognizes that this is a new and
different kind of war. And it
requires a fuller enlistment of our
Vietnamese allies in their own
defense.

"I have long been critical of the
Administration's conduct of the
war. Specifically: Our massive
military superiority has been
wasted, our options frittered away,
by applying power so gradually as
to be ineffective. The
Administration has done far too
little, too late, to train and equip
the South Vietnamese. The
Administration has failed in candor
at home and in leadership abroad.

"These are failures of the past.
In terms of what the United States
should do now, we start with the
fact of the Paris talks. These impose
limits on what a Presidential
candidate can responsibly say - not
because of what the American
people might think, but because of
how Hanoi's negotiators might
interpret it. . .as indicating the
possible new direction of the next
administration. . . . In the spirit of
country above party, as long as
they (our negotiators) have a
chance of success — and as long as
the Administration remains
committed to an honorable
settlement — they should have our
full support. The pursuit of peace is
too important for politics-as-usual.

"There is no Republican way or
Democratic way to end a war, but
there is a difference between an
administration that inherits the
errors of the past, and an
administration that can make a
fresh beginning free from the
legacy of those errors.

"There is a difference between
an administration burdened by
accumulated distrust, and a new
administration that can tell the
truth to the administration and be
believed.

"This new kind of war is not
primarily a military struggle in the
conventional sense. It is primarily a
political struggle. . .a war for
people, not for territory. The real
measure of progress is not the body
count of enemy killed, but the
number of South Vietnamese won
to the building and defense of their
own country. . .This kind of war
can actually be waged more
effectively with fewer men and at
less cost. . . . The fact is that our
men have not been out-fought; the
Administration has been
out-thought.

"We need far greater and more
urgent attention to training the
South Vietnamese themselves, and
equipping them with the best of
modern weapons. As they are
phased in, American troops can —
and should — be phased out. (This)
is essential if South Vietnam is to
develop both the military strength
and the strength of spirit to survive
now and in the future.

"It is a cruel irony that the
American effort to safeguard the
independence of South Vietnam
has produced an ever-increasing
dependence in our ally. If South
Vietnam's future is to be secure,
this process must now be reversed.

"the far reaching implications
of the war in Vietnam plainly
indicate that the conference table
must be wide enough and the issues
placed upon it broad enough, to
accommodate as many as possible
of the powers and interests
involved. In particular, there should
be the most candid and searching
conversations, with the Soviet
Union.

"Vietnam does not exist in
isolation. Around the world we
should mobilize our diplomatic
forces for peace — through our
embassies, through the United
Nations and elsewhere. We need
such an effort not only to speed an
end to the war, but also to lay the
groundwork for the organization of
a lasting and lager peace. Certainly
one of the lessons from the agony
of Vietnam is that we need a new
diplomacy to prevent future
Vietnams.

"A new Republican
administration will be pledged to
conduct a thorough reappraisal of
every aspect of the prosecution of
the war and the search for peace. It
will accept nothing on faith,
reputation, or statistics. In waging
the war and making the peace, it
will come with a fresh eye and act
with a free hand. And it will do
what the present administration has
so signally failed to do: it will arm
the American people with the
truth."

In a perceptive and provocative
essay in "Foreign Affairs"
(October, '67) entitled "Asia After
Vietnam," Nixon calls for the
development of a Pacific
Community: "a community of
purpose, of understanding and of
mutual assistance. . .one in which
U.S. leadership is exercised with
restraint, with respect for our
partners and with a sophisticated
discretion that ensures a genuinely
Asian idiom and Asian origin for
whatever new Asian institutions are
developed. . . . The central pattern
of the future in U.S.-Asian relations
must be American support for
Asian initiatives."

There is a new Nixon, a man
matured and tempered by the
passing years, a man who from the
experiences and mistakes of our
past has learned the realities and
uses of power, a man skilled in the
arts of diplomacy and Realpolitik.
And a man of concern and
compassion for his fellowmen, with
a vision and goal of peace and the
good society not only for America,
but for all the world.