I know that we all pray that the day will come when we may be
able, as it is said in the Scriptures, to beat our swords into plough-
shares and spears into pruning hooks. But the news we hear and read
each day of the struggle now going on in Viet Nam is a sad and
fateful reminder that that day has not yet arrived. We may conclude
from the occurrences there, and from the situation in other parts of
the world, that our hope for a lasting peace with justice in this
troubled world depends upon our remaining strong.

When I spoke here a year ago on Veterans Day, our commitments
in Viet Nam had not flared into open warfare, but I mentioned that
the peace we were enjoying was an uneasy one. Events which have
occurred since that time have proven what an uneasy peace it was.
And indeed, the threat of an even more destructive war — a war
with nuclear weapons, too horrible almost to contemplate hovers over
us constantly.

About the war we are fighting in Viet Nam, let me say that I was
distressed, as I know other Americans were distressed, that conditions
in that part of the world deteriorated to the point that it became
necessary that we send fighting forces there to stem the tide of com-
munist aggression. Americans have deplored all wars, this one included,
but it is a characteristic of our people that when our freedom is
challenged by a hostile force, as it is being challenged in Southeast
Asia today, we rise to meet the challenge with all the strength and
all the resources at our disposal. And while there has been some
dissension and some disagreement as to policy, I know that an over-
whelming majority of the American people stand solidly behind our
President and our government in the great effort that is being made
to prevent the spread of communism in that area of the globe. On
this Veterans Day of 1965, we add to the list of heroes of past wars
to whom we are paying tribute those valiant men who today are
championing the cause of liberty on the battlefields of Viet Nam.

The world situation today is a challenge — a challenge to all of
us to display as much courage and heroism as was displayed by the
men who fought in the wars of our country. And it is a reminder to
all of us that we must be prepared to make the same commitments,
the same sacrifices that were made by the veterans of our wars if we
expect to preserve the freedom their commitments and their sacrifices
made possible for us....

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