NEWS CONFERENCE 407

escalate, or where we should bomb, or how we should run this war.
These are the same men who wouldn't think about venturing these
opinions without information on a local program, but they are doing
it in Vietnam and they are doing it because they feel forced to take
a position. And if they are Republicans they apparently feel forced
to find some trouble or problem with the President's stature at the
present time on this subject.

Q. Governor, is there any possibility that you have been brain-
washed on this subject?

A. No, but this is something that I feel very strongly about. How can
you make a judgment without accurate information?

Q. Well, that was a facetious way of putting a serious question, Gov-
ernor.

A. I understand.

Q. Governor, have you had a chance to expound your feelings to the
other national leaders in the Republican Party? If so, was there any
reaction?

A. Well, I guess I have informally expounded these feelings to a few
people, not to any of the people who are apparent candidates who are
making the statements, personally. I just haven't had a chance to be
with these people.

Q. Governor, do you still support the President on the Vietnam
issue?

A. Yes, I do. I support the President 100 percent until someone
shows me that what he's doing is not the proper solution to the prob-
lem. I think he's a conscientious person who has the interest of the
United States at heart. I think he's got the best information available
to make judgments on, and certainly I wouldn't attempt to find any
fault with what he's doing unless I had impeccable information that
he was wrong.

Q. From what information you have got, do you think the United
States can continue to pursue President Johnson's policy in Vietnam
and still continue to do the kind of things in the cities that you out-
lined?

A. Well, I don't have the information to answer that. I don't have
any information about the Vietnamese war except what I read in the
newspapers.