 I'll tell him I have a bunch of folks with me, but that you're going to put me through, but he'll have to do most of the talking. Thank you, Mr. Pearson. He has a lot of folks with him. We're going to put you through, but you might be expected to do most of the talking, and he'll just do the listening. All right? Thank you. All right, I can, I don't have to talk to him now. Is the better, hello? Yes, sir. All right. Would it be better for me to call back later? Let me check just a moment. He asked if it would be better for him to call back later. Tell him I've got him all day long. Just tell him no. Tell him I've got the Security Council right after this. Got the British Foreign Minister and others, and the leadership that this is just the worst day of the year for me, and everybody has to do it right now, and I'll be on in just a minute. Thank you. Mr. Pearson. Yeah. He says he can't think of any time. The day looks pretty rough, so if you'll just hold on. He'll be right with you. All right. Thank you. Do you have a talk, Ed? No, I know you can't talk there. The reporters told me that you were terrific last night. They got a big vote from everybody. Say, I'm leaving the Samsonville, and Louie and I are going over to Russia and probably Hungary and Budapest, and newspaper trip. But I'm writing a book on Khrushchev, and I don't know whether I'll see him or not. But I just thought I'd check in with you. I was trying to figure out if I could, didn't want to buddy any waters or this very delicate operation that you got going, and I know how difficult it is, and I know what you're trying to do. I'll tell you what I told them last night, and it wasn't on the record, and I wouldn't want this to be on the record, but I think that if you could use it discreetly, I think it might be helpful to you. I said that Weekend, Eisenhower went in there in 54, and he played those people that he would help them. The Congress came along and ratified that in 55 by a vote of 82 to 1, which said that when any country in that area is attacked or faced with aggression, it will come to their rescue. That was the CETO Treaty, and there's only one person that voted against it, 82 to 1 in the Senate. That was before I became president, and that's Eisenhower's commitment. He had hundreds of people in there. Kennedy came along. He reaffirmed the commitment, although he had to keep the treaty, just like our treaty, if we don't have it there, we don't have it in Berlin, and it's not worth a dime. The first to announce it would be the Russians if we broke the test ban or the friendship we'd call it be right down our neck if we broke any treaties. Besides, there are hundreds of little countries like Greece and Turkey that look at us and the Truman Doctrine that are watching to see if if we can help hold this little country from aggressors, that maybe they got a hold. If we can't hold them, well, then they'll all be gobbled up, as Hitler gobbled up the low countries, and I don't want to have another Munich, and I don't want to be another Chamberlain. So I came in and said, Taft said that he wouldn't disagree with Roosevelt what he's doing in Korea, but he did the wrong way, that he ought to be in on the takeoffs if he's going to be in on the landings and Congress ought to be asked for its expression. So I went to Congress and said, you give me your views. And the Congress in August of last year, passed a resolution saying that I should protect against all aggressors that are necessary and all the power of the United States forces. So I read them that. Now, there are people that want us to pull out. Morris is one. Others say, well, you can have a military solution and this and that. We have to analyze that. Let's put it under microscope. I got a treaty, 82 to 1. I got a resolution, 502 to 2. And that resolution says that Congress approves and supports the determination of the President to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack and to prevent further aggression. And the United States is prepared to take all necessary steps as the President determines, including the use of all armed forces necessary to assist any member of our protocol state of the Southeast Asia Defense Treaty. So Congress did that in August. They did it in 55, 82 to 1. They did it in August this year, 502 to 2. So I don't much believe I can break her commitment. I don't bleach, I can walk out. I think if it did, they'd take Thailand. I think they'd take Cambodia. I think they'd take Burma. I think they'd take Indonesia. I think they'd take India. I think they'd come right back and I think we'd have another Munich and I think the aggressors feed on blood and so forth. So that's number one. I'm not coming home. They may get another President, but I'm not going to pull out. Now the second thing is negotiation. That's the second course. Negotiation, I've said, in every state of the Union have 40 different speeches. I'll go anywhere. I'll do anything. I can do and see in an honorable way to promote peace at any time. I didn't just say the Russians. I didn't just say the British. I didn't just say the French. That said anybody anywhere at any time offers any hope or peace. Okay, now let's see whether I need to go to Hanoi or not. Let's see whether I need to go to Peking or not. My last intelligence from Hanoi. Well, first I'll say from Peking. It sums up pretty well. And this is the literal quotation. Bacitong says that Emperor Johnson must know that he cannot win at the conference table what he has lost on the battlefield. Now that's so far that's pretty strong for China. And they denounced Russia this morning, yesterday morning, for what they had done. Not coming in and raising more hell themselves. So Hanoi, I got a most recent report, says that they think that the South is crumbling, that they will not talk negotiation. They will not have any consideration to it until we pull back to San Francisco and we get out until they take over South Vietnam and they'd be glad to talk. Now, I don't know how you can negotiate when there's no one who wants to negotiate. We encourage the Russians and the British without weakening our hand, without changing our government and without letting the South near the East think we're running out. We did everything we could to encourage them to see what track they could keep open. But they didn't get there far. We have even encouraged the French who talk big about negotiation and every time they say, I say, well, they go in and say, well, we're sorry, but in the time that's not right, you've got to be more militarily strong, more military power. So I can't find anybody to negotiate with. And if I negotiate with them, I have no reason to believe that being any better are stronger than 54 or 62 and they don't keep those and I don't know how to make it self-enforcing. So it doesn't look to me unless they leave the people alone and if they keep spreading aggression, I don't think I can run and I think I'm committed to defend them and if they won't negotiate with me and they say they won't negotiate and I can't say that I won't negotiate and have them turn me down and leave the world in much worse shape. Every negotiation this country's ever had has been a preliminary understanding at a time that there was some hope of something coming out of it. So the third thing is a lamay view point. I can take my bombs and I can take my nuclear weapons as Barry says and I can defoliate and I can clear out that brush where I can see anybody coming down that line and I can wipe out Illinois and I can wipe out Faping and I can wipe out a good deal of that 33 divisions that would be coming down there. But I think that would start World War III and I think I'd have some 800 million and I'd have a land war in Asia and I think I'd have sent 300,000 men there. So what I have done is come across the line with their bomb and drop them in the American compound. One or two didn't explode. I picked them up and put one or two hours with them and take them back where they left that morning to their own compound and dropped them in there. They killed a good deal of more people and we did. I have bombed in the cities. I haven't killed any women and children. I have said I would be appropriate and fitting and measured and I'm being just as measured as I know how. I don't get in the vicinity of the aircraft. I don't get in the vicinity of their cities. I don't kill their women and children. The people in South Vietnam forces do have some tear gas and nausea bombs. They got them from the French back before they got out of there. They got some from us. Every police chief in the United States has them. Every riot unit we have in the Army has them. When you start riding and tagging over the embassy and coming in rather than shooting people at them it'll upset the stomach or make them their eyes blink and they'll use them in the summer a week ago. I didn't send them out there. They were out there long before I came. I never knew it. I never heard of it. But all this big propaganda they're making about gas. It's not poison gas. It's not war gas. It's the same kind of gas chief Murray's got right here. If the Negroes started moving in the White House they told them to stop. And it's the same kind. It's used by all the riot units and used by Saigon police and used by military police every place. As a matter of fact we got them down there right now in case the state troopers and the rest of them take in on us in Alabama. There's nothing new about that. But they play it up. First thing a damn newspaper man writes a lie. He said I understand you got mustard gas out here. And I said no we haven't. Well tell us the truth. The only thing we know anything about it is it's non-leftful gas. It's tear gas. Then he writes to the story that there's a they say it's non-leftful but it could make a man's eyes water and it could make him sick. Well of course it does. That's a lot preferable when the Viet Cong come in and about to blow up the embassy. We have used it. But when Kennedy didn't have it in Jackson, Mississippi they just raised uncharted hell and he had to move in and fly them in day and night so they could protect our people if we needed to. And that's the best way anybody knows any police squad to when the mob gets in action hundreds of thousands of people coming at you turn it loose. They have used it once or twice in South Vietnam. I don't know how many times I never heard of it last night. But they are doing everything. This week it's dropping bombs the next week it's poor equipment. The week before it's the inadequate planes. The next week it's gas and maybe these boys the propagandists and the communists are working pretty full string and they keep us defending all the time fighting with their own people trying to explain that we're not warmongers trying to explain to the gold waters and to the nexons and even to the lodges and to Rockfella why we're not dropping bombs up there and why we're not getting closer into the industrial targets. And I have to explain that to them and show them that that doesn't do any good you just kill a bunch of women and children and let's try to deter them let's try to prevail on them let's do like I do with my daughter Lucy let's try to reason with them, let's be patient let's follow what old ag Heimershall said just before we died the qualities peace requires are just those which I feel we all must have today to perseverance and patience a firm grip on realities careful but imaginative planning a clear awareness of the dangers but also the fact that fate is what we're making now that's what I'm trying to do so I can't run out I've got nobody to negotiate with I don't want to bomb this city's new town and I'm trying to convince them by putting off a pop gun or a firecracker or anything I can to please quit coming in sure that's that simple and I have said time and time and time again I repeat to you now I'll do anything that's honorable I'll go anywhere I'll say anybody I'll make any sacrifice to keep people being killed just like I didn't want to go into someone's I did everything a human could to avoid it I got his he came up here and I spent 3 hours now but when all is said and done he said it he said it he said it he said it