US Presidency
1966

But I have said to you and to the American people time and again, and I repeat it today, that we shall persist. We shall send General Westmoreland such men as he may require and request, and they will be amply supplied. I have no doubt but what they will give a good account of themselves. Overall, I would say that the reports from the captured prisoners and there have been about twice as many defectors so far this year as there were the same period last year, some 10,000 compared to 4,000 but the interviews from a sample of 150 this week indicate that about 15 to 20 percent of the men that have been captured show that they are boys from 12 to 16 years of age. They show that a good many of their people take 3 months in the infiltration, walking down from North Vietnam, that a good many of them are suffering from malaria, and beriberi, and other diseases.