US Presidency
1967

In the meantime, it shall be our policy to continue to seek negotiations, confident that reason will some day prevail; that Hanoi will realize that it just can never win; that it will turn away from fighting and start building for its own people. Since World War II, this Nation has met and has mastered many challenges, challenges in Greece and Turkey, in Berlin, in Korea, in Cuba. We met them because brave men were willing to risk their lives for their nation's security. And braver men have never lived than those who carry our colors in Vietnam at this very hour. The price of these efforts, of course, has been heavy. But the price of not having made them at all, not having seen them through, in my judgment would have been vastly greater. Our goal has been the same, in Europe, in Asia, in our own hemisphere. It has been, and it is now, peace. And peace can not be secured by wishes; peace can not be preserved by noble words and pure intentions. Enduring peace, Franklin D.