Lest We Forget

VIET-NAM:

For the future of peace, precipitate withdrawal would thus be a disaster of immense magnitude.

-- President Nixon Address To The Nation, November 3, 1969

IRAQ-NAM:

Leaving before the job is done would be a disaster, and that's what we're saying.

-- President Bush, August 21, 2006

VIET-NAM:

Let me turn now to a proposal which at first glance has a great deal of popular appeal. If our goal is a total withdrawal of all our forces, why don't I announce a date now for ending our involvement? Well, the difficulty in making such an announcement to the American people is that I would also be making that announcement to the enemy. And it would serve the enemy's purpose and not our own.

-- President Nixon Address To The Nation, April 7, 1971

IRAQ-NAM:

I recognize that Americans want our troops to come home as quickly as possible. So do I. Some contend that we should set a deadline for withdrawing U.S. forces. Let me explain why that would be a serious mistake. Setting an artificial timetable would send the wrong message to the Iraqis, who need to know that America will not leave before the job is done. It would send the wrong message to our troops, who need to know that we are serious about completing the mission they are risking their lives to achieve. And it would send the wrong message to the enemy, who would know that all they have to do is to wait us out.

--President Bush, August 17, 2006

VIET-NAM:

Today, America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by refighting a war that is finished as far as America is concerned...

We, of course, are saddened indeed by the events in Indochina. But these events, tragic as they are, portend neither the end of the world nor of America's leadership in the world.

Let me put it this way, if I might. Some tend to feel that if we do not succeed in everything everywhere, then we have succeeded in nothing anywhere. I reject categorically such polarized thinking. We can and we should help others to help themselves. But the fate of responsible men and women everywhere, in the final decision, rests in their own hands, not in ours.

-- President Ford Speech at Tulane University, April 23, 1975

IRAQ-NAM:

We're not leaving, so long as I'm the president.

-- President Bush, August 21, 2006

VIET-NAM:

Swift 22 is airborne with eleven passengers. Ground-security force is aboard.

-- Radio Message From Last American Helicopter In Emergency Evacuation Out of Saigon, April 30, 1975