1:09:01
**Power to the people ****
1:09:04
The country is ready to pass
a reasoned judgment on this war.
1:09:08
The people have judged, I think,
that it's unwise and immoral...
1:09:12
and not in the national interest
of this country...
1:09:15
and that, therefore,
it must be brought to an end.
1:09:18
[Cheering, Applause]
1:09:22
For 20 years, first the French,
and then the United States...
1:09:25
had been predicting victory in Vietnam.
1:09:29
In 1961and in 1962,
1:09:32
as well as 1966 and 1967,
1:09:35
we have been told
that the tide is turning,
1:09:38
there is a light
at the end of the tunnel,
1:09:40
we can soon bring our troops home,
1:09:43
victory is near, the enemy is tiring.
1:09:46
Once, in 1962,
1:09:48
I participated
in such a prediction myself.
1:09:53
But for 20 years,
we have been wrong.
1:09:56
The history of conflict
among nations...
1:09:59
does not record another such lengthy
and consistent chronicle of error...
1:10:04
as we have shown in Vietnam.
1:10:06
I had just given the policy line,
1:10:09
stayed up all night with
Adam Walinsky and Peter Edelman,
1:10:13
helping on a speech
for Robert Kennedy...
1:10:15
which proved to be his last speech
given in San Francisco here...
1:10:19
to a businessman's luncheon on Vietnam.
1:10:22
Uh, I went up with some corrections
last thing in the morning...
1:10:26
and shook hands with him
in his bathrobe as he stood there.
1:10:30
And then he came down from
the Ambassador Hotel and got into a car.
1:10:33
We were struck with how easy
it was to get onto that floor...
1:10:38
and approach him at that point.
1:10:40
At the conference
on lessons on Vietnam,
1:10:42
of course, in the morning I learned
that Robert Kennedy had died.
1:10:52
Well--
[Sighs]
1:10:56
So--
[Clears Throat]
1:10:59
So, uh--
[Exhales Deeply]