Word: grueninger
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Gruening quoted President Johnson's statement at John Hopkins University last spring that the United States was fulfilling a ten-year commitment to the people of South Vietnam. He then cited the course of the American Vietnam policy since 1954 to show that no such commitment was ever made.
After Vietnam was "temporarily" divided into North and South by the Geneva convention of 1954, Under Secretary of State Walter Bedell Smith issued the official statement of the United States' position, Gruening said.
This statement, which Gruening quoted, declared America's intentions for free elections supervised by the United Nations. It was publicly supported by President Eisenhower on the day of its publication.
Gruening then read a 1954 letter from Eisenhower to the late President Diem of South Vietnam which promised only U.S. financial aid "to help move several hundred thousand people from North to South" if Diem's government maintained "Certain standards of performance" that included local reforms and respect both at...
The fate of the Diem government shows how little it merited even that limited aid, Gruening said.