Word: rusk
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Rusk's interrogators refused to be convinced. Led by Chairman Fulbright, Democratic hoplites jabbed at him for four hours. Tennessee's Albert Gore questioned whether the Administration had any right to justify its actions in Viet Nam merely by citing the August 1964 joint resolution of Congress passed unanimously in the House and 88 to 2 in the Senate after the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Rusk noted that Gore had a copy of the resolution and asked to borrow it. "Oh, sure," said Gore, pitching a 233-page pamphlet from a high rostrum to the well where Rusk...
Confessing that "I am scared to death we're running into nuclear World War III," Pennsylvania's Clark asked if a resumption of bombing would really reduce infiltration. Rusk replied that the raids had in the past "undoubtedly made infiltration more difficult and more costly." Clark persisted, and Rusk, on the edge of annoyance, finally snapped: "Look, when a truck goes 45 miles in five days because of air attacks, that is some advantage over its covering the same ground in five hours...
Puff, Puff. Idaho's Frank Church insisted that South Viet Nam was experiencing an "internal revolution," even though North Vietnamese troops were present, just as the U.S. experienced an internal revolution, even though there were "French revolutionary soldiers at Valley Forge." Rusk found that comparison hard to swallow. "I can't identify for a moment," said he, "the purposes of the Hanoi-inspired revolution of the 1960s with the purposes of the American Revolution in the 1770s...
...Rusk, who usually betrays anger only by puffing faster and harder at his Larks, ran out of cigarettes but not out of patience. A Secret Service man finally located a pack in a briefcase; the Secretary lit up, and the inquisition was resumed. At 12:55 Rusk pointed to his watch, announced "an important appointment at 1 o'clock that I should meet if I can." The appointment was at the White House for another meeting on Viet Nam strategy, and the Senators obligingly...
Clap Hands. It had been quite an ordeal. Characteristically, Rusk allowed later: "They're concerned. People ought to be. But the central issue is what you do if Hanoi, backed by Peking, continues to push into Southeast Asia. We're going to meet this commitment." Actually, he added, "there's much more international support on this than many people realize. I have no doubt that if we succeed in assuring the safety of South Viet Nam, there will be a hundred small countries all over the world who will