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Moving from a defense of his war policies to an attack on his critics, Johnson pointed out that civilian casualties caused by U.S. operations "are inadvertent, in stark contrast to the calculated Viet Cong policy of systematic terror." Even so, he went on, "the deeds of the Viet Cong go largely unnoted in the public debate. And it is this moral double bookkeeping which makes us get sometimes very weary of our critics." As if to punctuate the President's point, a Viet Cong plastic bomb erupted at a Saigon bus stop the same day, killing an old woman and wounding a young girl.
Calm Determination. The President laid emphasis on the political stability —frail as it is—that U.S. diplomacy has encouraged in South Viet Nam over the past two years. "As I am talking to you here," he said, "a freely elected constituent assembly in Saigon is wrestling with the last details of a new constitution." Appropriately, Ky planned to take a copy of the new constitution with him to Guam for the President's perusal (see THE WORLD).
Johnson reiterated his willingness to negotiate with Hanoi—but he made it clear that he held out little hope for success. He told of one U.S. attempt to get peace talks started. It occurred during the first U.S. bombing pause in May 1965, when the Administration sent a letter proposing talks to Ho Chi
Minh's embassy in Moscow. It was "simply returned," said the President, "in a plain envelope."
Johnson's calm and determined mood reflected the tough new course in the war that he charted after last month's brief bombing pause ended in failure and frustration. He is convinced that Ho Chi Minh means business when he says that North Viet Nam is ready to continue guerrilla warfare in the South "for 20, even 30 years if need be." Were the U.S. to grow irresolute in the face of such perseverance, Johnson said, "the forces of chaos would scent vic tory, and decades of strife and aggression would stretch endlessly before us." For the U.S., declared the President, the choice is clear. "We shall stay the course."