Vietnam. We have cut air operations by over twenty percent. We have announced the withdrawal of over 250,000 of our troops. We have offered to withdraw all of our men if they withdraw theirs. We have offered to negotiate all issues with only one condition-that the future of South Vietnam be determined not by North Vietnam, not by the United States, but by the people of South Vietnam themselves.

Their answer has been intransigence at the conference table, belligerence in Hanoi, massive military aggression in Laos and Cambodia and stepped-up attacks in South Vietnam, designed to increase American casualties.

This attitude has become intolerable. We will not react to this threat to American lives merely by plaintive diplomatic protests. If we did, the credibility of the United States would be destroyed in every area of the world where only the power of the United States deters aggression.

Tonight, I again warn the North Vietnamese that if they continue to escalate the fighting when the United States is withdrawing its forces I shall meet my responsibility as Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces to take the action I consider necessary to defend the security of our American men.

This action puts the leaders of North Vietnam on notice that we will be patient in working for peace, we will be conciliatory at the conference table, but, we will not be humiliated. We will not be defeated. We will not allow American men by the thousands to be killed by an enemy from privileged sanctuaries.

The time came long ago to end this war through peaceful negotiations. We stand ready for those negotiations. We have made major efforts, many of which must remain secret. All offers and approaches made previously remain on the conference table whenever Hanoi is ready to negotiate seriously.

But if the enemy response to our most conciliatory offers for peaceful negotiation continues to be to increase its attacks and humiliate and defeat us we shall react accordingly.

We live in an age of anarchy both abroad and at home. We see mindless attacks on all the great institutions which have been created by free civilizations in the last five hundred years. Here in the United States, great universities are being systematically destroyed. Small nations all over the world find themselves under attack from within and from without.

If when the chips are down the U.S. acts like a pitiful helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.

It is not our power but our will and character that is being tested tonight. The question all Americans must ask and answer tonight is this: Does the richest and strongest nation in the history of the world have the character to meet a direct challenge by a group which rejects every effort to win a just peace, ignores our warning, tramples on solemn agreements, violates the neutrality of an unarmed people, and uses our prisoners as hostages?

If we failed to meet this challenge all other nations will be on notice that despite its overwhelming power the United States, when a real crisis comes, will be found wanting.

My fellow Americans: During my campaign for the Presidency, I pledged to bring Americans home from Vietnam. They are coming home.

I promised to end the war. I shall keep that promise.

I promised to win a just peace. I shall keep that promise.

We shall avoid a wider war. But we are also determined to put an end to this war.

In this room, Woodrow Wilson made the great decisions which led to victory in World War I. Franklin Roosevelt made the decisions which led to our victory in World War II. Dwight D. Eisenhower made decisions which ended the war in Korea and avoided war in the Middle East, John F. Kennedy, in his finest hour, made the great decision which removed Soviet nuclear missiles from Cuba and the Western Hemisphere.

The decision I have announced tonight is not of the same magnitude. Between those decisions and this decision, however, there is a difference that is very fundamental. In those decisions, the American people were not assailed by counsels of doubt and defeat from some of the most widely known opinion leaders of the nation.

A Republican Senator has said that this action means my party has lost all chance of winning the November elections. Others are saying today that this move against the enemy sanctuaries will make me a one-term President.

No one is more aware than I am of the political consequences of the action I have taken. It is tempting to take the easy political path: (1) To blame this war on previous Administrations and to bring all of our men home immediately regardless of the consequences; even though that would mean defeat for the United States; (2) To desert 18 million South Vietnamese people, who have put their trust in us and to expose them to the same slaughter and savagery which the leaders of North Vietnam inflicted on hundreds of thousands of North Vietnamese who chose freedom when the Communists took over North Vietnam; (3) To get peace at any price now even though I know that a peace of humiliation for the United States will lead to a bigger war or surrender later.

But I have rejected all political considerations in making this decision.

Whether my party gains in November is nothing compared to the lives of 400 thousand brave Americans fighting for our country and for the cause of peace and freedom in Vietnam. Whether I may be a oneterm President is insignificant compared to whether by our failure to act in this crisis the United States proves itself to be unworthy to lead the forces of freedom in this critical period. I would rather be a oneterm President than to be a two-term President at the cost of seeing America become a second rate power and see this nation accept the first defeat in its proud 190-year history.

I realize that in this war there are honest and deep differences about whether we should have ever become involved in Vietnam. There are differences as to how the war should be conducted. But the decision I announce tonight transcends those differences.

For the lives of American men are involved. The opportunity for 150,000 American men to come home over the next twelve months is involved. The future of 18 million in South Vietnam and seven million people in Cambodia is involved. The possibility of winning a just peace in Vietnam and in the Pacific is at stake.

It is customary in a speech from the White House to ask support for the President of the United States. Tonight, what I ask for is more important. I ask for support of our brave men fighting tonight halfway around the world-not for territory-not for glory-but so that their younger brothers and their sons and your sons will be able to live in peace and freedom.

RICHARD NIXON

Chapter IV

EXECUTIVE DIRECTIVES

CONCERNING DOMESTIC DISORDERS

The maintenance of public order has proved to be a recurrent problem for Presidents throughout American history. From Shay's Rebellion of 1786, to the urban riots of 1967-68, Federal force has been used when State and local governments were unable to control disorders. Although the circumstances which have required recourse to Federal assistance have varied greatly, the formal means of declaring an intention to meet threats to Government has been strikingly uniform. The first three documents included in this section illustrate only a few of the many historical situations in which Presidents have taken action to quell domestic disturbances. The Executive decisions are all cast in the form of Proclamations. The Proclamation issued by President Adams acknowledges the existence and nature of the disorder and then calls upon those perceived to be "insurgents" to disperse and retire to their homes. Lincoln's response to the outbreak of Civil War entailed much more extreme measures. Not only did he call upon the Secessionists to disperse, but he also convened an extraordinary session of Congress, called out 75,000 militia, declared martial law, and suspended the writ of habeas corpus. The last of these actions was subsequently determined by the Supreme Court to have been in excess of his authority. Ex parte Milligan, 4 Wall. 2 (1866). The range of Presidential powers as they have been exercised historically can, however, be plainly seen in these examples.

Presidential authority to meet domestic disturbances was confirmed soon after Lincoln's actions (R.S. 5297 et seq.) and has remained essentially unchanged from that time (10 U.S.C. 331 et seq.). These provisions of law are included at the end of this section to illustrate the current extent of that authority. The power to call the State militia into Federal service or to use the regular armed forces within the United States is contingent on either of two exigencies: the express request for assistance by the legislature or Governor of a State when local law agencies are unable to contain an "insurrection;" or, determination by the President himself that the execution of the laws in a particular State is being impeded, or that certain citizens of a State are being denied their constitutional or legal rights. When either of these contingencies makes it necessary to call up the militia or to use the regular armed forces, the President is required to issue a Proclamation calling upon the insurgents to disperse and retire.

Recent examples of Presidential exercise of these powers demonstrate how closely Presidents have adhered to these laws. In Procla

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