(UNTITLED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000800170019-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 30, 1999
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: February 17, 1966
• Content Type: OPEN

o?
Sanitized - Approved Fo e1e%05 CIA-RDP.75-00
'Mr. YOUNG of Ohio. A few minutes
ago Gen. Maxwell Taylor was adverted
to for the reason that he testified this
morning before the Committee on For-
eign Relations.
The junior Senator from Ohio will
not, today or tomorrow morning, pass up
other Important things to read what
Gen. Maxwell Taylor had to say because
of an incident that occured the last
? time General Tayle' -testified before a
joint meeting of tl:t Committee on For-
eign Relations and the Committee on
Armed Services. At that time I asked
General Taylor that assuming that the
civilian Prime Minister of South Viet-
nam at the time would be overthrown
and that the next Prime Minister would
step in and announce, "We want the
United States to withdraw Its forces
from South Vietnam," what would. be
our position keeping in mind that we
are there at the invitation of the Gov-
ernrnent of South Vietnam?
Instead of answering the question,
General Taylor said:
There is no possibility that the present
Prime Minister will be overthrown.
That statement Is in the record. With-
in 48 hours after General Taylor had said
that there was no possibility that the
civilian administration could be over-
thrown, and before General Taylor could'
leave the United States, he was proven
wrong., Whether the Central rntelH-
gence Area cy. was to blame for having,
given him bad intelligence is, something
that the junior Senator from' Ohio does
not know. But the stark fact is that
within 48 hours of General Taylor's
making his positive statement, of Gen-
eral Taylor's posing as an authority be-
cause he had been in Vietnam, he was
proven wrong. The Senator from Alaska
may recall that 10 generals overthrew
the civilian government of Prime Min-
ister Quat and shortly afterward in-
stalled Air Marshal Ky as Prime Min-
ister; and Ky has been Prime Minister
ever since.
I say that although General Taylor
was adverted to as an authority, to me
,he is a poor authority indeed. I do not
pay any attention to his statements,'
and his testimony would not impress
me.
But let us return to the facts. Much
which our representatives failed to sign, try where we have 30,000 fine soldiers.`
stated: I also traveled throughout Korea, as far
The military demarcation line at the 17th up as Panmunjom, at the line )f demar-
parallel is provisional and should not in any' cation. Fifty-three thousand of our Sol-
way be considered as constituting a political diers are committed in Korea.
or territorial boundary. It is said that we are likely to have
Then, an International Control Com- 500,000 boys in Vietnam by next October.
from India, Canada, and Poland.
Under the Geneva agreements, an
election in Vietnam was scheduled for
1958. That election was never held, and
the United States was a party to this
,failure. President Eisenhower believed
that Ho Chi. Minh, who was regarded as
the George Washington of Vietnam-not
the George Washington of North Viet-
nam and of South Vietnam, but as the
hero, the George Washington of Viet-
nam -would have been elected President
that the next 300,000 will not be any bet-
ter than the 200,000-plus who are over
there now. They are fine Americans. ;
It is a great misfortune that we have in-
volved these fine young men in a civil
war in southeast Asia.
When I was over there, in Into Septem-
ber and early October, it had been my
belief that the Vietcong fighting; in South
Vietnam were all Communists, that they
were all infiltrators from the north. I
also had been told that Vietnam was of
had that election been held. ' Of course, ? strategic importance to the defense of
the election was not held because the the United States.
Central Intelligence Agency and Secre- . Mr. GRUENING. May I ask the Sen-
tary of State Dulles intervened. ator whether he found that that was not
Itis true that neither the Senator from true;.that they were not all In iltrators?
Alaska nor the junior Senator from Ohio Mr. YOUNG of Ohio. Of course it was'
pretends or presumes to be an expert on. not true. That is not only my observa- '
southeast Asia. However, I made made tion. General Westmoreland, the com-
some trips to southeast Asia. From last manding officer in Vietnam, on one of the
September 28 to October 18, I was in evenings when I was in Saigon. said that ?
Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, the Philip- the bulk of the Vietcong fighting us in
pine Republic, Guam, and Hong Kong. South Vietnam was born and reared in
The junior Senator from Nevada [Mr. South Vietnam. Directly after that,
CANNON] and the Junior Senator from when I was in Thailand, Gen. Richard
Ohio were in those countries on an of- Btllwell, the second in command said
ficial mission. and I remember his exact words;
We had gone to Korea as guests of the 'Senator. 80 percent of the Vietcong nght-
Korean Government, and at the expense',, tag us in the Mekong Delta were born and
of the Korean Government. Although reared in South Vietna'm the Senator from Alaska Is likely to say As' the. Senator' knows,, the Mekong
that since American taxpayers' money is D~] 1M, went; and 'putt ,a[ gaiitan.? , .;
spent so lavishly all over the world, even ,
though the Government of Korea paid
our expenses, the money, in effect: came"'
from the pockets of American taxpayers.
While I was in Vietnam, I did not
spend much time in Saigon. I visited
every Air Force base In what is called
South Vietnam.' I visited the. camps
and the hospitals; I spoke with many
Ohio boys. I spoke with one boy from
Cuyahoga County, the area where I live,
within 3 hours after his leg had been
amputated. I obtained the names and
addresses of 180 Ohio GI's. Wherever
I went in Vietnam, I spoke with soldiers,"
whenever I could, in the absense of offi-
cers. I would say to the young men
from Ohio, "I served for 37 months in
World War II. I want you to know that
I have been an officer and I have been a
private. In time of war, It is much
harder to be a private than it is to be an
officer. Now I am speaking with you in
the absence of any officers. What are `
your problems? Are there any short-.
answer mvariabiy was, "no problems, of 1954.- Historically, as the Senator. sir."
from Alaska knows, there are no such The Senator from Alaska will agree
countries and there have been no such with me, I feel certain, that the cream of '
countries over the years, as North Viet-' 'our crop of American young men is in
nam and South Vietnam. Vietnam right now. The .200,000 or
Mr. GR.UENIING. The Senator Is cor- more GI's who are fighting In the steam-
rect. - Ing jungles and rice paddies of, South
Mr. YOUNG of Ohio. Mr. President, ; Vietnam are the finest of the youth of
as the Senator from Alaska knows that ' America. In addition, 50,000 men are
the Geneva accords of 1964, which the attached to the 7th Fleet, offshore. I'g
,'United States agreed' to In effect, but 'Iyas in Tbgtland,for 4,or d,dyrs,. pa mwo
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000800170019-9