1:32:02
and more personally,
the destiny of me,
1:32:05
your men,your children...
1:32:08
is in your hands.
1:32:10
If you are proud of the P.O. W.s
and personally of me,
1:32:14
then you should be
proud of yourselves,
1:32:16
because I was
what you made me to be.
1:32:19
As for my own view,
1:32:21
uh, I thought through
as best I could...
1:32:23
the meaning of Southeast Asia
to the United States in the 1950s,
1:32:27
looking backward
and looking forward...
1:32:29
in terms of what I know about
the dynamics of societies and so on.
1:32:33
And on balance--
It is an on-balance judgment--
1:32:36
I came to the judgment that it's
a vital interest to the United States.
1:32:39
I've never had any reason
to change that judgment.
1:32:43
And, uh, therefore, I, uh,
1:32:47
I do believe that what we have done
is generally right,
1:32:52
although I would have preferred
to have seen a different,
1:32:55
more decisive military strategy.
1:32:58
Certainly, to me,
1:33:00
the day you can say that a sacrifice
such as that is not worthwhile...
1:33:05
is the day that you've destroyed
all your real values...
1:33:07
of what is worthwhile
and what isn't.
1:33:10
And there's no question in my mind...
1:33:12
that he and everybody else
that did what he did--
1:33:16
there's no sacrifice that is in vain.
1:33:18
Absolutely none. Down the line,
that's the price you pay for freedom...
1:33:23
and that's the price that you pay
for the kind of stature that we have...
1:33:29
and it's the kind of risk you take...
1:33:31
to preserve the ideals that we have.
1:33:33
He had just a tremendous
sense of humor...
1:33:35
and just an amazing, instinctive sense
of what was important and what wasn't.
1:33:41
I remember when I was getting ready
for our oldest daughter's wedding,
1:33:44
and I was upset because
something or other wasn't going well,
1:33:47
and he called up from Pensacola
and he said, ''How are thing's going?''
1:33:51
And I said, ''Fine, Bing,
but such-and-such has happened.''
1:33:54
He said, ''Oh, Mom,
don't sweat the small stuff.''
1:33:57
[Laughs] You know,
it just made all the difference.
1:33:59
I thought, ''Gee. That really
is small stuff, you know?''