Exhibit 1005

Remarks in Memorial Hall, Akron University

Exhibit 1005 · Presidential remarks

But we are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.

Campaign remarks. States there were then some 18,000 men in Viet-Nam and that 'we have a choice. We can seek a wider war.'

Source: Lyndon B. Johnson
Date: 21 October 1964
Quoted from: Remarks, paragraph on Asia and China
Grade: Primary record
Document: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-memorial-hall-akron-university
Accessed: 2026-11-10
Cited by: Findings citing this exhibit

Cited by

Finding INF-2.6: Primary record National Security Action Memorandum 328 of 6 April 1965 approved two more Marine battalions and a change of mission for Marine battalions in Vietnam and stated that the President desired the movements "be understood as being gradual and wholly consistent with existing policy"; on 21 October 1964 President Johnson had said "we are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves."