Extracted text

OCR Page 1 of 174
DRAFT TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE/EYES ONLY April 26, 1970 Authority DECLASSIFIED Televised address, 4/30/70 BY MHH NARS, Date 9/10/81 PRESIDENTIAL STATEMENT I wish to report to the American people about allied military operations now under way against Communist sanctuaries along the border between South Vietnam and Cambodia. I have authorized a joint sweep by U.S. and South Vietnamese forces against one of the main base camp areas that the North Viet- namese and Viet Cong have maintained for years in blatant violation of Cambodian neutrality. The scope of these allied cross-border operations is limited but their purpose is essential. They are aimed only at the heretofore privileged Communist sanctuaries lying up against the South Vietnamese border. They will last only so long as it takes to clear them out. Allied forces will withdraw back into South Vietnam as soon as their mission is completed. A glance at the map dramatizes the significance of these Vietnamese Communist havens which are strung all along the frontier and extend some miles into Cambodian territory. The camps that the South Vietnamese troops began attacking earlier this week are only 35 miles from Saigon, roughly the distance between Baltimore and Washington or Cincinnati and Dayton. For five years, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong have been using these areas to assault South Vietnam and threaten American and TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE/EYES ONLY