This tragedy must not deter us from offering new hope for the living.

Our mission of mercy will continue.

The Bay Area now offers the world an international center that represents the best of what Americans can do.

I AM deeply saddened at the loss of so many lives in the crash of the United States C-5A mercy flight today near Saigon.

I will reject any advice to pull down the Stars and Stripes and sail home from the seas of the world.

It is essential to our national security, and it is more essential today than it was in January.

I believe that the program of the previous four or five Presidents was aimed in the right direction.

It is really a great privilege and honor for me to have the opportunity of joining in this obviously very successful conference.

The United States has been doing and will continue to do its utmost to assist these people.

This is not a moment for despair or for fatalism.

America has the will, America has the resources, America has the know-how, and America has the faith.

The facts are, we can afford no more delays.

What is essential now is that we keep our nerve and our essential unity as a powerful but peace-loving Nation.

I think we do face a crisis. But I am optimistic that if the Congress joins with me, and the American people support the Congress and me, as President, we can overcome those difficulties.

I expect to be campaigning very hard for my own reelection-or election in 1976.

We stand ready to defend ourselves and support our allies as surely as we always have.

I can assure you that I will abide totally with the War Powers Act that was enacted by the Congress several years ago.

I still think there is an opportunity to salvage the situation in Vietnam.