Remarks Upon Presenting the Medal of Honor Posthumously to Petty Officer Marvin G. Shields, USN

Mrs. Shields, Secretary Nitze, Barbara, the delegation, ladies and gentlemen:

A little over a year ago, 50 miles north of Saigon, a 14-hour battle raged fought by a small Special Forces team, a Navy Seabee Construction team, and Vietnamese troops, against an enemy which outnumbered them 5 to 1.

Nineteen American fighting men received citations for their valor in that battle.

The Seabee team earned a Navy Unit Citation.

Every man who fought on that long day was a hero.

But two men in particular stood out for the bravery they displayed.

One, Army Lieutenant Charles Williams, returned from Vietnam and received the Congressional Medal of Honor.

The other, on whom we confer that Medal today, did not return. He was Petty Officer Marvin Glen Shields.

The story of that day in that distant village is a story of his courage. At the very height of battle, he was everywhere--fighting with contagious zeal, helping his wounded comrades even after he was gravely wounded.

By his acts that day, Marvin Shields saved the lives of many of his comrades. He gave and kept on giving--until he gave what Lincoln called the "last full measure of devotion."

Marvin Shields was a new kind of fighting man, forged and tempered in a new kind of war.

It is, first of all, a war of limited objectives. It is a war fought, not to gain territory or dominion, but to prove that despots cannot work their will by spreading the fires of violence.

In this war, the battlelines are not clear. But our goals are very clear. We intend to prevent the success of aggression. We intend to make it possible for a young nation to begin its experiment with democracy-without staring down the barrel of an aggressor's gun.

Such a war requires the full measure of physical courage which Marvin Shields displayed.

But it requires more. It demands, of all of us, a new kind of courage: the fortitude to endure a long and bitter and sometimes confusing struggle; it requires the patient courage to seek something more than a swift and terrible military triumph.

There are those who ask if such a struggle is worth the lives of our young men. To them, I say: study the answer which this man gave. Study the answer which other Americans are giving.

These men are fighting with one hand-and they are building with the other. They are building schools and hospitals. They are building bridges and dams. They are building dikes and roads. They are caring for the sick and injured.

That is the kind of victory we seek.

We do not know when that victory will come. But surely the first long mile was reached on Sunday when 4,200,000 South Vietnamese citizens--more than 80 percent of that little country's registered voters-marched to the polls without fear to elect members of the constituent assembly. They gave us a lasting lesson in democracy.

In honoring Marvin Shields here in the White House today, we honor thousands like him. This is the first time in history that a Seabee has ever been awarded the Medal of Honor.

It does little good to offer up words of tribute to such a man as this one. Even the best words seem very pale in the light of his great gift to us.

But we do owe him these words, and I am going to say them:

Marvin Shields spent his life generously for his country and for his friends. His cause was a good cause. Our debt is a great debt.