Sec. of State Dean Rusk & Sec. of Defense Robert McNamara , on Meet the Press, The Tet Offensive
February 4, 1968

Q: Secretary Rusk, are you saying we interpret this offensive as their rejection of the diplomatic overtures that have been made?

Rusk: Well, they have rejected the San Antonio formula publicly, simply on a political level. But I think it would be foolish for us not to take into account what they're don't on the ground when we try to analyze what their political position is, I mean, you remember the old saying that, "what you do speaks so loud I can't hear what you say." Now, we can't be indifferent to these actions on the ground and think that they have no consequences from a political point of view. So they know where we live. Everything that we've said, our fourteen points, twenty-eight proposals to which we've said "yes" and to which they've said "no," the San Antonio formula, all these things remain on the table for anyone who is interested in moving toward peace, they're all there. But they know where we live, and we'd be glad to hear from them sometime at their convenience when they decide that they want to move toward peace.

Q: Secretary McNamara, let me take advantage of your valedictory mood. Looking back over this long conflict and especially in this rather agonized week in Vietnam, if we had to do it all over again, would you make any major changes in our approach?

McNamara: This is not an appropriate time for me to be talking changes, with hindsight. There's no question but what five or ten or twenty years from now historians will find actions that might have been done differently, I'm sure they will. As a matter of fact my wife pointed out to me the other day four lines from T.S. Eliot that answers your question. Eliot said, "we shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time." Now that applies to Vietnam. I'm learning more and more about Vietnam every day. There's no question I see better today than I did three years ago or five years ago what might've been done there. On balance I feel much the way the Asian leaders do. I think the action that this government has followed, the policies its followed, the objectives its had in Vietnam are wise. I don't by any means suggest that we haven't made mistakes over the many many years that we've been pursuing those objectives.