越南危机就像坐长途汽车一样

 

1967年10月，李光耀第一次对华盛顿进行国事访问，约翰逊总统在白宫晚宴上介绍他是 "一位爱国者，一位杰出的政治领袖，一位新亚洲的政治家"。

李光耀对副总统休伯特-汉弗莱（Hubert Humphrey）说，

越南危机就像坐长途汽车一样：

美国已经错过了所有可以下车的站点；

现在唯一的选择就是继续前进，直到最后的目的地。

 

On 李光耀’s first state visit to Washington in October 1967, President Johnson introduced him at a White House dinner as ‘a patriot, a brilliant political leader, and a statesman of the New Asia’.[117]

李光耀, with his habitual bluntness, took the opportunity of his high-level meetings to instruct his hosts about how the Vietnam drama had its antecedents in American decisions dating back over a decade and a half. To Vice President Hubert Humphrey, 李光耀 likened the Vietnam crisis to a long bus ride: the United States had missed all of the stops at which it could have gotten off; the only option now was to stay on until the final destination.[118]