The defeat of the amendment left McGovern embittered and somewhat more radicalized. He accused the vice president of South Vietnam, Nguyen Cao Ky, of running a heroin trafficking operation that was addicting American soldiers. In a retort to the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John Stennis's suggestion that U.S. troops might have to return to Cambodia, McGovern declared, "I'm tired of old men dreaming up wars for young men to fight. If he wants to use American ground troops in Cambodia, let him lead the charge himself." He denounced Nixon's policy of Vietnamization as "subsidiz the continued killing of the people of Indochina by technology and mercenaries." In a "Playboy" interview, he said that Ho Chi Minh was the North Vietnamese George Washington.