Divide and conquer.
Nixon had gone to Camp David to be left alone.
For days, he had carried a yellow pad and pen and sat in empty cabins for hours at a time.
On the yellow pad: a scribbled speech defending his Vietnam War policies which he intended to deliver in a televised Oval Office address.
The speech would rebuke the antiwar movement which had brought fifteen million protesters into the streets of America’s cities two weeks earlier.
And it would call on the rest, the ‘silent majority,’ to give him their support.
Nixon’s press secretary had said Nixon was unmoved by the massive outpouring of opposition to the war on display at the October Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam.
But aides have since said that Nixon seethed in anger.
The speech would be the centerpiece of a coordinated White House public relations campaign to demonstrate public support for Nixon and his war policies.
Vice President Agnew laid groundwork for the speech, telling an audience the antiwar movement was controlled by ‘an effete corps of impudent snobs who were planning wilder, more violent demonstrations.’
Outside groups were mobilized to voice support for Nixon and the war.
And so, the big night came.
Nixon related lengthy history of US involvement in Vietnam, then explained his plan for ending the war.
He said he would pursue negotiations with the North Vietnamese while simultaneously transferring responsibility for the fighting to the South Vietnamese Army.
Vietnamization, he called it.
And American troops would be withdrawn according to a gradual timetable which was subject to adjustment based on conditions on the ground.
He would end the war his way, and win the peace.
‘A quick withdrawal of troops would cause America’s allies to lose confidence in us,’ he said, leading to “remorse and divisive recriminations [which] would scar our spirit as a people.”
“If a vocal minority… prevails over reason and the will of the majority, this nation has no future as a free society.
“And so tonight-to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans-I ask for your support.
“The more support I can have from the American people, the sooner that pledge [for peace] can be redeemed;
“for the more divided we are at home, the less likely, the enemy is to negotiate at Paris.
“North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.”
The message was clear.
Those who supported his war policies were loyal and patriotic Americans.
Those who opposed them were bitter defeatists who would shirk America’s responsibilities in the world.
After the speech, a White House aide called the president of Western Union to ask that he reopen its offices, which had closed for the day.
And, by prearrangement, the supportive telegrams came flooding in.
And there were letters.
The mother of a soldier killed in Vietnam in 1967 expressed gratitude that Nixon would not withdraw US troops and allow the nation to suffer a defeat in Vietnam,
…because, if “we give it all over to the communists now – for what and why did my only son die?” 1
But many letters criticized Nixon’s speech.
Below, the letter from an anonymous writer chastising Nixon for deepening divisions in the country.
“The air is bristling with tension.
“We feel it all around — close friends and neighbors are now taking sides, whereas before your ‘call’ to speak out — there was silence and peace between us!
Opposition also came from some veterans groups and even some men then serving.
Dozens of enlisted men at Fort Bliss signed a letter to Nixon noting that, according to the Defense Department’s own tally, it was the Americans who were doing most of the killing in Vietnam.
Their letter ends with a plea that he end ‘their part in the killing.’
Nixon’s silent majority speech failed to quell the antiwar protest movement.
A dozen days later, millions again marched in opposition to the war.
And over time, opposition to the war grew.
To no avail…
In 1970, the year after the silent majority speech, another 6,173 Americans were killed in Vietnam.
And the last day of US involvement there was still more than five years in the future.
******************************
I’ll see you tomorrow.
— Brenda
Banner image: Vietnam veterans protest the war, Washington, April 24, 1971. Leena A. Krohn photo.
Vivian L. Uhlig letter, Mobilizing a Majority: Nixon’s ‘Silent Majority’ Speech and the Domestic Debate over Vietnam, by Sarah Thelen, Journal of American Studies, 51 (2017).
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