Post #5

Nixon's Address to the Nation on the War in Vietnam
The "Silent Majority" Speech
November 3, 1969
End of Speech
http://watergate.info/nixon/silent-majority-speech-1969.shtml


Found Poem

I have chosen a plan
for peace
I believe it will succeed
If it does succeed
what the critics say now
won't matter
If it does not
succeed
anything I say then won't matter
I know it may not be fashionable
to speak of patriotism
or national destiny these days
But I feel it is appropriate to do so on this occasion
Two hundred years ago
this Nation
was weak
and poor
But even then
America was the hope of millions in the world
Today we have become the strongest
and richest nation in the
world
And the wheel of destiny
has turned so that any hope
the world has for the survival of peace
and freedom
will be determined by whether the American
people have the moral stamina and the courage
to meet the challenge of free world leadership
Let historians not record that when America was the most powerful
nation
in the world we passed on the other side of the road
and allowed the last hopes for
peace and freedom
of millions of people to be
suffocated by the forces
of totalitarianism
And so tonight
to you
the great silent majority of my fellow Americans
I ask
for your support
I pledged in my campaign for the Presidency
to end the war in a way that we could
win the peace
I have initiated a plan of action
which will enable me to keep that pledge
The more support I can have from the American
people
the sooner that pledge can be redeemed
for the more divided we are at home
the less likey the enemy is to negotiate at Paris
Let us be united for peace
Let us also be united
against defeat
Because let us understand
North Vietnam cannot
defeat
or humiliate the United States
Only Americans can do that
Fifty years ago
in this room and at this very desk
President Woodrow Wilson
spoke words which caught
the imagination of a war-weary world
He said
"This is the war to end war."
His dream for peace
after World War I
was shattered on the hard realities
of great power politics
and Woodrow Wilson died
a broken man
Tonight
I do not tell you
that the war in Vietnam is the war
to end wars
But I do say this
I have initiated a plan
which Will end this war
in a way
that will bring us closer
to that great goal
to which Woodrow Wilson
and every American President in our history has been dedicated
the goal of a just and lasting
peace
As President
I hold the responsibility
for choosing the best path to that goal
and then leading the Nation along it
I pledge to you
tonight that I shall meet this responsibility
with all of the strength
and wisdom
I can command in accordance
with your hopes
mindful of your concerns
sustained by your prayers
Thank you and goodnight.