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When Nixon Ran Against The Vietnam War

Posted on
September 18, 2017
by Agree Staff
The release of the Ken Burns' new 18-hour PBS documentary "The Vietnam War" prompted us to go back into the campaign archives and dig out how Richard Nixon used the war to his advantage in 1968.

With some war opponents spurning the Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey because as Vice-President he was part of the Johnson administration prosecuting the war, Nixon appealed to them as best choice for ending war on favorable terms.

Richard Nixon Decried Johnson and Humphrey's Handling of Vietnam

In this one-minute Nixon ad, military drums beat over stills of the brutal and taxing war. Nixon speaks over the montage: "Never has so much military, economic and diplomatic power been used so ineffectively as in Vietnam." Nixon doesn't say Johnson or Humphrey's names, but doesn't have to.

The drums pound and punctuate each statement. Photos of sorrowful Vietnamese and downbeat or wounded American soldiers fill the screen as Nixon continues: "If after all of this time, and all of this sacrifice and all of this support, there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American people to turn to new leadership, not tied to the policies and mistakes of the past."

Nixon Pledged 'An Honorable End'

"I pledge to you, we shall have an honorable end to the war in Vietnam," Nixon declares, while the screen shows a soldier with the word "LOVE" on his helmet." Nixon cannily threaded a needle, appealing to hawkish voters who wanted to win the war and dovish voters who just wanted to war to end.

The ad ends with the message not dissimilar from Lyndon Johnson's devastating 1964 "Daisy" ad, "This time, vote like your whole world depended on it." This time, the Republican was able to win the national security argument.
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