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Vietnam Protest and the Rise of Nixon · Saberian History Lectures

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Wires on Okay, so One of the things that y 'all
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have to deal with especially with your particular
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text is the text when it comes to the 1960s does
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not actually follow Chronologically it follows
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thematically What I mean by that is you may have
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observed in the previous chapter it went from
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civil rights to great society to Vietnam. Now
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the reason that's awkward is if I look at the
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civil rights struggle, the way it's addressed
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in chapter 27, you're dealing with, you know,
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you start with 1960 -62 with the Greensboro boys
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and then it keeps going. So you're really talking
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1962 past the death of Martin Luther King with
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the rise of the Black Panther Party and whatnot.
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So it goes into the 70s. I mean, by the way,
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if I think about it, the civil rights movement,
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do you still have the NAACP filing amicus briefs
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against congressional districting and voting
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rights cases even now? And so really, if I think
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about civil rights, it doesn't end, but as far
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as the chapter is concerned, it goes 1962 to
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1970. All right, then when we go Great Society,
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you have the starting of the Great Society, which
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that's 1964 to 1968. And then you have American
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involvement in Vietnam with the Gulf of Tonkin
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Resolution in 1964, but I believe the textbook
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goes all the way to the US order to withdraw
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troops in March of 1973. And so you notice what
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they do is you're paying for the same time real
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estate multiple times. We've pretty much hit
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the Great Society and the civil rights. You'll
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notice on your last unit test, I didn't ask you
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a lot of questions about Vietnam. Did you all
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notice that? That was deliberate because I kind
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of wanted to hit Vietnam, the protest movement,
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Nixon through Reagan, and the last unit. In other
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words, I want to do all of Vietnam and all of
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the protest movement at once. In this regard,
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I differ with how Tyndall and she broke up their
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chapters, for lack of a better word. So I kind
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of want to start first by talking about the Vietnam
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War in complete generality. And one of the consequences
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of teaching a survey course is you do not get
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to cover things in the appropriate amount of
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depth. And so one of the things that I unfortunately
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have to do is I'm going to have to take you through
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the Vietnam War in less than a class period.
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Now, if you want to take a course more on Vietnam,
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there are plenty of elective courses and plenty
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of great books out there, many of which I've
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read, but don't have time to expound upon with
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you in any great detail because this is a survey
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course. Just for my own identification and curiosity,
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how many of you have relatives who served in
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Vietnam? And so I take it this is the generation
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of your grandparents. Grandparents are great
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-uncles, am I correct? Okay, this shows the tooth
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of time. When I was your age, that was our parents
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and their siblings and whatnot. So, behold, the
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tooth of time. So let me sort of give you one
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for the broad strokes for your Vietnam, then
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I am going to talk to you about the protest culture,
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and then I'm going to try and end off with the
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beginnings of the rise of Nixon, okay? So my
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first question is, how did the Vietnam conflict
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differ from previous armed conflicts of the generation.
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So what I mean, previous armed conflicts of the
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generation, who was president in 1964? LBJ, right?
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Lyndon Maynes Johnson, president of the United
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States. If you're LBJ, what war do you remember?
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What's the first war you would remember if you're
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President Johnson? World War II, maybe World
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War I. In other words, He would have been, you
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know, if he's 24 when he was working in the Civilian
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Conservation Corps in the 1930s, he would have
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had World War I in his chronologic memory, but
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he would not have been an adult. Yes? So if I'm
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looking at World War II, what was the outcome
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of World War II? Germany okay so let's think
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about in terms of what was the nature of the
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contest in the end Germany and Japan surrendered
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yes you had the unconditional surrender of both
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of the major adversaries of the United States
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with the help of a collection of allies yes So
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you had the unconditional surrender of the Germans
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and the Japanese. In the case of the Germans,
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the Germans surrendered after they had been overrun
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by the combined conventional forces of the Soviet
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Union and the Western Allies, right? Were nuclear
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weapons employed against the Germans? No. So
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you have in Europe, you have the triumph of conventional
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arms, yes? It was a good old -fashioned, we're
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going to conquer you, we're going to occupy you,
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and there it is. In Asia, was it the triumph
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of conventional arms? No, it was the triumph
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of what? Nuclear atomic weapons. Yes, it was
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the triumph of nuclear weapons. So the nuclear
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genie had been let out of the bottle. In either
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case, it was the unconditional surrender of an
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enemy. triumph by force of arms, yes? Now, during
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the war itself, had the war itself changed the
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relationship between the citizen and the state?
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Did it have major domestic impacts? Absolutely.
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You had the government of the United States controlling
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industry, you had the government of the United
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States controlling prices, you had a very large
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draft, you had a large number of people deployed
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overseas, you had the media apparatus engaged
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in propaganda, not to the same degree as it was
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in World War I, but in many different directions,
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yes? So you have propaganda, you have control
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of industry and prices, you have the expansion
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of executive power, which included, of course,
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FDR putting the Japanese American in internment
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camps. Right? Everybody was on board. There was
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very little dissent against the war after the
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declaration had occurred. Now, were there people
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who had misgivings about jumping into World War
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II before the bombing of Pearl Harbor? Absolutely.
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But after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the politically
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correct thing to be was to be for the war. Even
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the communists jumped in in the war effort against
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Hitler's death machine. Now, what's the next
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major armed conflict for LBJ and his generation?
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Korea. Now if I look at Korea, what's different
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about Korea versus World War II? It's like more
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of a civil war than it is. Not necessarily. I
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mean it's nice to think of it as a civil war
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because we think of it as one Korea. Actually
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between the Koreas there are ethnic and tribal
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differences. Not just political ideology. Think
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about this for a moment. In terms of the outcome,
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did you have the unconditional surrender of the
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North Koreans? No. Did you have the unconditional
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surrender of the South Koreans? No. No. How did
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it end? Armistice. Which really means it didn't.
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You had an armistice, which means we don't have
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a peace treaty, we're just going to stop shooting
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each other, right? Now, what made that armistice
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possible and what brought the Chinese, the Russians,
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the North Korean communists to the bargaining
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table? Specifically, threat of America's what?
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Not its conventional arms. The threat of massive
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retaliation brought to you by Dwight David Eisenhower
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wanting to get out of the war and cut defense
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spending. It's like, no, we are going to end
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this or we are going to end you. So you have
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an armistice brought to you by the threat of
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massive retaliation. But what happens to the
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threat of massive retaliation in 1953? Two things
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come out. Hydrogen bomb and the fallout studies.
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The fallout studies, which your book doesn't
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reference, that is when public, it becomes public
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information that nuclear radioactive fallout
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poses a threat to human health. And so now all
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of a sudden you have the United States government
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worried not only about using the bomb, but about
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Soviet retaliation. So we see that in the Cuban
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Missile Crisis, where both the Soviet Union and
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the United States back off for fear of using
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their nuclear weapons, but you also see conference
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in Vienna, and actually I'm slightly out of order,
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you have the Vienna conference and the construction
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of the Berlin Wall. And so you have the Soviets
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and communism on the offense of using conventional
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arms and that threat of nuclear retaliation diminishing,
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and in fact the fear of nuclear retaliation hamstringing
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policies, whether it would be both parties in
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the case of the Cuban Missile Crisis or in the
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case of Vietnam, you actually have a loss. Because
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at this point in American history, you actually
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are afraid of deploying your nuclear weapons.
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Nuclear weapons are no longer a threat to be
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wielded against the enemy, but rather a retaliation
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to be feared. Thus, the Vietnam conflict, the
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two major players constrain themselves. They
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do not use the utmost exertion of power because
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they do not want to use nukes. And so now it
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relies on conventional arms. But what was interesting
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is in this contest of conventional arms, conventional
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arms then makes it a contest of wills. Okay?
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And the war. According to Clausewitz, the first
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objective is the destruction of your enemy's
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will to resist. Not the means of resistance,
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but the will to resist. So now, let's get to
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the broad strokes of Vietnam. Indochina War.
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What happened? The French -Indochina War, which
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was the French, versus the Viet Minh. I'm not
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going to go all the way back to the Japanese
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occupation. I've done that in previous lectures.
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So you have the French versus the Viet Minh,
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the Viet Minh won. You have the partition of
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Vietnam into North Vietnam, which is communist,
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and South Vietnam, which is supported by the
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Americans. Now, kind of interesting. So here
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we have a communist government. Here we have
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a pro -US regime, but what happens is you have
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two things going on. You have a communist insurgency,
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this is your Viet Cong, attacking government
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sites and facilities trying to overthrow the
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government, being supported by the North Vietnamese
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government. So one of the things they talk about
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is the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Ho Chi Minh Trail
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was a supply line being toted by humans and other
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pack animals that brought supplies to the Viet
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Cong mainly by going through Laos. These were
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human carriers smuggling weapons and explosives
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to Viet Cong communists moving against targets
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against the government. The United States had
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even during the early phases of The South Vietnamese
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government sent military advisors to prop up
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the government in Saigon. Now, what happens is
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the U .S. escalates its military presence beginning
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in 1964. So, 1964 you have the attack on the
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USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy in the Gulf
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of Tonkin. So, 1964 you have the Gulf of Tonkin
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resolution That's an N. Where President Johnson
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asks Congress to authorize military force to
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be used to support the South Vietnamese government
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as they are fighting communists. So you have
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the escalation period from 1964 to 1969. So you
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have U .S. ground forces moving into Vietnam,
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engaged in a counterinsurgency operation. Now,
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kind of interesting, so you have U .S. troops
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increasing in number. Next big turning point
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is 1968, January. That's the Tet Offensive. Tet
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Offensive, a combined attack of Viet Cong insurgents
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and North Vietnamese Army regulars trying to
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overrun key American positions. Hue, Da Nang,
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Que Son, a number of positions were under threat
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of being overrun. The United States and its allies
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repel the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet
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Cong attack. However, After being at war for
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four years and then seeing their enemies stage
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a major offensive, the United States did not
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stage a counteroffensive against the Vietnamese
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and the North Vietnamese Army. In many ways the
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Tet Offensive is the beginning of the end. This
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is where the political will to stay in the Vietnam
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War begins to break. So what happens 1968? Tet
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Offensive is in January. November of 1968 you
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have the presidential election. The White House
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goes from Lyndon Johnson to Richard Nixon. Richard
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Nixon brings with him to office a new one of
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the premier intellectuals when it comes to foreign
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policy, Henry Kissinger. Henry Kissinger recognized
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that rather than going with the doctrine of we
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need to contain communism at every turn, which
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that was the idea behind America propping up
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the government of South Vietnam, that the idea
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is rather than containing communism at every
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turn, what you do is you use the fundamental
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instability of communism. against the national
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interest tendencies of the major players. And
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so one of the things that the Nixon -Kissinger
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administration is going to do is it's going to
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exploit tensions between two of the major communist
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governments in Asia. Who are the two major communist
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governments in Asia? China and the Soviet Union.
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Oh, by the way, are there tensions between China
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and Russia now? Yes, they have long -standing
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border disputes, they have economic competition,
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and so what you have, China as a dominant global
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partner, and the Soviet Union now decaying into
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the Russian Federation, is thanks largely to
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the Realpolitik of Henry Kissinger, which was
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brought to power by the election of Nixon. And
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so the American withdrawal from Vietnam was in
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many ways because it didn't fit. The model in
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other words the US had to get out of Vietnam
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to get to pull China away from the Soviet Union
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Do you get the idea? so 1973 the US begins the
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withdrawal US announces its withdrawal from Vietnam
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1975, the North Vietnamese Army stages a major
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offensive, overruns the government of South Vietnam
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and Saigon falls, reuniting Vietnam as a single
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country under communist control. Those are the
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key dates. Now, embedded in the and of America's
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will to resist communist expansion into South
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Vietnam, one needs to talk about the protest
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movement, the nature of the protest movement,
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and its objectives. Now, actually, we should
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not actually call it a single protest movement,
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but rather a series of protest movements. And
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so now I bring you to the question, could we
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characterize protest movements and protest cultures
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as a viral behavior. Now, I say the word viral.
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What's the difference between the word viral
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and virulent? Virulent is like a disease. Viral
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just means it spreads like a virus. You get the
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idea? So my vi - Can I erase this? Yes? Okay.
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How many of you have heard the term viral video?
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Yes? Okay, and when we share things on social
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media we think of it as viral, yes? Fundamentally,
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what does it mean when we talk about viral video
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or sharing something virally on social media?
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Spreads fast. It doesn't mean it just spreads
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fast. It spreads from person to person either
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by contact or by observation, yes? How many of
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you remember the ice bucket challenge? People
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watching videos dunking themselves in ice or
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sending money. Yes? How many of you remember
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the fire challenge or the cinnamon challenge?
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Y 'all remember the cinnamon challenge. Alright,
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let me tell you the fire challenge because that
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was a thing about three years ago. People would
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put hand sanitizer in their hands, set it on
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fire. Now, usually it looks like you've got the
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fire in the hands because the fire usually burns
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up. But sometimes you had people who wound up
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emolliating themselves and getting it filmed
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on YouTube. I don't know if YouTube ever bothered
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to take it down. But the basic idea is, oh, I
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see these people doing this thing. I'm going
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to try this thing and see if it works for me.
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Make sense? And that's a very natural human behavior.
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Alright, so let's talk about protest culture
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for a moment, and let's see if it fits the model
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of the social protest movements of the 1960s.
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So, when I talk about social protest movements,
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what is the first social protest movement that
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we left off talking about last class? Civil rights.
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Civil rights for the African Americans, yes?
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And we use the term civil rights, but we're talking
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about civil rights in the African -American community
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as it pertains to various customs and laws of
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segregation in the American South, yes? Now,
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had protest culture seemed to work for the African
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-Americans? Yes. When I look at the protest culture,
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you have the bus boycott, you have the sit -ins,
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you have the freedom rides, you have And why
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do we say that it seemed to work in 1964 through
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1968? People were getting the message. Also,
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1964, is there a Civil Rights Act in Congress?
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And it passes, and Johnson signs it, yes? So
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you have a Civil Rights Act in 64. And you have
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a Voting Rights Act in 65, where federal law
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is now being used as a hammer against the chain
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of Southern customs. Yes? Actually, this tension
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between law and custom is going to continue from
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the 1960s into modern times. What is the difference
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between custom and law? Law is written. Custom
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is not always good. Custom is merely enforced,
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albeit through social constraints, not necessarily
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by law. By the way, do some people enforce their
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customs violently? Yes. For example, the shotgun
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wedding is a violent enforcement of sexual taboos
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against out -of -wedlock births. It's a custom.
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It's enforced violently. Not entirely legal,
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but in some communities not frowned upon. Yes?
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Okay. So, having seen the civil rights movement
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protest style seem to work for the African -American
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communities, a whole plethora of other and interrelated
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protest movements arise. So you have the anti
22:27
-war youth movement. You have feminists. You
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have American Hispanics protesting their conditions
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in the Southwest. You have Native peoples. And
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you also have, not in the 60s, albeit later in
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the 70s, you have homosexuals protesting for
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greater degrees of social acceptance. things
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kind of different and I kind of want to bring
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it up. What, going back when we're looking at
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the civil rights movement, did the civil rights
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movement claim a moral authority? Yes, you have
23:23
Martin Luther King and other elements of the
23:25
Southern Christian Leadership Conference quoting
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Bible verses, quoting the Declaration of Independence,
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and so in many ways, their protest movement is
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not entirely counter -cultural, rather it is
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a reaffirmation of American notions of liberty
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and equality. So far, so good. I kind of want
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to talk about the youth movement and feminism
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because in many ways there are similarities but
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the ethos is radically different. Can I erase
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this, yes? So, a couple of things we have going
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on. When I'm talking about the youth protest
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movement, I'm going to transition to the other
24:05
chapter because I want to go to the protest movement.
24:09
Here we go. Okay, so when I'm talking about the
24:18
anti -war when I'm talking about the youth revolt
24:20
couple of things going on First of all these
24:30
are centered around colleges Now this is going
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to be kind of interesting If I'm in college in
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1966, okay, let's do some math. 1966, I am a
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20 -year -old college student in 1966. When was
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I born? 1946, yes? Just making the math easier,
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yes? Now let's think about this for a moment.
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How many of you Okay, think about how many children
25:12
you have in your immediate family, in your household.
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Did your parents have more siblings than you?
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How many of you did your grandparents have more
25:23
siblings than you? Some of y 'all are giving
25:28
me the emphatic not just yes, but oh my god yes.
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Okay, show me with your fingers, how many siblings
25:32
did your grandparents have? Okay, so many of
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you are showing me more than two hands, yes?
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Okay, so Think about this for a moment. So your
25:43
grandparents are the baby boomers, yes? They
25:47
are the product of more than 15 years of sexual
25:50
repression from the Great Depression all the
25:53
way through the Second World War. And your great
25:56
grandparents, this may be something for your
25:59
nightmares, made up for lost time. They truly
26:01
did. One of the consequences of that is the baby
26:07
boom is one of the largest population blocks
26:12
in American history. Here's the other thing,
26:17
Millennials today are only now beginning to eclipse
26:22
the baby boom in number, not because the number
26:24
of Millennials has increased, but what's happening
26:27
to the baby boomers now? They are starting to
26:30
retire, they are starting to die, they have begun
26:32
to reach their natural life expectancy and actually
26:35
their mortality is well beyond their life expectancy
26:38
at birth. So think about this for a moment. In
26:41
1960, you have this huge block of humans who
26:46
are now going to college and a lot of them do
26:50
because here's what happens to colleges. So prior
26:52
to World War II, colleges are small. It's an
26:55
elite thing because you have to have money to
26:57
go to college. After World War II, colleges begin
27:01
to grow because you have Montgomery GI bill money
27:04
coming in, and so that helps fund the colleges
27:07
and helps cause their expansion. By the time
27:10
the baby boom rolls around, a couple of things
27:11
are in play. One, you have more people encouraging
27:14
them to go to college because their parents who
27:16
were in the service are like, hey, college education
27:17
is the way to go. They have the disposable income
27:20
to send people to college. Also, because you
27:22
have a whole lot of people going to college,
27:25
What does that do to your tuition if you have
27:27
a whole lot of people going to college? Rate
27:29
goes down. You notice that college tuition rates
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have actually gone up? That's because y 'all
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as a population are smaller than the baby boom.
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So for the same product, you have fewer payers,
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you charge them more. I got bad news for you.
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It's only going to get worse. Because, and this
27:49
is kind of a demographic thing, I am glad I am
27:52
not a high school teacher in the Midwest. because
27:55
there were children who were not born in 2008
27:58
because of the economic catastrophe. Housing
28:03
market burst, economy goes in the tank, people
28:05
don't have jobs, people don't get married, people
28:07
don't have kids. The actual high school enrollment
28:10
of 2024 is expected to be lower than it is presently.
28:15
That's a little scary. I know. Well, demography
28:18
is destiny. Now, here's the thing. So you have
28:22
the demographic crunch. You have the fact that
28:24
they are a large number of humans. They're going
28:26
off to college. And so what could possibly go
28:29
wrong when you turn a large number of humans
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and you put them all together in college when
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they're between the ages of 18, 24, boys and
28:35
girls getting together? Oh, by the way, do these
28:38
people have a fully formed frontal cortex? No.
28:40
No. No, we have birth control for that at this
28:45
point. Not just that. You have, in the college,
28:49
here's the other awkwardness. So I'm going to
28:50
talk about colleges and I'm going to talk about
28:52
drafts. Okay. I'm going to talk about the draft
28:57
first and then the protests at college are going
28:58
to make more sense. Okay, here's what I need
29:00
you to understand. Alright, so draft. Go back.
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1917. World War I. How old did you have to be
29:11
in order to get drafted? Not in 1917. 21, remember?
29:17
And why in 1917 did they draft the 21 to 31 year
29:22
olds, not the 18 year olds? Voting. Legal adulthood
29:29
now is 18. Legal adulthood for most of American
29:32
history was 21. In the Vietnam War, they lower
29:39
the draft age to 18 as a matter of military expedience.
29:45
So you have 18 -year -olds subject to the draft,
29:48
but they don't get to vote until they're 21.
29:52
So think about this for a moment. If you can't
29:55
vote until you're 21, if you're still legally
29:57
considered a minor until 21, how much are you
30:00
a minor when you're in college then? Two or three
30:05
years. And so you have, since a lot of your 18
30:10
to 20 year olds are still classified as children,
30:13
the college is allowed to act in the place of
30:15
the parents. That's the in loco parentis. And
30:19
so some of you who have relatives in college
30:21
may notice there are vestiges of that in loco
30:25
parentis idea. So for example, how many of you
30:30
have siblings who are at a college that has a
30:32
girls dorm and a boys dorm? Used to be. There
30:38
are some colleges that still have single gender
30:40
dorms, now they just have single gender floors,
30:42
you get the idea. But it used to be single gender
30:45
dorms and single gender gyms and other single
30:48
gender activities. It used to be very gendered,
30:52
very Victorian, okay? So here you have, so you
30:59
have traditional mores in some cases being imposed
31:05
by college administration, but in some cases
31:09
being fought by some of the faculty. Now the
31:11
other thing you got going on is people in college
31:14
could now, unlike in World War I, you could actually
31:20
defer your military service if you were in college.
31:23
So if you've got a war in Vietnam and you have
31:25
a deferment because you're in college, what might
31:28
you do to avoid going to war and getting yourself
31:30
killed? Stay in college. You might drag out getting
31:35
your degree. You might go to grad school. You
31:37
might get a PhD. You might never leave. You might
31:41
become tenured faculty. And some of them did.
31:45
And this is actually the root of the critique
31:48
of universities as bastions of leftist ideologies.
31:55
Now, whether or not that critique is still valid,
31:59
we'll see how long it takes for mortality to
32:01
catch up with the rest of the baby boom. I am
32:03
not trying to be crass, nor am I trying to be
32:05
optimistic about getting a job at a four -year
32:08
university. These movements start as not only
32:11
protests against the war, but protests as these
32:15
people, many of whom were treated as children,
32:17
want to be seen as adults, and they're able to
32:19
accomplish much because demographically, they
32:22
are a huge number. Now, the other thing you got
32:25
going on is the peaceful protest movement decays
32:29
into violence and it gets into, for lack of a
32:35
better word, you also have people getting into
32:40
ideologies that are kind of interesting. No,
32:45
think about this for a moment. If you talk about
32:49
the 60s, it is Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
32:53
These are all very appealing things, yes? Now,
32:58
this, but think about this for a moment. And
33:04
I kind of want to hit the feminist bit for a
33:06
moment. Feminism. What are the three major prongs
33:12
of feminism? Birth control. Which? Abortion and
33:24
the equal pay equal work thing. Those are the
33:30
three major prongs of feminism. Those are the
33:32
three major complaints. Now, here's the thing.
33:36
Birth control as a technology becomes more widespread.
33:40
Now does the whole sexual revolution make a bit
33:42
more sense? Right, in other words, you're not
33:48
going to have free love if you have to worry
33:50
about getting pregnant. There's going to be a
33:54
price to be paid if there are pregnancies involved,
33:57
yes? What happens is many of these protest movements
34:02
which start peaceful become violent and when
34:05
they jump the shark and become violent all of
34:08
a sudden this is no longer oh useful idealism
34:11
this becomes an existential threat to other people's
34:15
sensibilities. Now I'm going to pause for a moment
34:17
because I want to address some of the stuff coming
34:20
out of the counterculture which I readily call
34:23
American heresy. What is heresy for a moment?
34:28
Not just taboo. False religious teaching. If
34:35
I look through most of American history, the
34:37
two currents that pervade throughout is tobacco
34:39
use and revivalist Christianity. Yes? Okay. No.
34:45
Let me tell you. Well, yes, but that's, let me,
34:48
let me show you the dimension. All right. So,
34:51
so let me. I'm going to play for you a song that
34:56
you may have heard in your youth, and I'm going
34:59
to provide some context for you. I want you to
35:01
listen to the words carefully. This is John Lennon,
35:04
one of the Beatles after he left the Beatles.
35:06
This is his song, Imagine. I do not recall the
35:09
actual year, but it's right around this time.
35:12
And I think it gets the point across. All right,
35:14
so if you will listen carefully. There was an
35:17
ideology, there was a man also named Lenin who
35:20
had a dream in 1917 of a world with no afterlife,
35:25
no nation, no religion, one world, no possession,
35:29
and all the people sharing all the work. It's
35:31
called communism. And here... through the siren
35:36
song of rock and roll music, you have the introduction,
35:40
the institutionalization of communism into American
35:46
intellectual thought. Think about this for a
35:49
moment. You have, and I kind of want to fast
35:55
forward a bit, okay, so you have to every, to
36:00
the other demographics, Heathenism communism
36:05
sexual licentiousness Breaking out on college
36:08
campuses and now the college campuses becoming
36:11
violent. Oh my god people pursuing peace and
36:14
safety making violence on a college campus I
36:18
couldn't imagine. Oh wait Berkeley. What month
36:20
was that? Yeah, I mean too soon too soon for
36:25
that joke I don't know what happened. Did you
36:28
say imagine on purpose? No. Touche. All right.
36:33
I've got just enough time to get this started.
36:35
All right. So here's the thing. So by 1968, many
36:42
of these peaceful protest movements started to
36:46
become violent. Now here's the part that I want
36:50
to get back to. These people wanted to have this
36:58
idealistic society, they wanted the United States
37:01
out of the Vietnam War, and many people, here's
37:05
the part I want you to think about, did the protest
37:08
movement win? We have the institutionalization
37:17
of some of those sexual mores, we have the institutionalization
37:23
of rock and roll, and the United States did exit
37:27
Vietnam. That's true. Prima facie, most people
37:31
would think that we have a protest movement against
37:36
the Vietnam War, the US gets out of the Vietnam
37:38
War, protest works, right? I mean, that prima
37:41
facie seems to work. Here's the thing. When did
37:45
the United States begin withdrawing from Vietnam?
37:49
1972, just put it on the board not that long
37:52
ago, sorry. 1973, sorry. Who's president? Richard
38:01
Milhouse Nixon. Did those protesters want Richard
38:09
Nixon as president? No, oh my god, protesters
38:14
not getting what they want in a presidential
38:16
election. Too soon! What? Too soon? Do you hear
38:24
the echo of history? Yes? Now, let's get to the
38:29
rise of Nixon. I'll get to the first bit and
38:32
then I'll get to the rest. Alright. So, Nixon.
38:40
Let's talk about Nixon. I think it's important.
38:44
Nixon, I've read bios on him. I don't want to
38:47
say I admire the man, but he's an interesting
38:49
character. Probably the most transformative president
38:52
in American foreign policy, and quite possibly
38:55
one of the most transformative presidents in
38:57
domestic policy since FDR. In a way more, in
39:01
some ways more so than LBJ. And so let's start
39:05
with the bit first. 1960, Nixon loses to Kennedy.
39:14
In one of the tightest elections in American
39:17
history, we've talked about that before. You're
39:18
talking less than 100 ,000 votes. There are some
39:21
people who make the allegation that, you know,
39:23
dead people voted in South Texas and in Illinois.
39:27
Some people still make that allegation. Then,
39:32
1962. Not 1692, here we go. 1962. Nixon. Loses
39:39
the race for California governorship or loses
39:42
California governorship 1964 Goldwater loses
39:56
the presidency to LBJ 1968 Nixon defeats Hubert
40:11
Humphrey, becoming president. 1972, Nixon is
40:20
re -elected. I'm going to get to Watergate a
40:22
little later. Nixon doesn't just win once, Nixon
40:28
wins twice. Now a lot of American historiography
40:30
can't believe that people voted for Richard Nixon.
40:32
They did, and with great joy. Oh, you'll hear
40:38
the complaints. Oh, if Wallace hadn't run. Oh,
40:40
if there wasn't this or that. But actually, if
40:44
you look at the numbers, there were a lot of
40:47
people who voted for Richard Nixon in 1968 and
40:49
1972. And I'm about to get into why. So think
40:55
about this for a moment. And I actually want
40:57
to start here. 1962, Nixon has lost the presidency
41:03
and he has lost the race for his home state of
41:06
California. And he gives what he thinks is his
41:10
last press conference. And he says to the reporters
41:13
whom he blames for his loss, he says, as I leave
41:17
you now, I want you to know just how much you're
41:20
going to be missing. You don't have Nixon to
41:23
kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this
41:26
is my last press conference. I hope that what
41:29
I've said today will at least make television,
41:32
radio, the press recognize that they have a right
41:35
and a responsibility. If they're against a candidate,
41:44
give them the shaft, but also recognize that
41:46
if they give them the shaft, put one lonely reporter
41:49
on the campaign who will actually report what
41:51
the candidate says every now and again. Thank
41:53
you, gentlemen, and good day. He rage quits.
41:58
That's 1962. He has no idea that in six years
42:02
he will become president, and in six years more
42:04
he will be the first president to resign. Yeah,
42:11
1974, he steps down. Oh my gosh, the president's
42:15
hating press. I know, I can't imagine. Right.
42:21
The more things change, the more they stay the
42:23
same. Now, here's the thing. In order to understand
42:26
Nixon's rise to power, there are two big things
42:30
that you need to keep in mind. One is the horrible
42:33
defeat that the Republicans suffered in 1964,
42:37
and the other is the chaos of 1968. So, 1964,
42:49
I actually did Post a podcast lecture on that.
42:51
Here's the basic idea. There is in the Republican
42:56
Party a split. You have the Goldwater Libertarians
43:00
of the West. Goldwater himself was from Arizona.
43:04
He's the first Jew to run for the presidency.
43:07
And he didn't get it. All right. Goldwater. He
43:11
is from Arizona. You have these basically what
43:14
I call Western Libertarians. So your Western
43:17
Libertarian states are Nevada, California, Arizona.
43:22
They as a number triumph because these states
43:25
are growing and this is basically your beginnings
43:28
of your conservative movement. On the canvas
43:33
I'm actually going to post Ronald Reagan who
43:36
gave a speech in support of Goldwater. where
43:39
he very much in vivid details outlines Goldwater's
43:42
critique of the New Deal and Johnson's Great
43:46
Society. Now you also had Nelson Rockefeller.
43:51
Rockefeller represented the northern wing of
43:54
the Republican Party. These were progressive
43:56
elements. These were somewhat liberal Republicans.
43:59
And so what happened was, this was back when,
44:01
again, progressivism was an ideology that Trump
44:03
party labels. And so what you had was, in the
44:06
election of 64, a lot of Rockefeller Republicans
44:10
voted for LBJ rather than voting for Goldwater.
44:14
The reason they voted for LBJ instead of Goldwater
44:17
is Goldwater was ready to roll back the New Deal
44:21
and to return America to the doctrine of massive
44:24
retaliation, which many people thought was dangerous.
44:29
In other words, they were worried about a nuclear
44:31
war. Now, I'm going to show you one other video
44:33
clip, and I have just enough time for it, which
44:36
is... the daisy ad. 1964. LBJ runs this ad, one
44:46
time, and there are other ads in place, but they're
44:48
trying to basically paint Goldwater as an extremist.
44:51
Goldwater doesn't do a whole good job of defending
44:54
himself, he actually - Okay, the ad was very
44:56
simple. Vote for LBJ or we will all be destroyed.
45:03
Okay, no, and I mean, this is, and leave it to
45:07
the president who was the debate coach to run
45:10
with the nuclear war this ad. Now hang on. So,
45:16
64, LBJ wins in a landslide. By 1968, the country
45:20
is tearing itself apart, looking for new leadership,
45:23
and they find it in Nixon.