Nixon’s Inaugural Addresses Paper
http://hist380.ferrellhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Nixon’s-Inaugural-Addresses-Paper.pdf
One thought on “Nixon’s Inaugural Address Paper – Jonathon Baker”
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What puzzles me about Richard Nixon’s speeches in 1969 and 1973 is that he claims peace should be one of the goals of America, but yet he continues to advocate fighting in Vietnam. While many younger Americans in the late 1960s did not want to be involved in the war, Nixon continues the war. He states, “I want the North Vietnamese to believe I have reached the point where I might do anything to stop the war” (Matusow, 623) in order to make them believe that he was an unstable American leader. If Nixon were truly worried about enforcing peace, why did he continue to enable the Vietnam War?
I believe that you are right when you said Nixon knew what Americans wanted, but as Dwight Eisenhower said, Nixon was “placing his self-interests” (Malsberger, 546) before the American peoples’ interests. I also think he continued to remain an advocate for the war because he was an older American, and as we have seen, older Americans in the 1960s believed it was their duty to defend their country. Oddly enough, U.S. soldiers were sent there to diffuse a civil war, not to defend America.
(I Pledge, Word Count: 189)