Richard Nixon Silent Majority Speech Summary

Nixon's Silent Majority Speech (Vietnamization Speech) 1969 North Vietnam with the support of Communist China and the Soviet Union insisted on spreading communism to South Vietnam. In response to the request of South Vietnam government, Eisenhower, who was at the time President for the United States sent military equipment and economic aid to assist the people in South Vietnam in hopes to prevent a Communist takeover. In the election of 1968, Richard Nixon won with his campaign to end the Vietnam War with an honorable peace. However, in 1969, Nixon gave “The Silent Majority” speech, which was for Americans who have thoughts and questions about the US troops involved in the Vietnam War. Nixon states, "the United States would assist in the defense

They believed that it was wasting the soldiers' time and lives out there. America was on South Vietnam's side, and they were fighting against North Vietnam. Richard Nixon acknowledges that but he knows that if they don’t help South Vietnam, then they would have been destroyed, the communists may take over South Vietnam. Nixon knows about what the Communists did to take over in the North 15 years before that, so he states, "We saw a prelude of what would happen in South Vietnam when the Communists entered the city of Hue last year. During their brief rule there, there was a bloody reign of terror in which 3,000 civilians were clubbed, shot to death, and buried in mass graves” (Nixon 1969). Americans wanted peace, and so does Nixon, but he believed that if they don’t help out South Vietnam, then instead of peace, violence will rise even

For instance, he states, “For the future of peace, precipitate withdrawal would thus be a disaster of immense magnitude. A nation cannot remain great if it betrays its allies and lets down its friends" (Nixon 1969). Nixon truly believes that it is their responsibilities to help South Korea because he thinks that the United States at its risked to become “a so not great country.” If they let South Korea down then, it would mean they betrayed their friends, and it would cost more lives. Many people advise the president to stop helping South Korea because they want peace in America. However, he believes that if he abandoned South Korea then instead of bringing peace to America, it would bring more war. He states, “For these reasons, I rejected the recommendation that I should end the war by immediately withdrawing all of our forces. I chose instead to change American policy on both the negotiating front and battlefront” (Nixon 1969). Instead, he has a plan to stop the war. He states, “When you are trying to assist another nation to defend its freedom, U.S. policy should be to help them fight the war but not to fight the war for them” (Nixon 1969). Nixon told that people that they will provide the shield if a nuclear power threatens the freedom of a nation allied with them or of a nation whose survival they