Tricky Dick (2019) s01e03 Episode Script
Storm Clouds
[tape rolling]
[cheers and applause]
[upbeat music]
- Every inauguration has its special drama.
I suppose the special drama of this one
is the game that destiny has played with Richard Nixon.
Eight years ago, he was defeated
for President of the United States.
Something few politicians recover from.
Six years ago, he was defeated
for the governorship of California and quit politics.
Something no politician has ever recovered from.
And he's back today, the winner, to be sworn in
as the 37th President of the United States.
[applause]
♪
- The greatest honor history can bestow
is the title of peacemaker.
all: End the war in Vietnam! Bring the troops home!
End the war in Vietnam! Bring the troops home!
- This honor now beckons America.
all: Peace now! Peace now!
- This is our summons to greatness,
and I believe the American people
are ready to answer this call.
[overlapping shouting]
- Leave him alone!
- Hey! Hey! Hey!
- As the presidential motorcade moved west
on Pennsylvania Avenue,
the President passed a group of peace demonstrators.
- People are throwing things into the street now.
- Hey! Let's go! Let's go!
- As we move toward the end of this inaugural day,
the title that President Nixon yearns for most
is that of peacemaker.
[cheering, shouting]
So we wish our new president well
and all the luck in the world.
He'll need it.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
[gentle music]
♪
- When I walked into the office
in January of 1969, I inherited a problem.
The war in Vietnam had been going on
for a period of five years
with the casualties running 200 to 300 a week.
I didn't send 550,000 men to Vietnam.
Nevertheless, this was the responsibility
that I knew was mine.
♪
Good evening, my fellow Americans.
Since I took office four months ago,
nothing has taken so much of my time and energy
as the search for a way
to bring lasting peace to Vietnam.
I want to end this war.
The American people want to end this war,
but we want to end it permanently.
And therefore, we have ruled out a one-sided withdrawal
from Vietnam or the acceptance of terms
that would amount to a disguised American defeat.
When we assumed the burden of helping defend South Vietnam,
millions of South Vietnamese men, women,
and children placed their trust in us.
To abandon them now would risk a massacre
that would shock and dismay everyone in the world
who values human life.
Let me be quite blunt:
our fighting men are not going to be worn down.
Our mediators are not going to be talked down,
and our allies are not going to be let down.
Thank you and goodnight.
- The speech this evening was a culmination of more
than a month of background speculation.
Dan, I'd like to know if, indeed,
there is anything new in the speech tonight.
- Roger, I think the immediate visceral reaction
is "same old stuff."
The President did not announce
any limited U.S. troop withdrawals.
He announced no U.S. troop withdrawals at all.
There just isn't a great deal in this speech
that the American people will immediately recognize as new.
- Do you think you're any nearer to peace
after listening to President Nixon's speech?
- Well, maybe next three or four years, but no way soon.
♪
- For nine days, American and South Vietnamese troops
have been trying to take a mountain
near the Laotian border,
and ten times they've been thrown back.
The casualties have been so high
that the mountain has come to be known as Hamburger Hill.
[explosion]
- They just kept sending us up there,
and we weren't getting anywhere.
They were just slaughtering us, like a turkey shoot,
and we were the turkeys.
♪
- Hamburger Hill, captured only last week,
apparently is going to be abandoned.
The battle for Hamburger Hill and the resulting casualties
set off quite a controversy this week,
and Senator Edward Kennedy was in the center of it.
- Certainly anyone-- anyone that witnessed
the cruelty and savagery of this past week
would only have been immoral if they had remained silent.
Silent about this war.
- Responding to that criticism,
the spokesman said Mr. Nixon
does not second-guess his field commanders.
♪
- Teddy Kennedy is far and away
the Democratic front-runner for president in 1972.
- 1972.
A great many stories about a Muskie-Kennedy ticket
and a Kennedy-Muskie ticket.
I want to just say tonight, right now,
there's absolutely no truth to those stories.
Ed Muskie hasn't picked a vice president yet.
[laughter]
Let me say
neither have I.
[laughter]
- For Democrats, the young Massachusetts senator,
last of the Kennedy brothers,
speaks out strongly on the major issues
where conflict arises with President Nixon
and Republicans, generally.
- All of the so-called intellectual elite,
the so-called better people,
were against what we were doing in Vietnam.
They thought we should get out,
whatever the cost might be.
Well, if they wanted to end the war,
they should have supported what we were trying to do,
rather than to sabotage our efforts to end it.
- The President asks for time to end the war,
but these people think he's had enough,
and they hope the American public will give him
that same message, in a big way on October 15th.
♪
- Mr. President, what is your view, sir,
concerning the student moratorium being planned
against the Vietnam War?
- As far as this kind of activity is concerned,
we expect it.
However, under no circumstances
will I be affected whatever by it.
- That brief categorical statement has backfired
and become a rallying point for the anti-war movement.
all: Peace now! Peace now!
Peace now! Peace now! Peace now!
Peace now! Peace now! Peace now! Peace now!
Peace now! Peace now! Peace now! Peace now!
- Today we unite, from one coast to another,
to seek, to request,
to implore an armistice.
- Hundreds and hundreds of thousands,
in cities from New York to Dubois, Wyoming,
have sought to impress upon the President
their opposition to the war.
- More than 40,000 of our men have given their lives
as sacrificial lambs to a godless cause.
When will it cease?
When does the moratorium
on death to our sons begin
by the United States government?
[applause]
- It just seems to all of us who observe politics
that something has changed
since Richard Nixon has come in.
all: End the war! End the war!
- What caused that? - Well, I think one must say
that the disillusionment index begins
to represent Middle America, not just the left wing.
- What we've seen today--
President Nixon will have to take account of it,
because if it appears to him to be essential
to the success of his own administration, he must do it.
- Well, you can go further than that, Ed,
and you can say that President Nixon himself started this.
President Nixon ran on a platform
of ending the war and winning the peace,
so ending the war is now dogma in American politics,
and it becomes a matter of when.
And then it becomes inevitably a matter of "hurry up."
[lively music]
♪
- I was particularly concerned about this protest
we had on October the 15th,
and another was planned, so under the circumstances,
I knew it was necessary to address the nation.
- After a lot of the demonstrations,
he seemed frustrated and he seemed beleaguered,
so I saw the toll it had taken on him,
but his first reaction was to fight back.
- In a few moments, the President will address
the nation in a major policy speech
on the situation in Vietnam.
- The President undertakes his most important selling job
since he moved into the White House,
and how well he does it may influence
the making or breaking of his presidency.
- Good evening, my fellow Americans.
I believe that one of the reasons
for the deep division about Vietnam
is that many Americans have lost confidence
in what their government has told them about our policy.
Tonight, therefore,
I would like to answer some of the questions
that I know are on the minds
of many of you listening to me.
We have adopted a plan for the complete withdrawal
of all U.S. combat ground forces and their replacement,
by South Vietnamese forces,
on an orderly, scheduled timetable.
I have not and do not intend to announce the timetables.
- Oh.
- I recognize that some of my fellow citizens disagree
with the plan for peace I've chosen.
In San Francisco a few weeks ago,
I saw demonstrators carrying signs reading,
"Lose in Vietnam. Bring the boys home."
But as president of the United States,
I would be untrue to my oath of office,
if I allowed the policy of this nation
to be dictated by the minority who hold that point of view
and who try to impose it on the nation,
by mounting demonstrations in the street.
And so tonight, to you,
the great, silent majority,
I ask for your support.
I pledged in my campaign for the presidency
to end the war.
The more support I can have,
the sooner that pledge can be redeemed.
Let us be united for peace.
Thank you and goodnight.
- [sighs]
- Whatever reaction to the President's
Vietnam speech you want,
you could find here in Washington the day after.
The President himself received lots of it
and twice invited reporters in
to see it stacked on the desk where the buck stops.
- Most of the response was favorable,
but not all was spontaneous.
- Before the President's speech,
Republican Party officials were directed to generate
as much favorable reaction as possible.
- How many of the telegrams and letters are part
of the carefully orchestrated
Republican Party publicity campaign?
It is too early to say.
- Do you believe there's something
such as a silent majority?
- Yes I do.
The minority have been very active and very loud.
The silent majority are the people that are, I think,
a little bit more in agreement with what is happening,
and therefore they're not as loud.
- And I hope that the minority group
does join the majority group,
because he's doing a great job.
- I agree with him 100%.
♪
- Our approval rating went up to 68%.
♪
Despite the fact that the media was overwhelmingly
against the war.
Despite the fact that we had demonstrations,
thousands of them, that that was not the voice of America.
The voice of America was the silent majority.
[indistinct chatter]
I believe that we can see that the Vietnam War
will come to a conclusion.
[tense music]
♪
The time has come for action.
If when the chips are down the world's most powerful nation,
the United States of America,
acts like a pitiful, helpless giant,
the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy
will threaten free nations throughout the world.
♪
- Mr. Nixon argues that enemy activity across the border
in Cambodia has been provocative,
and that to ignore it would hurt the President's ability
to continue withdrawing U.S. troops.
- They went ahead, telling no one in Congress
and almost no one in the State or Defense departments.
- This is certainly going to be a decision
that will provoke great controversy.
[indistinct chanting]
[overlapping shouting]
- We are protesting Richard Nixon's
stupid action of expanding the war in Southeast Asia.
- President Nixon doesn't want peace.
You're not going to tell me that somebody
escalates the war that wants peace.
He's just lying to the American people.
[sirens blare]
- You can't have the President of the United States
alienating students.
Refer to students as "bums."
- The statement itself really was an affront
to students emotionally.
[bell rings]
- Leave this area immediately.
- After two days of rioting over Cambodia,
the university have banned rallies.
So the National Guard stood by to enforce the ban.
[shouting, cheering]
[bell rings]
[gunfire]
[dramatic music]
♪
[emergency sirens blare]
[indistinct chatter]
♪
- She resented being called a bum
because she disagreed with someone else's opinion.
She felt that war in Cambodia was wrong.
Have we come to such a state in this country
that a young girl
has to be shot,
because she disagrees deeply
with the actions of her government?
[somber music]
- I must say that was certainly
the most emotionally wrenching experience
I had during the entire period of the presidency,
because you see a girl like that
shot and killed at Kent State,
and her father made a statement to the effect,
"My daughter was not a bum."
And I thought of my own daughters,
but let's understand that this was not
just a case of a group of hard-nosed military people
shooting down innocent students.
Kent State had been virtually a battleground.
They threw rocks at the guard
and threw tear gas canisters.
I particularly was disturbed
by those that had brought it on
by the kind of actions that they were inspiring.
- The White House tonight issued
the following statement.
"This should remind us all that
"when dissent turns to violence, it invites tragedy.
"It is my hope that this tragic and unfortunate incident
"will strengthen the determination to stand firmly
against the resort to violence as a means of such expression."
- I believe the Nixon administration is really
not trying to bring us together,
but is engaged in a polarization process.
all: No more Kent State!
No more Kent State!
[overlapping shouting]
- In New York, the students have been demonstrating
against the war and the killings of Kent State.
- What do we want? all: Peace!
- When do we want it? all: Now!
- These kids,
so-called peaceful, and they can get away
with all the garbage that goes on here in the city.
Well, enough said.
[cheering and applause]
all: USA! USA!
- Soon dozens then hundreds of hard-hatted workers
from nearby construction jobs charged through police lines
chasing the protestors from the steps.
Beating those who did not move fast enough
and the few who tried to slug it out.
[overlapping shouting]
- President Nixon tonight will attempt to dispel
the atmosphere of growing crisis.
- The words he uses tonight
are considered at the White House
perhaps the most important of his political life.
- Ladies and gentlemen,
the President of the United States.
[gentle music]
♪
- Won't you be seated?
Mr. Risher?
- Mr. President, have you been surprised
by the intensity of the protest against your decision
to send troops into Cambodia?
- No, I have not been surprised
by the intensity of the protests.
Those who are protesting believe
that this decision will expand the war.
I know how deeply they feel,
but I know that what I have done
will accomplish the goals that they want.
- Mr. President. - Mr. Cormier?
- Do you believe that you can open up
meaningful communications
with this college-age generation, and how?
- I would like to try, as best I can, to do that.
It is not easy.
Sometimes, they, as you know,
talk so loudly that it is difficult to be heard.
When the action is hot, keep the rhetoric cool.
- Mr. President?
- Do you believe that the use of the word "bums"
to categorize some of those who are engaged in dissent--
do you believe that's in keeping with your suggestion
that the rhetoric should be kept cool?
- All the members of this press corps know that I have,
for years, defended the right of dissent.
I have always opposed the use of violence,
and when students on university campuses
burn buildings, when they engage in violence,
then I think "bums" is perhaps too kind a word
to apply to that kind of person.
- Public opinion polls have indicated that lately
the President was slipping in the matter of trust.
That there was a vague feeling that perhaps President Nixon
did not have quite as strong a grip on things
as might have appeared during his first year.
He is on the spot. He knows it.
- Campaign '70 election preview.
- Perhaps the most striking feature of this campaign
has been the unprecedented personal effort
by President Nixon.
[upbeat music]
♪
- In the last year or so, the United States Senate
has served as a focus for the opposition to the Vietnam War,
and so this year Mr. Nixon
is hoping to change the complexion of the Senate.
- Ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud to present
to you the President of the United States.
Let's welcome him.
[cheers and applause]
[crowd booing]
- I know that I [indistinct]--
[cheering]
[indistinct]
There are those who say,
"How do we answer those who engage in violence?
How do we answer those who try to shout down a speaker?"
And my answer is don't answer in kind.
It's time for the great silent majority
just to stand up and be counted.
[cheers and applause]
[dramatic music]
- There have been reports, sir,
that those who shout obscenities to the President
are his secret weapon.
- I don't think there's any question about it.
I think the President said the other day
that one obscenity was worth 10,000 votes.
[all shouting]
- What did you think of the disruptions?
- The disruptions?
Oh, I'm always sorry for young people that have no values.
- Go back to construction!
[overlapping shouting]
[crowd booing]
- The President of the United States
should not be heckled and yelled obscenities at.
They just ought to throw them out and shoot 'em
or hang 'em or something like that.
[crowd booing]
[indistinct chatter]
- We will get a direct answer tonight
on how successful Mr. Nixon was
in helping his hand-picked candidates for the Senate.
- Mr. President, can we have a picture
of you putting it in the box, sir?
- Oh-oh. - Pardon me.
- Could we get the whole family together, sir?
- Go.
[laughter]
- Yeah. - Go.
♪
- Now from election headquarters in New York,
Howard K. Smith and Frank Reynolds.
- Howard, what do you make of the effect so far,
so far as we can tell,
of the last-minute blitz by the President?
- The blitz did not have the expected results.
- President Nixon's law and order campaign
failed to touch off the Republican stampede
he hoped for.
- Democrats have retained control of the Senate.
The House remains in Democratic hands,
and in the balloting for 35 governorships,
the Republicans have come out behind.
- The message of the campaign seems to be the Republicans
are doing something that's not right.
They'd better find out what it is that's wrong before 1972.
♪
- Here we are at an all-time low.
The polls are low. The credibility rating's low.
The magazines are saying Nixon's in trouble.
Everything is bad,
and we needed to do something about that.
♪
[gentle music]
♪
[dramatic music]
- The preparations are in full swing at the White House
for tomorrow's wedding of the President's daughter,
Tricia, to Edward Finch Cox.
- Nervous at all?
- No, I'm not nervous. - Not yet.
♪
[tense music]
♪
- In 1967, Secretary of Defense McNamara
assigned his officials to write a top-secret history
of how we got into Vietnam.
♪
Composed over two years, it was 7,000 pages in length,
full of secret documents.
Well, one copy has been leaked to the "New York Times,"
which yesterday began publishing a digest of it.
- Unconscionable--
- Was Nixon paranoid?
Yes, and he took on this self-survival cloak,
and that led to other things happening.
- There was a mood of panic and despair.
Nixon wanted to bring in a group of people
who would do security, these kind of black bag jobs,
and told me to do whatever it took.
That really led to the creation of the Plumbers.
♪
- From the Oval Office of the White House,
a conversation with President Nixon
with White House correspondent Dan Rather.
- Thank you, Mr. President. Happy New Year to you.
Since this is a new year,
may we assume that you are a candidate for reelection?
- Well, that's not an unexpected question.
While I cannot announce it on this program,
most assume that a man
who has served in the office of President
will be a candidate for reelection.
- Everything seems to have been pointed in the direction
of climaxing in this election year.
Trips to Peking and Moscow.
Is all of this coincidental, the timing, or is it,
as some of even your friends say,
politically motivated?
- Those of us who make decisions in offices
like this--certainly, we think politically,
but the country comes first.
[applause]
[intense music]
♪
The government of the People's Republic of China
and the government of the United States
must see that we can have differences
without being enemies in war.
[applause]
- Many world leaders said they felt the visit might be
a key to ultimate peace in Southeast Asia.
- Certainly from here on, the attention, the publicity,
the news reporting will be centered
on Mr. Nixon's journey to China.
[applause]
♪
- My hope is that many, many Americans,
particularly the young Americans
who like to travel so much,
will have an opportunity to see this Wall,
to know the Chinese people and know them better.
- The President's China visit is politically convenient.
The other candidates in the New Hampshire
and Florida primaries aren't getting any attention.
Mr. Nixon is on the other side of the world,
and he's getting all of the attention.
But then he is President, and he is in China.
♪
♪
[explosions]
[dramatic music]
♪
- The North Vietnamese have launched
a major military offensive.
- South Vietnamese forces are evacuating
the positions in South Vietnam,
and the civilians are going with them.
The first real test of South Vietnamese military forces
has been failed.
Andrew Pearson--
- The enemy offensive touched off alarm bells
throughout the White House.
The President is personally coordinating
much of the battlefield strategy himself.
It is a misty, rainy night in Washington.
The President requested nationwide broadcast time,
after a series of meetings with his chief aides.
The White House would say only the President
will discuss Southeast Asia.
It is important.
[dramatic music]
- Today, there was no effort to conceal
the grave atmosphere which precedes
a military decision of the highest importance.
[indistinct chatter]
- Good evening.
The Communist armies of North Vietnam
launched a massive invasion of South Vietnam.
The North Vietnamese arrogantly refuse
to negotiate anything.
Their answer to every peace offer we have made
has been to escalate the war,
and the Communist offensive has now reached the point
that it gravely threatens the lives of 60,000 American troops
who are still in Vietnam.
There's only one way to stop the killing.
- Put on your goggles. Standby to start engine.
- I have ordered the following measures
which are being implemented as I am speaking to you.
All entrances to North Vietnamese ports will be mined.
- Stand clear of intakes, exhausts and propellers.
- Rail and all other communications
will be cut off to the maximum extent possible.
- 30 seconds. 30 seconds to launch.
- Air and naval strikes against military targets
in North Vietnam will continue.
- Launch aircraft. Launch aircraft.
- I know how much you want to end this war.
I know how much you want to bring our men home,
and I think you know, from all that I have said
and done these past three-and-a-half years,
how much I, too, want to end the war,
to bring our men home.
With God's help, with your support,
we will accomplish that great goal.
- [indistinct] 3 and 4. - Roger, 3 and 4.
[indistinct chatter]
[gentle music]
♪
- Today, U.S. bomber pilots
reported destroying an important railroad bridge,
cutting one of two rail lines to China.
- The North Vietnamese say American planes bombed a dike
on the outskirts of Hanoi and other populated areas.
- The Hanoi government claimed that the targets
were not just military installations.
Hospitals, schools, factories,
and storehouses were damaged.
[lively music]
- The President pledged in 1968
a plan to end the war.
Now, we're moving into the year of his reelection
with the war escalating to a level
it has, heretofore, not achieved.
I am now convinced there's no way to end this war,
except to take Richard Nixon out of office.
- What's your opinion?
- I think it's great.
I'm backing him 100%.
- Well, you got to blast the whole damn place
off the map and forget it.
- I approve thoroughly.
- Would you approve stronger military action?
- Yes, I would.
- Bomb 'em and then get out. I think that's the best way.
[explosions]
- Good evening.
We have a mystery story out of Washington.
Five people have been arrested and charged
with breaking into the headquarters
of the Democratic National Committee
in the middle of the night.
[overlapping chatter]
- The Watergate Apartment Hotel office complex
in Washington is noted for its security,
but the burglars penetrated that security
through a fire well door.
Material from files there was found in their possession,
as well as extensive photographic
and electronic eavesdropping gear.
- The suspects are saying nothing.
The Democrats say they have no idea
who would want to spy on them.
The season's first hurricane
was born today, in the Caribbean.
She's moving through the Yucatan Channel,
on a course that could bring her ashore
somewhere along the west coast of Florida.
- A small, but extremely dangerous storm
is now shifting westward.
- A White House consultant was implicated today
in that apparent attempt to bug or burglarize
the offices of the Democratic National Committee.
- All residents of the low-lying areas
are advised to evacuate by noon today.
- The White House denied and continues to deny
involvement in any wrongdoing.
- The tides are running six to eight feet above normal,
and it's going to get higher.
♪
♪
- [grunts]
- Mr. Nixon has made it clear
that he does not intend to obey the law of the land.
- Any suggestion that this president's
ever gonna slow down
or is ever gonna leave this office,
until he finishes the job he was elected to do
- The President has engaged in a series of actions
designed to thwart the lawful investigation
by government prosecutors.
- That--that's just plain poppycock.
[cheers and applause]
[upbeat music]
- Every inauguration has its special drama.
I suppose the special drama of this one
is the game that destiny has played with Richard Nixon.
Eight years ago, he was defeated
for President of the United States.
Something few politicians recover from.
Six years ago, he was defeated
for the governorship of California and quit politics.
Something no politician has ever recovered from.
And he's back today, the winner, to be sworn in
as the 37th President of the United States.
[applause]
♪
- The greatest honor history can bestow
is the title of peacemaker.
all: End the war in Vietnam! Bring the troops home!
End the war in Vietnam! Bring the troops home!
- This honor now beckons America.
all: Peace now! Peace now!
- This is our summons to greatness,
and I believe the American people
are ready to answer this call.
[overlapping shouting]
- Leave him alone!
- Hey! Hey! Hey!
- As the presidential motorcade moved west
on Pennsylvania Avenue,
the President passed a group of peace demonstrators.
- People are throwing things into the street now.
- Hey! Let's go! Let's go!
- As we move toward the end of this inaugural day,
the title that President Nixon yearns for most
is that of peacemaker.
[cheering, shouting]
So we wish our new president well
and all the luck in the world.
He'll need it.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
[gentle music]
♪
- When I walked into the office
in January of 1969, I inherited a problem.
The war in Vietnam had been going on
for a period of five years
with the casualties running 200 to 300 a week.
I didn't send 550,000 men to Vietnam.
Nevertheless, this was the responsibility
that I knew was mine.
♪
Good evening, my fellow Americans.
Since I took office four months ago,
nothing has taken so much of my time and energy
as the search for a way
to bring lasting peace to Vietnam.
I want to end this war.
The American people want to end this war,
but we want to end it permanently.
And therefore, we have ruled out a one-sided withdrawal
from Vietnam or the acceptance of terms
that would amount to a disguised American defeat.
When we assumed the burden of helping defend South Vietnam,
millions of South Vietnamese men, women,
and children placed their trust in us.
To abandon them now would risk a massacre
that would shock and dismay everyone in the world
who values human life.
Let me be quite blunt:
our fighting men are not going to be worn down.
Our mediators are not going to be talked down,
and our allies are not going to be let down.
Thank you and goodnight.
- The speech this evening was a culmination of more
than a month of background speculation.
Dan, I'd like to know if, indeed,
there is anything new in the speech tonight.
- Roger, I think the immediate visceral reaction
is "same old stuff."
The President did not announce
any limited U.S. troop withdrawals.
He announced no U.S. troop withdrawals at all.
There just isn't a great deal in this speech
that the American people will immediately recognize as new.
- Do you think you're any nearer to peace
after listening to President Nixon's speech?
- Well, maybe next three or four years, but no way soon.
♪
- For nine days, American and South Vietnamese troops
have been trying to take a mountain
near the Laotian border,
and ten times they've been thrown back.
The casualties have been so high
that the mountain has come to be known as Hamburger Hill.
[explosion]
- They just kept sending us up there,
and we weren't getting anywhere.
They were just slaughtering us, like a turkey shoot,
and we were the turkeys.
♪
- Hamburger Hill, captured only last week,
apparently is going to be abandoned.
The battle for Hamburger Hill and the resulting casualties
set off quite a controversy this week,
and Senator Edward Kennedy was in the center of it.
- Certainly anyone-- anyone that witnessed
the cruelty and savagery of this past week
would only have been immoral if they had remained silent.
Silent about this war.
- Responding to that criticism,
the spokesman said Mr. Nixon
does not second-guess his field commanders.
♪
- Teddy Kennedy is far and away
the Democratic front-runner for president in 1972.
- 1972.
A great many stories about a Muskie-Kennedy ticket
and a Kennedy-Muskie ticket.
I want to just say tonight, right now,
there's absolutely no truth to those stories.
Ed Muskie hasn't picked a vice president yet.
[laughter]
Let me say
neither have I.
[laughter]
- For Democrats, the young Massachusetts senator,
last of the Kennedy brothers,
speaks out strongly on the major issues
where conflict arises with President Nixon
and Republicans, generally.
- All of the so-called intellectual elite,
the so-called better people,
were against what we were doing in Vietnam.
They thought we should get out,
whatever the cost might be.
Well, if they wanted to end the war,
they should have supported what we were trying to do,
rather than to sabotage our efforts to end it.
- The President asks for time to end the war,
but these people think he's had enough,
and they hope the American public will give him
that same message, in a big way on October 15th.
♪
- Mr. President, what is your view, sir,
concerning the student moratorium being planned
against the Vietnam War?
- As far as this kind of activity is concerned,
we expect it.
However, under no circumstances
will I be affected whatever by it.
- That brief categorical statement has backfired
and become a rallying point for the anti-war movement.
all: Peace now! Peace now!
Peace now! Peace now! Peace now!
Peace now! Peace now! Peace now! Peace now!
Peace now! Peace now! Peace now! Peace now!
- Today we unite, from one coast to another,
to seek, to request,
to implore an armistice.
- Hundreds and hundreds of thousands,
in cities from New York to Dubois, Wyoming,
have sought to impress upon the President
their opposition to the war.
- More than 40,000 of our men have given their lives
as sacrificial lambs to a godless cause.
When will it cease?
When does the moratorium
on death to our sons begin
by the United States government?
[applause]
- It just seems to all of us who observe politics
that something has changed
since Richard Nixon has come in.
all: End the war! End the war!
- What caused that? - Well, I think one must say
that the disillusionment index begins
to represent Middle America, not just the left wing.
- What we've seen today--
President Nixon will have to take account of it,
because if it appears to him to be essential
to the success of his own administration, he must do it.
- Well, you can go further than that, Ed,
and you can say that President Nixon himself started this.
President Nixon ran on a platform
of ending the war and winning the peace,
so ending the war is now dogma in American politics,
and it becomes a matter of when.
And then it becomes inevitably a matter of "hurry up."
[lively music]
♪
- I was particularly concerned about this protest
we had on October the 15th,
and another was planned, so under the circumstances,
I knew it was necessary to address the nation.
- After a lot of the demonstrations,
he seemed frustrated and he seemed beleaguered,
so I saw the toll it had taken on him,
but his first reaction was to fight back.
- In a few moments, the President will address
the nation in a major policy speech
on the situation in Vietnam.
- The President undertakes his most important selling job
since he moved into the White House,
and how well he does it may influence
the making or breaking of his presidency.
- Good evening, my fellow Americans.
I believe that one of the reasons
for the deep division about Vietnam
is that many Americans have lost confidence
in what their government has told them about our policy.
Tonight, therefore,
I would like to answer some of the questions
that I know are on the minds
of many of you listening to me.
We have adopted a plan for the complete withdrawal
of all U.S. combat ground forces and their replacement,
by South Vietnamese forces,
on an orderly, scheduled timetable.
I have not and do not intend to announce the timetables.
- Oh.
- I recognize that some of my fellow citizens disagree
with the plan for peace I've chosen.
In San Francisco a few weeks ago,
I saw demonstrators carrying signs reading,
"Lose in Vietnam. Bring the boys home."
But as president of the United States,
I would be untrue to my oath of office,
if I allowed the policy of this nation
to be dictated by the minority who hold that point of view
and who try to impose it on the nation,
by mounting demonstrations in the street.
And so tonight, to you,
the great, silent majority,
I ask for your support.
I pledged in my campaign for the presidency
to end the war.
The more support I can have,
the sooner that pledge can be redeemed.
Let us be united for peace.
Thank you and goodnight.
- [sighs]
- Whatever reaction to the President's
Vietnam speech you want,
you could find here in Washington the day after.
The President himself received lots of it
and twice invited reporters in
to see it stacked on the desk where the buck stops.
- Most of the response was favorable,
but not all was spontaneous.
- Before the President's speech,
Republican Party officials were directed to generate
as much favorable reaction as possible.
- How many of the telegrams and letters are part
of the carefully orchestrated
Republican Party publicity campaign?
It is too early to say.
- Do you believe there's something
such as a silent majority?
- Yes I do.
The minority have been very active and very loud.
The silent majority are the people that are, I think,
a little bit more in agreement with what is happening,
and therefore they're not as loud.
- And I hope that the minority group
does join the majority group,
because he's doing a great job.
- I agree with him 100%.
♪
- Our approval rating went up to 68%.
♪
Despite the fact that the media was overwhelmingly
against the war.
Despite the fact that we had demonstrations,
thousands of them, that that was not the voice of America.
The voice of America was the silent majority.
[indistinct chatter]
I believe that we can see that the Vietnam War
will come to a conclusion.
[tense music]
♪
The time has come for action.
If when the chips are down the world's most powerful nation,
the United States of America,
acts like a pitiful, helpless giant,
the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy
will threaten free nations throughout the world.
♪
- Mr. Nixon argues that enemy activity across the border
in Cambodia has been provocative,
and that to ignore it would hurt the President's ability
to continue withdrawing U.S. troops.
- They went ahead, telling no one in Congress
and almost no one in the State or Defense departments.
- This is certainly going to be a decision
that will provoke great controversy.
[indistinct chanting]
[overlapping shouting]
- We are protesting Richard Nixon's
stupid action of expanding the war in Southeast Asia.
- President Nixon doesn't want peace.
You're not going to tell me that somebody
escalates the war that wants peace.
He's just lying to the American people.
[sirens blare]
- You can't have the President of the United States
alienating students.
Refer to students as "bums."
- The statement itself really was an affront
to students emotionally.
[bell rings]
- Leave this area immediately.
- After two days of rioting over Cambodia,
the university have banned rallies.
So the National Guard stood by to enforce the ban.
[shouting, cheering]
[bell rings]
[gunfire]
[dramatic music]
♪
[emergency sirens blare]
[indistinct chatter]
♪
- She resented being called a bum
because she disagreed with someone else's opinion.
She felt that war in Cambodia was wrong.
Have we come to such a state in this country
that a young girl
has to be shot,
because she disagrees deeply
with the actions of her government?
[somber music]
- I must say that was certainly
the most emotionally wrenching experience
I had during the entire period of the presidency,
because you see a girl like that
shot and killed at Kent State,
and her father made a statement to the effect,
"My daughter was not a bum."
And I thought of my own daughters,
but let's understand that this was not
just a case of a group of hard-nosed military people
shooting down innocent students.
Kent State had been virtually a battleground.
They threw rocks at the guard
and threw tear gas canisters.
I particularly was disturbed
by those that had brought it on
by the kind of actions that they were inspiring.
- The White House tonight issued
the following statement.
"This should remind us all that
"when dissent turns to violence, it invites tragedy.
"It is my hope that this tragic and unfortunate incident
"will strengthen the determination to stand firmly
against the resort to violence as a means of such expression."
- I believe the Nixon administration is really
not trying to bring us together,
but is engaged in a polarization process.
all: No more Kent State!
No more Kent State!
[overlapping shouting]
- In New York, the students have been demonstrating
against the war and the killings of Kent State.
- What do we want? all: Peace!
- When do we want it? all: Now!
- These kids,
so-called peaceful, and they can get away
with all the garbage that goes on here in the city.
Well, enough said.
[cheering and applause]
all: USA! USA!
- Soon dozens then hundreds of hard-hatted workers
from nearby construction jobs charged through police lines
chasing the protestors from the steps.
Beating those who did not move fast enough
and the few who tried to slug it out.
[overlapping shouting]
- President Nixon tonight will attempt to dispel
the atmosphere of growing crisis.
- The words he uses tonight
are considered at the White House
perhaps the most important of his political life.
- Ladies and gentlemen,
the President of the United States.
[gentle music]
♪
- Won't you be seated?
Mr. Risher?
- Mr. President, have you been surprised
by the intensity of the protest against your decision
to send troops into Cambodia?
- No, I have not been surprised
by the intensity of the protests.
Those who are protesting believe
that this decision will expand the war.
I know how deeply they feel,
but I know that what I have done
will accomplish the goals that they want.
- Mr. President. - Mr. Cormier?
- Do you believe that you can open up
meaningful communications
with this college-age generation, and how?
- I would like to try, as best I can, to do that.
It is not easy.
Sometimes, they, as you know,
talk so loudly that it is difficult to be heard.
When the action is hot, keep the rhetoric cool.
- Mr. President?
- Do you believe that the use of the word "bums"
to categorize some of those who are engaged in dissent--
do you believe that's in keeping with your suggestion
that the rhetoric should be kept cool?
- All the members of this press corps know that I have,
for years, defended the right of dissent.
I have always opposed the use of violence,
and when students on university campuses
burn buildings, when they engage in violence,
then I think "bums" is perhaps too kind a word
to apply to that kind of person.
- Public opinion polls have indicated that lately
the President was slipping in the matter of trust.
That there was a vague feeling that perhaps President Nixon
did not have quite as strong a grip on things
as might have appeared during his first year.
He is on the spot. He knows it.
- Campaign '70 election preview.
- Perhaps the most striking feature of this campaign
has been the unprecedented personal effort
by President Nixon.
[upbeat music]
♪
- In the last year or so, the United States Senate
has served as a focus for the opposition to the Vietnam War,
and so this year Mr. Nixon
is hoping to change the complexion of the Senate.
- Ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud to present
to you the President of the United States.
Let's welcome him.
[cheers and applause]
[crowd booing]
- I know that I [indistinct]--
[cheering]
[indistinct]
There are those who say,
"How do we answer those who engage in violence?
How do we answer those who try to shout down a speaker?"
And my answer is don't answer in kind.
It's time for the great silent majority
just to stand up and be counted.
[cheers and applause]
[dramatic music]
- There have been reports, sir,
that those who shout obscenities to the President
are his secret weapon.
- I don't think there's any question about it.
I think the President said the other day
that one obscenity was worth 10,000 votes.
[all shouting]
- What did you think of the disruptions?
- The disruptions?
Oh, I'm always sorry for young people that have no values.
- Go back to construction!
[overlapping shouting]
[crowd booing]
- The President of the United States
should not be heckled and yelled obscenities at.
They just ought to throw them out and shoot 'em
or hang 'em or something like that.
[crowd booing]
[indistinct chatter]
- We will get a direct answer tonight
on how successful Mr. Nixon was
in helping his hand-picked candidates for the Senate.
- Mr. President, can we have a picture
of you putting it in the box, sir?
- Oh-oh. - Pardon me.
- Could we get the whole family together, sir?
- Go.
[laughter]
- Yeah. - Go.
♪
- Now from election headquarters in New York,
Howard K. Smith and Frank Reynolds.
- Howard, what do you make of the effect so far,
so far as we can tell,
of the last-minute blitz by the President?
- The blitz did not have the expected results.
- President Nixon's law and order campaign
failed to touch off the Republican stampede
he hoped for.
- Democrats have retained control of the Senate.
The House remains in Democratic hands,
and in the balloting for 35 governorships,
the Republicans have come out behind.
- The message of the campaign seems to be the Republicans
are doing something that's not right.
They'd better find out what it is that's wrong before 1972.
♪
- Here we are at an all-time low.
The polls are low. The credibility rating's low.
The magazines are saying Nixon's in trouble.
Everything is bad,
and we needed to do something about that.
♪
[gentle music]
♪
[dramatic music]
- The preparations are in full swing at the White House
for tomorrow's wedding of the President's daughter,
Tricia, to Edward Finch Cox.
- Nervous at all?
- No, I'm not nervous. - Not yet.
♪
[tense music]
♪
- In 1967, Secretary of Defense McNamara
assigned his officials to write a top-secret history
of how we got into Vietnam.
♪
Composed over two years, it was 7,000 pages in length,
full of secret documents.
Well, one copy has been leaked to the "New York Times,"
which yesterday began publishing a digest of it.
- Unconscionable--
- Was Nixon paranoid?
Yes, and he took on this self-survival cloak,
and that led to other things happening.
- There was a mood of panic and despair.
Nixon wanted to bring in a group of people
who would do security, these kind of black bag jobs,
and told me to do whatever it took.
That really led to the creation of the Plumbers.
♪
- From the Oval Office of the White House,
a conversation with President Nixon
with White House correspondent Dan Rather.
- Thank you, Mr. President. Happy New Year to you.
Since this is a new year,
may we assume that you are a candidate for reelection?
- Well, that's not an unexpected question.
While I cannot announce it on this program,
most assume that a man
who has served in the office of President
will be a candidate for reelection.
- Everything seems to have been pointed in the direction
of climaxing in this election year.
Trips to Peking and Moscow.
Is all of this coincidental, the timing, or is it,
as some of even your friends say,
politically motivated?
- Those of us who make decisions in offices
like this--certainly, we think politically,
but the country comes first.
[applause]
[intense music]
♪
The government of the People's Republic of China
and the government of the United States
must see that we can have differences
without being enemies in war.
[applause]
- Many world leaders said they felt the visit might be
a key to ultimate peace in Southeast Asia.
- Certainly from here on, the attention, the publicity,
the news reporting will be centered
on Mr. Nixon's journey to China.
[applause]
♪
- My hope is that many, many Americans,
particularly the young Americans
who like to travel so much,
will have an opportunity to see this Wall,
to know the Chinese people and know them better.
- The President's China visit is politically convenient.
The other candidates in the New Hampshire
and Florida primaries aren't getting any attention.
Mr. Nixon is on the other side of the world,
and he's getting all of the attention.
But then he is President, and he is in China.
♪
♪
[explosions]
[dramatic music]
♪
- The North Vietnamese have launched
a major military offensive.
- South Vietnamese forces are evacuating
the positions in South Vietnam,
and the civilians are going with them.
The first real test of South Vietnamese military forces
has been failed.
Andrew Pearson--
- The enemy offensive touched off alarm bells
throughout the White House.
The President is personally coordinating
much of the battlefield strategy himself.
It is a misty, rainy night in Washington.
The President requested nationwide broadcast time,
after a series of meetings with his chief aides.
The White House would say only the President
will discuss Southeast Asia.
It is important.
[dramatic music]
- Today, there was no effort to conceal
the grave atmosphere which precedes
a military decision of the highest importance.
[indistinct chatter]
- Good evening.
The Communist armies of North Vietnam
launched a massive invasion of South Vietnam.
The North Vietnamese arrogantly refuse
to negotiate anything.
Their answer to every peace offer we have made
has been to escalate the war,
and the Communist offensive has now reached the point
that it gravely threatens the lives of 60,000 American troops
who are still in Vietnam.
There's only one way to stop the killing.
- Put on your goggles. Standby to start engine.
- I have ordered the following measures
which are being implemented as I am speaking to you.
All entrances to North Vietnamese ports will be mined.
- Stand clear of intakes, exhausts and propellers.
- Rail and all other communications
will be cut off to the maximum extent possible.
- 30 seconds. 30 seconds to launch.
- Air and naval strikes against military targets
in North Vietnam will continue.
- Launch aircraft. Launch aircraft.
- I know how much you want to end this war.
I know how much you want to bring our men home,
and I think you know, from all that I have said
and done these past three-and-a-half years,
how much I, too, want to end the war,
to bring our men home.
With God's help, with your support,
we will accomplish that great goal.
- [indistinct] 3 and 4. - Roger, 3 and 4.
[indistinct chatter]
[gentle music]
♪
- Today, U.S. bomber pilots
reported destroying an important railroad bridge,
cutting one of two rail lines to China.
- The North Vietnamese say American planes bombed a dike
on the outskirts of Hanoi and other populated areas.
- The Hanoi government claimed that the targets
were not just military installations.
Hospitals, schools, factories,
and storehouses were damaged.
[lively music]
- The President pledged in 1968
a plan to end the war.
Now, we're moving into the year of his reelection
with the war escalating to a level
it has, heretofore, not achieved.
I am now convinced there's no way to end this war,
except to take Richard Nixon out of office.
- What's your opinion?
- I think it's great.
I'm backing him 100%.
- Well, you got to blast the whole damn place
off the map and forget it.
- I approve thoroughly.
- Would you approve stronger military action?
- Yes, I would.
- Bomb 'em and then get out. I think that's the best way.
[explosions]
- Good evening.
We have a mystery story out of Washington.
Five people have been arrested and charged
with breaking into the headquarters
of the Democratic National Committee
in the middle of the night.
[overlapping chatter]
- The Watergate Apartment Hotel office complex
in Washington is noted for its security,
but the burglars penetrated that security
through a fire well door.
Material from files there was found in their possession,
as well as extensive photographic
and electronic eavesdropping gear.
- The suspects are saying nothing.
The Democrats say they have no idea
who would want to spy on them.
The season's first hurricane
was born today, in the Caribbean.
She's moving through the Yucatan Channel,
on a course that could bring her ashore
somewhere along the west coast of Florida.
- A small, but extremely dangerous storm
is now shifting westward.
- A White House consultant was implicated today
in that apparent attempt to bug or burglarize
the offices of the Democratic National Committee.
- All residents of the low-lying areas
are advised to evacuate by noon today.
- The White House denied and continues to deny
involvement in any wrongdoing.
- The tides are running six to eight feet above normal,
and it's going to get higher.
♪
♪
- [grunts]
- Mr. Nixon has made it clear
that he does not intend to obey the law of the land.
- Any suggestion that this president's
ever gonna slow down
or is ever gonna leave this office,
until he finishes the job he was elected to do
- The President has engaged in a series of actions
designed to thwart the lawful investigation
by government prosecutors.
- That--that's just plain poppycock.