♪ ♪
JAMES: Nixon was elected in the '68 election,
sort of intimating that he had a secret plan to end the war.
The greatest honor history can bestow
is the title of peacemaker.
In fact, he didn't have a secret plan.
He had some amorphous ideas
about how to withdraw from Vietnam.
But he's still involved in the Cold War
and can't afford just to basically, as Kissinger says,
to pick up everything and come home.
So the idea becomes, how do you disengage in Vietnam
and still give South Vietnam a reasonable chance
of surviving after you're gone?
And the answer was Vietnamization.
As I announced on Tuesday, by December 15th,
our troop strength in Vietnam will have been reduced
by a minimum of 60,000 men.
JAMES: It was essentially improve the capacity
of the South Vietnamese to defend themselves
while withdrawing U.S. troops,
and at some particular point, they stand up and we stand down.
MAI: When President Nixon came into power,
even though he was withdrawing American troops,
he was also fighting very hard to weaken the Communists.
We thought Nixon was a tough candidate.
We were reassured by his belligerence.
PROTESTERS: Hell, no. We won't go. Hell, no. We won't go.
[continuing to chant]
CORA: We wanted to end the war.
We wanted to bring the American soldiers home.
We didn't want to have any more dead American boys.
PENNY: 1969 was a critical time in the anti-war movement.
There had just been this very popular, very broad
participatory moratorium on October 15th
which had involved three million people across the country
in all forms of anti-war protest,
including what some people described as a general strike.
Lots of workplaces had to close down
for the day or part of the day.
Tens of thousands of students didn't show up.
So the moratorium had happened,
and on November 15th was an incredibly large
anti-war demonstration as well.
I helped organize busloads of people
from Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania
and even parts of northern West Virginia.
CORA: I sort of ran the stage, and Peter Yarrow ran the music,
and it was a marvelous, marvelous turnout.
TERRY: This was just overwhelming.
I couldn't even imagine -- an ocean of people.
I remember speakers. I remember music.
I remember moving around and marching.
I remember a lot of security overhead in helicopters
and police presence, especially protecting the White House.
CORA: And the word was, end the war in Vietnam now.
Bring the troops home.
And lots of wonderful people came.
Coretta Scott King was the co-chair
with Bill Coffin, Reverend William Sloane Coffin.
And she also participated in the March Against Death
the night before, where Americans marching
held the names of dead American soldiers.
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PENNY: In November 1969, Richard Nixon made a speech
that's come to be known as the Silent Majority Speech.
And in it, he made an appeal to what he described as
the silent majority of Americans.
They were the people who were not
out in the streets protesting,
who did not have their voices being heard.
And he needed their support in order to negotiate
successfully with the Vietnamese.
So tonight, to you, the great silent majority
of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support.
I pledged in my campaign for the presidency
to end the war in a way that we could win the peace.
I have initiated a plan of action
which will enable me to keep that pledge.
PENNY: On the one hand, he said,
we can have this path towards peace.
But on the other hand, we don't want to lose.
And in order for that to happen,
I need you, the silent majority of Americans.
After that speech, a majority polled
saying that they sympathized with Nixon,
and only a large but a minority of folks
saying that they were with the protesters.
GREGORY: Behind the scenes, I think you see
a Nixon that is coming to see Vietnam
as an example of the limitations of American policy.
And when he does articulate what will become known as
the Nixon Doctrine, I think that doctrine is in fact
an admission that there are limits to American power.
We shall furnish military and economic
assistance when requested in accordance
with our treaty commitments.
But we shall look to the nation directly threatened
to assume the primary responsibility
of providing the manpower.
GREGORY: And in that sense, it is necessary
for the United States to withdraw from Vietnam
so Nixon and Kissinger can rethink
the structure of the Cold War and
relationships not only between the United States and Russia
but also with China and, I think, ultimately
with the rest of the world.