The silent majority, they got too many things on their mind, paying their taxes, seeing that their kids are all right, not in trouble, they work real hard, maybe their wives are working too. Just trying to stay out of trouble and doing the right thing every day, day in and day out. Well, if theres anything, to me thats a silent majority, its a Community Like this. This is a common or ordinary community in the United States right here. This is what the United States is. The people who have their security tied up in their property, have take pride in their property, take pride in their home and this is what they work for. This is their life. They are really silent because i feel that they just dont think that they can fight city hall in any way at all. They dont have any organization. No one to back them up and lead them. Isnt agnew the leader . Hes trying and thats why hes picking on them. Hes trying to be the silent majority leader. Nobody is saying it. Were all silent majorities here. A lot of people say the same things, that they dont want to get involved until you you play the right chord and then theyre involved. As long as its somebodys goals, it doesnt bother you. But when its yours, its a different story. I think the thing that gets me the maddest is when i hear an announcer say on tv, he says, only 68 of our men killed this week. What do they mean 68 . Thats 68 families that are torn to pieces because their boys got hit or we just had 1,000 or 1,100 of our boys that were injured. What do they mean by injured . An arm or a leg or an eye . Doesnt that count . Im a truck driver. I drive a semidump truck. I have children who are 19 years old and im deadly against it. I just read look magazine and i read a letter in there, and if a lot of people would look at these pictures, it would be really something. Maybe they ought to go over there and take a look at this stuff. Ive had guys say to me, if i had a gun or if i had a hand, i would below my brains out. But he says i cant even pull the trigger. Were bitter about it because i think a lot of our boys, if you really take it down, have gone into the service. There are so many here you dont know about it. But you just talk and you will find out that there are an awful lot of boys from this neighborhood who have left for the service. Jack, you were there for you got wounded three times. Twice or whatever it was. Last time i got hit, i got hit in the head. We had 57 killed and 140 wounded. My whole platoon was completely wiped out except for three or four guys. Its strange. I went down to indiana for my buddys funeral because he was a real good friend of mine. Its really to see it, you know, what the people really go through, when their son gets killed, especially a favorite son. He was the only son in the family. I went to a war. I didnt get killed. Im back here. He was in a war, he didnt get killed. He had a son in a war. Everybody doesnt get killed in a war. So we went in there because we said Southeast Asia is a strategic position. This was the original intent of the United States. Now you see seven years later, all of that is gone on the wayside. What have we but many lives that were lost, many maimed gis that come back crippled for the rest of their live. How do you think were ever going to disinvolve ourselves from vietnam . You cant who is paying for the war . We are. We are. Thats right. We are. For what . For what . For what . Where are all of the answers . Communism should be stopped and it might as well be in vietnam. Communist china would love to get in the pacific. They dont have enough room for their people as it is and they would just take over everything if they dont stop them in asia. Every war they say, we fight to stop communism. It doesnt seem right. After all, russia hasnt lost a man, and look at what weve lost. Do you feel that weve stopped the communism or do you feel it wasnt the real issue . No, i feel that there are children born in vietnam that have now grown to manhood and have never known anything but war. And i feel those people over there must be sick and tired of war and i think theyre entitled to a time for peace. I have heard it say that some of the boys come back and say, those people dont even want us there. That makes you wonder, doesnt it. A lot of them were glad we were there. A lot of them hated me. Most of them together if you were an american, you owed them something. And i think we do owe them something. We owe them the right something. I think we do owe them something. I think we owe them the right to live. Theyre peasant people and ignorant and theyre dying to go the way that the country offers them the most. So perhaps they would go communist communistic but as jake said yes, it would be their choice, but were trying to save them from this. If we got out tomorrow do you think that the governments contention that there would be a bloodbath would hold true . There would not be any bloodbath. The only people that would suffer a bloodbath would be thu and key, and theyll never suffer because when they lose theyll take off to switzerland and live off the money theyve been hoarding away the next ten years. Theyll never get touched. Eliminate the bloodbath thats going on right now. I tell you whether president nixon or not, id like to end t, i dont know how id do it. I wouldnt be dropping atom bombs on people because them people arent to blame for being at that war that is they have their forms of government which they believe the same as we do, and why shouldnt they stick up for their rights whether theyre one side or the other . Id like to end it. Id like to get our boys out of there. How, i dont know. I dont want to hurt them the same as i dont want ours to be hurt. I had a son, and he was in vietnam. He said dad, why should i have to go over there . He asked me. He asked me that. I said marty, what do you think . Because im an american and citizen of this country and its the only reason i go, so i think an 18yearold is owed something to this country, to serve. I have a son over there right now and i lost two brothers in world war ii. We have something to fight for and were at war, too, and you have nobody that wouldnt volunteer. Very few wouldnt volunteer. I wouldnt mind, i dont think, serving my time in the army for the country because i think the country has given me a lot of things and its given me a chance to go through school. I had to work through school, but it gave me a chance to at least go. I dont know. Id really worry about going over to vietnam because id hate to fight somebody elses war. What difference is there between world war ii and the vietnam war . When you want to base it back to facts, we were attacked. I think i feel like my dad said. Its an attack. Its pearl harbor, its you know, they came and like mike said some guy punches you in the mouth youre not going to let them walk away from you. I think id be in the lines enlisting, but i really dont think id go to vietnam. Id be damned if i go. Its hard to say who is for and who is against, but what the hard hats are against is this real out is protesting and just tearing things up. Its more that than i think they fought a war. I resent a statement that i have a flag on my car that makes me a hawk. I think people that due by the American Flag arent concerned with keeping the war going. I think they want the war ended as much as i would, but they are trying to show that they are americans and they will pick people up that are there. Why are we there . Because some people made a lot of mistakes about 1963 or 64, and i think wrong decisions shouldnt have to cost me my life or my legs or my arms or Something Like that. If they get out of vietnam, what do you think will happen to your prosperity . Its the war that put people to work, give them salaries and give them big mono pep thats why you have to have these dog gone things. Youve had world war ii and now youve had korea and now this. After this youll go to the east. What . Every ten years the country has to have a war. The country needs employment. So many people have to die and its a dirty shame. Its your politicians, too, that have to tack a good portion of this blame because i think theres a lot of them that get a certain percentage of these defense contracts and things that go out, and i think there are a lot of politicians that are involved in this and they get their cut and this is whats just prolonging everything. Michael talks about the black markets there and helicopters with chrome runners and guys with rifles so they can get promotions. They counter rifles as a dead b. C. Of course theyve got the weapons so they might consider them vced in. I imagine there were a lot of innocent people that got killed in world war ii with inequities, but it is so obvious that the war is so many things around the war is fixed around the dollar. I dont want people making money off of me. Thats true, money is being made left and right and thats why i think this war has been prolonged. Ive already buried one friend that was killed in vietnam. Ive seen another come back with 50 disability and there are two people right now that i know that will probably end up there in vietnam . Yes. I dont mean to get this nervous about it, but to see someone come back when youre 19 and you dont know what kind of future hes going have, you know . You kind of wonder, is it all worth it . And im 20 right now, so my whole age group, you know, is likely to end up over there, and id just like to see it ended and i cant get an answer how. I wish i could. Why do you think it goes on . Well, it is true. It is a moneymaking deal. The government is for the people. Its for the people all right. Who are the people . The rich people and material everything is being made by big manufacturers, and theyre making a profit. Oh, yeah. I got hit by a piece of General Motors shrapnel with an 81 mortar and it said gm and the numbers on it and General Motors is making motors, man. What else can i tell you . Theyre making money and thats what its all about. Like, theyre supposed to be making cars. They spent so much money on other nations giving them aid and giving them everything we have, wed be better off because we can spend money on poverty and clean up the cities and the money were spending on the war to concentrate the ails that we have here, and the environmental problems and poverty and housing, education, and institutions, hospitals for brain retarded children and muscular dystrophy and everything else. Money spent on war is nonreturnable and money thats blown up. A 500 bond is 500 wasted. Im against the war. Sir, how do you feel about the effect of the war on this community . This war, i think, is wrong. Why . A waste of time, money and human lives. Sacrifice for what . I dont know. What . Somebody tells us were fighting communism or something, thats why why do we have to be the policemen of the world . What about our allies . Socalled allies . What are they contributing . Their problem is if theyd start feeding the people of this world they wouldnt have any of this. Lets face it. Midwestly pertains mostly pertains to hunger and oil. Thats what pertains to communism. If we find a solution to feed them people they wont have no problems. Can you imagine the amount of hungry people they could feed just in this country, just in this country, and this is something i think is look at the hospitals they could have built. You wont have your overcrowded schools. You wont have your poor transportation systems. You wont have children going hungry. All these problems can be solved with the money theyre putting in the war effort. Theyd put it to solve the social problems of this country, it would be such an improvement for us and if the whole world did the same thing we wouldnt have the problems if wed all try to solve our own country. Think youre idealistic in thinking that all of the problems could be solved. I agree with you. The money should be used some place else and it shouldnt be used a couple thousand to mack a bomb and then blow up the bomb. I hope they get to the people who get their cut and get down to the people that really need it. I dont know if thats going to work because thats not the american way. They can improve conditions here, too. It would be better, too. How would you improve . There are a lot of ways. For one thing, towards educational purposes. If you educate people theyll avoid some of the poverty, too, wouldnt they . Id like to educate people about the war so they can understand at the end of it youd have to start in washington and our representatives. Educate them to our way of thinking, then. If were supposed to be the majority. The silent majority is itself to make itself heard, not by shouting be on obscenities, andy disorderly street demonstrations and waving vietcong flags and demanding america throw in the sponge. Thats what he says. Thats not necessarily true, is it . Did you find that out here . How can he speak for the majority when he doesnt even know who they are . Ill see you. Agnew is purposely going around to keep the country separated and divided. Thats his purpose. When people are divided they fight with each other and forget about the major issues involved like you were talking about what to do with this country to help the Poverty Program and the poor people or housing. Housing has never been taken care of in this country, so if we fight among ourselveses with agnews contention or the way he criticizes certain people so we keep divided then we cant do much with elected officials and thats the purpose by it. Youre talking about our Vice President doing these things, now why . Who is he serving . Hes serving in the interests of the party or of the people that are running the country. I dont think they want people like the average guy to get together and demand his demand his representatives to make an accounting of what hes doing. You keep talking about the guy running the country. Were the people supporting the country. It doesnt mack sense. We support the country and somebody else runs it. Is that what youre telling me . Thats exactly it. I dont make the policy. Somebody better than us makes the policy, but i hope they know what theyre doing. They dont know what theyre doing were in trouble. The silent majority is just like it tells you in the bible. They brought the bible up before in romans, third chapter, second verse. Obey the laws of your land because the law of your land god seemed to put people in power and government and you obey the laws of the land as the laws of god. We were brought up to never question authority, isnt that true . People of our age group and the government was right and the policeman was right and the priest was right and mom and dad were right. The school board was right. Anybody that was in authority knew what was best and how we should think and they told us how to think. I never told my dad he was crazy. Shouldnt i let my government know that i think theyre crazy . I think they are insane, really. This is an insane thing were doing. How would we say it . How should i say it . In a proper manner. I dont like that i didnt like school when i was going school. The teachers and the sister at the school slapped my hand, and i didnt go blow the school all over the intersection. I went home and told my father and he gave me a couple of more whacks. What can we do so that we can be heard, that the government will hear us . Were the middle class, the socalled, you know, silent majority. What can you do about it . What do you mean what can you do about it . Theres 200. What can you do about it, man . Thats yet Younger Generation and thats why theyre protesting and doing all of this, you know if you want to complain because you want to go to war, go vote. Whats the reason of voting . If you say theres going to be a war every ten years, what good is a vote going to do . I didnt have a kid to go 16,000 miles to fight for somebody else, someone youd never see again and i dont plame them if they dont want to go, but i look at it this way, this is their country. This is the country they were born in. True, they didnt ask to be born here, but its their government thats in trouble, do your best to get it. Its a definite difference between the country and the government. You see, the people in this country arent fighting a vietnam war. The governments fighting it. The government is the people supposedly. Not anymore its not. I agree its not. Not in this situation its not. Are they going to force all of us to become unruly because they utterly refuse to listen to us when they have the white gloves and the nice smile. As a matter of fact, nixon said he will not listen to us and not be dictated to from the people in the streets. The people in the streets are me we have to have respect for each others opinion and Free Society Without anybody getting hurt. And you look back in American History as the United States being number one, that means a lot, too. You will have to lose lives. If the majority rule, we will never disavow if the majority has to pick up the draft that we have from nam no matter what, then eventually it will reach the establishment and the bureaucracy will have to come down. It will have to come down and it will have to represent the people. The bureaucracy right now is too powerful. The government is too powerful. The neighbors and the people that lived in this community over 15, 20 years, i think theyre now beginning to realize and they do have some staic in that in the politics of their government and that we are the government. Here in garfield, see that we are represented and that our voices are heard and that it means something. I dont care if im just heard and they say to heck with it, but no one listens to us. Everyone is talking about revolution and i think the most effective revolution in this country would be a tax revolution. Dont pay your taxes. Well, i think it takes everybody, not just a few people. I think it takes the minority and they should get together and everybody strike. Everybody strike. What would that do . It would show the government that the people have a strong hold. We read a headline in the 1969 taxes go up 13 . Expect 20 raise in 1970 and we all sit back and accept it. Its been printed in advance. So would you agree with me in saying that the only people who benefit, who can gain anything because of our tax laws, are the very wealthy or the very poor who dont have anything so they dont pay any taxes and we support the country and yet we have the least to say about it . We are the silent majority and i believe that were becoming vocal, and we really want to do something about it. The definition of your silent majority i dont think agrees or is the same as president nixons oh, thats a myth. Thats a myth. Hes not talking about the silent majority youre talking about. The majority of people are not going to stay silent. They are becoming were beginning to talk. [ playing Yankee Doodle ] weeknights this month on American History tv were featuring the contenders. Our series that looks at 14 president ial candidates who lost the election, but had a lasting effect on u. S. Politics. Tonight, we feature former governor of alabama and fourtime president ial candidate george wallace. Watch tonight beginning at 8 00 eastern. Enjoy American History tv, this week and every weekend on cspan3. Every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan3 go inside a Different College classroom and hear about topics ranging from the american revolution, civil rights and u. S. President s to 9 11. Thanks for your patience and for logging into class. With most College Campuses closed due to the impact of the coronavirus watch professors transfer teaching to a virtual setting to engage with their students. Gosh chief executirbachev di work, but reagan met him half way. Meg reagan encouraged him. Reagan supported him. It is the freedom to print things and publish things. It is not a freedom for what we refer to institutionally as the press . Lectures in history on American History tv on cspan3, every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. 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