Is Many Americans have lost confidence in what their government has told them about our policy. The American People cannot and should not be asked to support a policy which involves the overall writing issues of war and peace, unless they know the truth about that policy. Tonight, therefore, i would like to answer some of the questions i know are on the minds of many of you listening to me. How and why did america get involved in vietnam in the first place . How has this administration changed the policy of the Previous Administration . What really happened in the negotiations in paris, on the battlefront, in vietnam. What choices do we have if we were to end the war. What are the prospects for peace . Let me begin by describing the situation i have found when i was inaugurated on january 20. The war had been going on for four years, 31,000 americans had been killed in action. The Training Program for the South Vietnamese was beyond schedule. 540,000 americans were in vietnam with no p
Peculiar way we count the two nonconsecutive administrations of Grover Cleveland in the 19th century. All 44 of those president s have been males. All but two of them have been white protestant males. , of the 44, have been elected to second terms, which is a room entry indicator of the character of our political system and its volatility. Scarcely more than one third of our chief executives beginning in the 18th century have been elected to a second term for one reason or another. Eight have died in office. Four have been assassination. Five have been elected without popular majorities. Three have been impeached and two of those in the lifetime of many people here today. Of all of those numbers, the one i want to of the size most, is the number one. By that, i mean the president is electedne of the 536 officials in washington, d. C. Strictly speaking, it is 537, and theers of congress, president and Vice President im treating as a single click on entity. So the president is one of 536
Of the character of our political system and its volatility. Scarcely more than one third of our chief executives, beginning in the 18th century, have been elected to a second term for one reason or another. Eight have died in office. Four have been assassination. Five have been elected without popular majorities. Three have been impeached, two of those in the lifetime of many people with us here today. Of all of those numbers, the one i want to of the size most, is the number one. By that i mean that the president is simply one of the 536 elected officials in washington, d. C. Strictly speaking, it is 537, 535 members of congress, and the im treating the president and Vice President for this purpose as a single entity. So the president is one of 536 elected officials. When i reflect on that asymmetry between the one president and 536 other federal elected officials, im reminded of a quip by the journalist theodore white, who wrote several books on president ial elections beginning in
Challenging times you can look at for events at harvard. Com events. Was subscribed to our newsletter. We will have time for questions at the end of the discussion. Go to the q a box and into a question well get to as many as we can. Also thank you for supporting Harvard Bookstore for your support during this trying time. Also there is a place to donate in the chat box which makes the author series possible now more than ever to support the independent landmark bookstore in support of the authors and the incredible staff of booksellers we sincerely appreciate your support now and always. As you may have experienced the last few months technical issues may arise and if they do we will do our best to resolve them quickly thank you for your patience and understanding. Im pleased to introduce tonight speaker a professor of history at the survey on modern european history ethnographic knowledge in the making of the soviet union including the price of American Historical Association Joshua R
Okay, thank you for coming out. Its wonderful to see you here today hello, my name is Christopher Mcknight nichols, im a historian at oregon state university, scholar of intellectual history of the u. S. Role in the world. I specialize in isolationism, internationalism, and globalization. My work is called promise and peril, america at the dawn of a global age, just out in paperback, you can buy a downstairs. I have the distinct pleasure of being the chair and coorganizer of this panel. Its a fascinating panel. Our panel is entitled turning. 1916, u. S. Foreign relations before and after that kept us out of war election. This is not just about u. S. Foreign relations, but also international relations. The spark for this panel is this intending all of the 1960 election in which Woodrow Wilson ran on a he kept us out of war platform, despite military intervention ongoing in the mexico and caribbean. This roundtable brings together superb historians to discuss whether 1916 should be as th