and he was able to tap into his own sense of renewal. as we look at america, we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame. we hear sirens in the night. we see americans dying on distant battlefields abroad. we see americans hating each other, fighting each other, killing each other at home. and as we see and hear these things, millions of americans cry out in anguish, did we come all this way for this? nixon s speech was designed to say, you know, i hear you. unless we stop shouting at one another, we can t hear one another. i mean, very powerful, powerful words. it is the quiet voice in the tumult of the shouting, it is the voice of the great majority of americans, the forgotten americans, the non shouters, the non demonstrators. nixon wrote that speech contrary to a lot of his speeches where he would be getting help from his
that was a done deal before the convention opened. the focus became on a peace plank in the democratic party platform, felt strongly by those of us who had been in the kennedy campaign or mccarthy or mcgovern campaign. this is the moment of truth for the democratic party. it was the issue of vietnam and deeply-held feelings that the killing had to stop that motivated robert kennedy to become a candidate for president. a bullet stilled that voice, but he s here today, and if he were alive today, he d be on that platform speaking for this minority plank. thank you. this is still a volatile convention as you see here with this demonstration on the floor. would stop the bombing now
nixon knew that he was making one of the great comebacks in american political history. and he was able to tap into his own sense of renewal. as we look at america, we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame. we hear sirens in the night. we see americans dying on distant battlefields abroad. we see americans hating each other, fighting each other, killing each other at home. and as we see and hear these things, millions of americans cry out in anguish, did we come all this way for this? nixon s speech was designed to say, you know, i hear you. unless we stop shouting at one another, we can t hear one another. i mean, very powerful, powerful words. it is the quiet voice in the tumult of the shouting, it is the voice of the great majority of americans, the forgotten americans, the non shouters, the non demonstrators. nixon wrote that speech