Nixonland. Part 36

Another bold move Nixon considered, then vetoed. In April the Supreme Court, 90, had issued its latest absolutely final ruling that the South's dual school systems were illegal, despite his solicitor general's arguments to the contrary, and Nixon had to choose his next move.

More than ever, it wasn't just a Southern issue. By the standards set by HEW, 18 percent of Southern blacks went to integrated schools in the 196869 school year and over 40 percent by 197172. But only 28 percent of black students in the rest rest of the country attended integrated schools. Nashville, Charlotte, Tampa-and Pontiac-were busing under court order. Almost a dozen cities in Pennsylvania were proceeding under tense voluntary agreements. The response was always the same, North, South, East, and West: panicked flight to the suburbs, private and parochial schools, and in the South, newly opened "Christian academies." Joe Kraft hoped the Ninety-second Congress would "hold the line against the anti-busing fanatics." But the "fanatics" spoke for 76 percent of the country-including 47 percent of blacks. Nixon ordered Ehrlichman and Haldeman to work up some kind antibusing law or executive order or const.i.tutional amendment. of the country attended integrated schools. Nashville, Charlotte, Tampa-and Pontiac-were busing under court order. Almost a dozen cities in Pennsylvania were proceeding under tense voluntary agreements. The response was always the same, North, South, East, and West: panicked flight to the suburbs, private and parochial schools, and in the South, newly opened "Christian academies." Joe Kraft hoped the Ninety-second Congress would "hold the line against the anti-busing fanatics." But the "fanatics" spoke for 76 percent of the country-including 47 percent of blacks. Nixon ordered Ehrlichman and Haldeman to work up some kind antibusing law or executive order or const.i.tutional amendment.

Then, he changed his mind.

He had breathed a sigh of relief when the 1968 Civil Rights Act had pa.s.sed; it released him from having to take a position on open housing. Now he realized judges had granted him the same favor. He could ruefully observe, I have consistently opposed the busing of our nation's schoolchildren to achieve a racial balance, but there is nothing I can do about it because the Supreme Court has tied my hands. I have consistently opposed the busing of our nation's schoolchildren to achieve a racial balance, but there is nothing I can do about it because the Supreme Court has tied my hands. Busing would give something to the Democrats to scratch each other's eyeb.a.l.l.s out over during the primaries. And provide all the more reason, if you hated it, to vote for Richard Nixon: he would nominate more conservative judges. Busing would give something to the Democrats to scratch each other's eyeb.a.l.l.s out over during the primaries. And provide all the more reason, if you hated it, to vote for Richard Nixon: he would nominate more conservative judges.

He soon had the chance. The day after that press conference where he tried to frame the thirty-fifth president of the United States for murder, as Americans absorbed the Attica ma.s.sacre, he received the resignation of eighty-five-year-old Supreme Court justice Hugo Black. Almost simultaneously, Justice John Marshall Harlan announced that he, too, would retire.

John Mitch.e.l.l proposed Richard Poff of Virginia, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, who had offered an amendment to strip from the 1966 civil rights bill the power to sue for civil rights violations. Poff decided he didn't welcome the confirmation fight, so Nixon cast his eye over Democrat Robert Byrd: another thing for the Dems to scratch each other's eyeb.a.l.l.s out over. "He's a real reactionary. The Democrats just made him their whip. And he was in the Ku Klux Klan when he was young. Send them a message." (That was George Wallace's slogan.) A list of six candidates leaked to the American Bar a.s.sociation revealed the political opportunism: Byrd, who'd never been admitted to the bar or practiced law; three undistinguished women, a nod to the ERA ferment (one was a segregationist leader); an appeals court judge who'd built his reputation defending Mississippi governor Ross Barnett against contempt charges when he'd refused to let James Meredith attend Ole Miss. Chief Justice Burger said he'd resign if any of them were appointed. "f.u.c.k him," Nixon responded. "f.u.c.k the ABA." Which somehow made it into the New Republic. New Republic. Which received a prompt letter from John Ehrlichman: "The simple fact is that in the many hours I have spent with the President I have never heard him use the word attributed to him in Mr. Osborne's piece." Which received a prompt letter from John Ehrlichman: "The simple fact is that in the many hours I have spent with the President I have never heard him use the word attributed to him in Mr. Osborne's piece."

Nixon was deferential enough to the ABA to change course: one of the eventual nominees was a former ABA president, the Virginian Lewis Powell. The other was the Justice Department's William Rehnquist. Both were received well by the experts. The White House heaved a sigh of relief: two conservatives had pa.s.sed the smell test. Powell was the author of a memo to the Chamber of Commerce arguing that "the American economic system is under broad attack...from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectuals and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians." He proposed a multipoint plan ("a long road and not one for the faint-hearted") to ideologically monitor universities and the media, push for more aggressive pro-business intervention into the courts, and politically organize corporations. Rehnquist had reportedly called for law and order in times of domestic insurrection "at whatever cost in individual liberties and rights."

"Rehnquist is pretty far right, isn't he?" Kissinger asked Haldeman.

"Oh, Christ," Haldeman replied. "He's way to the right of Buchanan."

Perhaps that was what restored Patrick Buchanan's faith in the president. In January 1971 he had written an angry seven-page memo about the White House's erratic ideological course. "Conservatives," he complained, "are the n.i.g.g.e.rs of the Nixon administration." (Nixon answered, "You overlook RN's consistent hard line on foreign policy," dissembling on the fact that he was about to sell out the "n.i.g.g.e.rs" on China.) Buchanan had turned down a chance to lead the Plumbers, but was downright l.u.s.tful in strategizing for the 1972 election. He had been refining his ideas on the subject since March, when he wrote, proposing a "Muskie Watch," that the campaign goal should be to "focus on those issues that divide the Democrats, not those that unite Republicans." That, he said in July, must be their "guiding political principle."

He knew the Old Man's heart. Nixon had been working that angle since 1948.

Buchanan filed his masterpiece on the subject in October. "Top level consideration should be given to ways and means to promote, a.s.sist, and fund a Fourth Party candidacy of the Left Democrats and/or the Black Democrats," he wrote. "There is nothing that can so advance the President's chances for reelection-not a trip to China, not four and a half percent unemployment." Though they should also hedge their bets, and "continue to champion the cause of the blacks within the Democratic Party"-promoting the message that "the Power Elite within the Party is denying them effective partic.i.p.ation." Keep a flow of letters full of damaging information on Democrats to journalists; fake a poll showing Humphrey ahead (he was third); keep the president out of everything-"the President and the Presidency" were "quintessential political a.s.sets"-cut welfare, even though the president had already increased food stamps and food a.s.sistance by 500 percent-it would "force a division within the Democratic Party." Continue the "positive polarization" formulation of Agnew in 1970-for if the presidential election "cut the Democratic Party and country in half," they would end up with "far the bigger half."

Sound political thinking, if a little bit coa.r.s.e, and also out-of-date. One of Buchanan's headings, "Republican Praise for Any Democratic Support on Vietnam"-because it would go "far toward making them 'Establishment' and driving a wedge between them and the ideological hard core of their party"-was mooted by the fact that there hardly was was any Democratic support on Vietnam anymore. Even the most conservative among the dozen or so politicians jockeying for the 1972 Democratic nomination, Henry "Scoop" Jackson, was for setting a date for withdrawal from Vietnam. any Democratic support on Vietnam anymore. Even the most conservative among the dozen or so politicians jockeying for the 1972 Democratic nomination, Henry "Scoop" Jackson, was for setting a date for withdrawal from Vietnam.

Fewer and fewer Republicans supported the president either. "Vietnamization" was beginning to sound too refined. "The sooner we get the h.e.l.l out of there, the better" was how Nixon's minority leader in the Senate, Hugh Scott, now stated it. "Period."

Nineteen seventy-two would tell.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

The Party of Jefferson, Jackson, and George Wallace THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM HELD THAT THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION might be won with only 40 percent of the popular vote. There might be five serious parties on the ballot in November, Tom Wicker wrote on January 2: "the two majors, Mr. Wallace's American Independents, another independent party deriving from the middle and the left headed by someone like Eugene McCarthy, and the even farther left group currently headed by Dr. Benjamin Spock." Wicker's more sober colleague Scotty Reston estimated five days later that there would only be four, and that, given the political exhaustion sweeping the land, "barely over one in four adult Americans will have voted for the winner in 1972.... The consequences of that kind of a minority Presidency are hard to foretell." In 1960, 6 million voters claimed no allegiance to either of the two major political parties. Now the number was over four times that. Flux was the keynote of politics now. might be won with only 40 percent of the popular vote. There might be five serious parties on the ballot in November, Tom Wicker wrote on January 2: "the two majors, Mr. Wallace's American Independents, another independent party deriving from the middle and the left headed by someone like Eugene McCarthy, and the even farther left group currently headed by Dr. Benjamin Spock." Wicker's more sober colleague Scotty Reston estimated five days later that there would only be four, and that, given the political exhaustion sweeping the land, "barely over one in four adult Americans will have voted for the winner in 1972.... The consequences of that kind of a minority Presidency are hard to foretell." In 1960, 6 million voters claimed no allegiance to either of the two major political parties. Now the number was over four times that. Flux was the keynote of politics now.

The president's approval rating was 49 percent. The January 17 Harris poll showed him running only a point ahead of Edmund Muskie (Wallace pulled 11 percent). The day after the Harris poll, a Broadway musical version of The Selling of the President, The Selling of the President, Joe McGinniss's account of how smoke, mirrors, and Pan-Cake makeup swept Nixon to the White House in 1968, was announced. When the president sat down in the Oval Office for a live interview with Dan Rather the day after New Year's, the Joe McGinniss's account of how smoke, mirrors, and Pan-Cake makeup swept Nixon to the White House in 1968, was announced. When the president sat down in the Oval Office for a live interview with Dan Rather the day after New Year's, the Times Times did a humiliating behind-the-scenes report emphasizing his familiarity with "7-N" ("a light pancake especially concocted for swarthy types like Mr. Nixon") and the recommendation of a television consultant "who still has Soupy Sales, the comic, among his clients" to refrigerate the set to thirty-five degrees; and the way Nixon angrily clenched his fist beneath his desk when asked if his diplomatic moves were timed for political effect. The "Anderson papers" were lighting up the news: muckraker Jack Anderson had discovered evidence of the National Security Council's aid and comfort to General Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan in suppressing Banglades.h.i.+ independence. The did a humiliating behind-the-scenes report emphasizing his familiarity with "7-N" ("a light pancake especially concocted for swarthy types like Mr. Nixon") and the recommendation of a television consultant "who still has Soupy Sales, the comic, among his clients" to refrigerate the set to thirty-five degrees; and the way Nixon angrily clenched his fist beneath his desk when asked if his diplomatic moves were timed for political effect. The "Anderson papers" were lighting up the news: muckraker Jack Anderson had discovered evidence of the National Security Council's aid and comfort to General Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan in suppressing Banglades.h.i.+ independence. The New York Times New York Times editorialized, "As the head of a minority party who has jettisoned much of the platform on which he once campaigned, he could solidly establish his leaders.h.i.+p only by winning public confidence on a broad scale.... Despite the initiatives and accomplishments of the last year, it cannot be said that President Nixon has gained that necessary public confidence." editorialized, "As the head of a minority party who has jettisoned much of the platform on which he once campaigned, he could solidly establish his leaders.h.i.+p only by winning public confidence on a broad scale.... Despite the initiatives and accomplishments of the last year, it cannot be said that President Nixon has gained that necessary public confidence."

The public was not much confident in anything. The new movies told stories of crumbling inst.i.tutions: The Hospital, The Hospital, starring George C. Scott as an suicidal doctor in a big-city hospital where patients died from bureaucratic dysfunction; Pasolini's starring George C. Scott as an suicidal doctor in a big-city hospital where patients died from bureaucratic dysfunction; Pasolini's Decameron, Decameron, where the Catholic Church was swallowed up in l.u.s.ty amorality; where the Catholic Church was swallowed up in l.u.s.ty amorality; Slaughterhouse-Five, Slaughterhouse-Five, which revealed the Army Air Corps of the "Good War" as slaughterers of innocents in Dresden. which revealed the Army Air Corps of the "Good War" as slaughterers of innocents in Dresden. The Last Picture Show The Last Picture Show unmasked the teenagers of 1950s Middle America, and unmasked the teenagers of 1950s Middle America, and Harold and Maude Harold and Maude old ladies as no more s.e.xually continent than the Woodstock generation. In old ladies as no more s.e.xually continent than the Woodstock generation. In The French Connection The French Connection the forces of law and order proved powerless in keeping heroin from flooding New York. In the forces of law and order proved powerless in keeping heroin from flooding New York. In Dirty Harry, Dirty Harry, San Francisco police were no more effectual in stopping a maniacal hippie sniper (in real life, during its run, three family pets were found mutilated and hung from a tree on January 13 in the exclusive Forest Hills district of San Francisco, then a fourth with a note reading, "I am not going to kill animals anymore. Just people"). San Francisco police were no more effectual in stopping a maniacal hippie sniper (in real life, during its run, three family pets were found mutilated and hung from a tree on January 13 in the exclusive Forest Hills district of San Francisco, then a fourth with a note reading, "I am not going to kill animals anymore. Just people").

In the entertainment pages of every big-city daily moviegoers searching out the playing times of Disney's Fantasia Fantasia were also apprised of the latest X-rated movies: were also apprised of the latest X-rated movies: The Stewardesses The Stewardesses ("Presented in the most realistic film process ever developed"), ("Presented in the most realistic film process ever developed"), Gla.s.s Houses Gla.s.s Houses ("The Story of the Sensuous Family!"), ("The Story of the Sensuous Family!"), Boys in the Sand Boys in the Sand ("All male cast"); ("All male cast"); Together, Together, the notorious European orgy movie ("See what your children can show you about love"), showing on twenty screens in all five boroughs of New York. Rex Reed called the new western the notorious European orgy movie ("See what your children can show you about love"), showing on twenty screens in all five boroughs of New York. Rex Reed called the new western Straw Dogs Straw Dogs a "blood bath for s.a.d.i.s.ts." Clayton Riley of the a "blood bath for s.a.d.i.s.ts." Clayton Riley of the New York Times New York Times called another unpredecentedly violent feature, called another unpredecentedly violent feature, Clockwork Orange, Clockwork Orange, a "criminally irresponsible horror show." But that was just one man's opinion; the a "criminally irresponsible horror show." But that was just one man's opinion; the Times Times also ran a review by Vincent Canby that called it "a disorienting but humane comedy." also ran a review by Vincent Canby that called it "a disorienting but humane comedy."

The presidential election unfolded as a referendum on the meaning of the 1960s and its toll on inst.i.tutions. No inst.i.tution was more up for grabs than the party of Jefferson and Jackson: Chisholm, McGovern, Lindsay, McCarthy, Hartke, Harris, Hughes, and Mink on the left to Humphrey, Muskie and Jackson in center field; and in right, Sam Yorty and the dreaded George Corley Wallace; so many Democrats intended to take on a weakened Richard Nixon that Topps came out with a set of collectible trading cards. At least Wallace said said he would run as a Democrat. Democrats hoped he would not: when the DNC held their lottery for hotel a.s.signments for the convention in July in Miami Beach, he was deliberately snubbed. he would run as a Democrat. Democrats hoped he would not: when the DNC held their lottery for hotel a.s.signments for the convention in July in Miami Beach, he was deliberately snubbed.

Back in 1968, Humphrey could win the nomination without entering a single primary. But thanks to the McGovern Commission guidelines 60 percent of the delegates in 1972 would be selected in open primaries. The rest would be chosen in party caucuses that outlawed all the old, unreformed stratagems: unannounced meetings, boss-appointed delegates, automatic berths for elected officials, "unit rules" by which a candidate favored by a mere majority of a delegation was automatically "delivered" all the delegation's votes.

No one was sure what it would take to win; nor, most of all, what kind of monkey wrench the 10 million newly eligible voters between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one would introduce. Only one thing was certain: the chances for a Democrat standing on the inauguration stand on January 20, 1973, were not just favorable, Senator Edward M. Kennedy said at a much antic.i.p.ated address before the Was.h.i.+ngton Press Club on January 17, but "extremely favorable."

Ted Kennedy wasn't running, or was; it would become a quadrennial tradition, this Kennedy tea-leaf reading. California Democrats announced on January 11 he would be headlining their rally at the L.A. Convention Center, and surely that meant something something-then the next day Kennedy filed an affidavit affirming that he wouldn't be running in the second primary of the season, in Florida, a contest being watched more closely than New Hamps.h.i.+re (a shoo-in for Muskie from neighboring Maine). On the seventeenth, a forest of TV cameras at the Was.h.i.+ngton Press Club recorded another Kennedy disavowal-but also set off another round of Kennedyology: if he really really wouldn't run, why did he invoke JFK, asking America to embrace a leader "who asks not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country"? wouldn't run, why did he invoke JFK, asking America to embrace a leader "who asks not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country"?

The speech was featured in a major spread on the front page of the next day's Was.h.i.+ngton Post. Was.h.i.+ngton Post. Next to the jump was an ad for the February issue of Next to the jump was an ad for the February issue of Esquire Esquire with Teddy's face on the cover: "Is This Man the 38th President of the United States?" Five days later his friend Mike Mansfield announced he would advocate for Secret Service protection for Kennedy-even though he was "personally convinced that Senator Kennedy means it when he says he is not a candidate." with Teddy's face on the cover: "Is This Man the 38th President of the United States?" Five days later his friend Mike Mansfield announced he would advocate for Secret Service protection for Kennedy-even though he was "personally convinced that Senator Kennedy means it when he says he is not a candidate."

But then, they were handing out Secret Service protection like candy. Patsy Mink of Hawaii got to welcome burly men with police radios into her life for filing in a couple of primaries, though not the thirty-two-year-old poverty worker Edward T. Coll, who filed in New Hamps.h.i.+re even though he was too young to be inaugurated. Coll did get a spot on the podium for a televised debate. He exploited his fifteen minutes of fame by dangling a rubber rodent before the cameras and crying, "We can't do anything in this country until we do something about the rat!" Sam Yorty, the Los Angeles mayor, tooled around New Hamps.h.i.+re in a "Yortymobile" with the sponsors.h.i.+p of the right-wing publisher of the Manchester Union Leader, Manchester Union Leader, William Loeb, who called the front-runner "Moscow Muskie." Wilbur Mills, the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, was running even though a poll gave the pear-shaped solon 1 percent support; the rumor was that he had been put up as stalking horse for Teddy. Senator Vance Hartke made a last-minute entrance, the other Indiana senator, Birch Bayh, having already dipped his toe in the water and withdrawn, as had Wisconsin's William Proxmire. William Loeb, who called the front-runner "Moscow Muskie." Wilbur Mills, the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, was running even though a poll gave the pear-shaped solon 1 percent support; the rumor was that he had been put up as stalking horse for Teddy. Senator Vance Hartke made a last-minute entrance, the other Indiana senator, Birch Bayh, having already dipped his toe in the water and withdrawn, as had Wisconsin's William Proxmire.

There were even two Republicans. The former marine Pete McCloskey ("leaders.h.i.+p as tough as the problems") said he'd gladly withdraw when Nixon withdrew from Vietnam. The other Republican, Ohio congressman John Ashbrook, spoke for conservatives disillusioned by the China opening, Nixon's supposed soft approach to Vietnam, and the heretical economic program Milton Friedman said in his Newsweek Newsweek column would "end as all previous attempts to freeze prices and wages have ended, from the time of the Roman emperors to the present, in utter failure and the emergence into the open of the suppressed inflation." Ashbrook's slogan was "No Left Turns." Nixon moved to buy off Ashbrook's supporters by making right turns-scuttling amendments to the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 to extend aid for child care and create a national legal services corporation as "truly a long leap into the dark for the United States government and the American people"; and appointing a forgotten right-wing martyr, Otto Otepka, a former State Department officer cas.h.i.+ered by President Kennedy as a McCarthyite, to the Subversive Activities Control Board. It worked: column would "end as all previous attempts to freeze prices and wages have ended, from the time of the Roman emperors to the present, in utter failure and the emergence into the open of the suppressed inflation." Ashbrook's slogan was "No Left Turns." Nixon moved to buy off Ashbrook's supporters by making right turns-scuttling amendments to the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 to extend aid for child care and create a national legal services corporation as "truly a long leap into the dark for the United States government and the American people"; and appointing a forgotten right-wing martyr, Otto Otepka, a former State Department officer cas.h.i.+ered by President Kennedy as a McCarthyite, to the Subversive Activities Control Board. It worked: National Review National Review endorsed Nixon. However, Herb Klein wasn't exactly raising expectations: he predicted a 70 percent showing in New Hamps.h.i.+re on March 7-eight points fewer than the president had received in 1968. endorsed Nixon. However, Herb Klein wasn't exactly raising expectations: he predicted a 70 percent showing in New Hamps.h.i.+re on March 7-eight points fewer than the president had received in 1968.

Some thought one of the Democratic aspirants resembled a Republican. Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Was.h.i.+ngton called himself a "bread-and-b.u.t.ter shoe-leather" Democrat and proposed adding half a million new jobs to the public-sector payroll, but his standard stump speech emphasized the peril of the USSR's missile buildup, and President Nixon had twice invited Jackson to join his cabinet. The New York Times New York Times reported, "He hopes for major financial support from defense contractors and other businessmen." Jackson enjoyed a vogue among the chattering cla.s.ses: "He stands where the majority of the voters presumably stand," Richard Whalen, a onetime Nixon staffer, wrote in a profile of Jackson in the reported, "He hopes for major financial support from defense contractors and other businessmen." Jackson enjoyed a vogue among the chattering cla.s.ses: "He stands where the majority of the voters presumably stand," Richard Whalen, a onetime Nixon staffer, wrote in a profile of Jackson in the New York Times Magazine, New York Times Magazine, "somewhat to the right on social issues, to the left on economic issues and, withal, astride the commanding center of American politics." His campaign manager said his future would be determined by his showing in Florida. His itinerary there was in Dixiefied north Florida; his refrain, "People on welfare should be put to work," and, "I'm opposed to this business of busing people all over the place." "somewhat to the right on social issues, to the left on economic issues and, withal, astride the commanding center of American politics." His campaign manager said his future would be determined by his showing in Florida. His itinerary there was in Dixiefied north Florida; his refrain, "People on welfare should be put to work," and, "I'm opposed to this business of busing people all over the place."

Another Democratic aspirant had recently been been a Republican: John Lindsay. He was still a media darling, a regular on Johnny Carson's a Republican: John Lindsay. He was still a media darling, a regular on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show Tonight Show; dazzled by his charisma (and his opening campaign event at the Radio City Music Hall premiere of the Robert Redford movie The Hot Rock The Hot Rock), the media seemed not to be noticing that his New York was becoming the symbol for everything wearying and gross about the United States. He switched parties for a presidential run late in 1971-even as a New York Times New York Times op-ed described Central Park under his tenure as "a combination of decadence and barbarism; a cut-rate op-ed described Central Park under his tenure as "a combination of decadence and barbarism; a cut-rate Fellini Satyricon Fellini Satyricon"; even though the welfare population had doubled since his first election; even though the Knapp Commission, and its star witness, Frank Serpico, revealed that much of the New York City police force operated something like the mob. The month of Lindsay's presidential announcement was a typical one in Gotham. A survey by the Addicts Rehabilitation Center found that one out of six Harlem residents was hooked on heroin. ("One of the most demoralizing experiences I have ever had in Harlem was being panhandled by a 12-year-old junkie," Congressman Charlie Rangel wrote in an op-ed.) "City Restrooms May Be Razed," one headline announced (too convenient for those junkies); "1,625 Slayings Here in '71 as Rate Continues to Rise"; and-the story would later inspire a movie called Dog Day Afternoon Dog Day Afternoon-"42d Street Crowd Helps Robber Flee." The headline below that was "Widow, 69, Is Slain in Queens Project." As if to keep the city sane, the Daily News Daily News ran a regular feature called "What's Good About New York." ran a regular feature called "What's Good About New York."

Meanwhile the city had realized it needed more low-income "scatter site" public housing to conform to HUD guidelines. Lindsay chose to put some of it in Forest Hills, in Queens, where Brooklyn and Lower East Side Jews had moved from crowded tenements after World War II in their first step on the upward-mobility ladder. Jews, Lindsay thought, wouldn't protest the arrival of poor blacks; they were liberal. But Jews who had mortgaged everything they had to leave leave crime-ridden poor neighborhoods, it arrived, did not prove so obliging. crime-ridden poor neighborhoods, it arrived, did not prove so obliging.

Lindsay had ignored the existing racial tensions in Forest Hills schools. The meetings to explain how most of the new public housing residents would be senior citizens, how families would be carefully screened, that the development would bring a slew of new social service amenities, were scheduled on Friday nights, when elderly refugees from Hitler's Germany-the most scared and vulnerable members of the community-attended synagogue. Jack Newfield tagged along at a damage-control session at the Forest Hills Jewish Community Center and heard them "call Lindsay redneck names under the shadow of the Torah." His Village Voice Village Voice colleague Paul Cowan heard one anti-Lindsay picketer boast, "If Lindsay ever gets to be president, I'll kill him. I'll do just what Oswald did to John Kennedy." His companion replied, "You won't get the chance. Lindsay is going to get shot right here in New York." colleague Paul Cowan heard one anti-Lindsay picketer boast, "If Lindsay ever gets to be president, I'll kill him. I'll do just what Oswald did to John Kennedy." His companion replied, "You won't get the chance. Lindsay is going to get shot right here in New York."

Lindsay's presidential strategy was to pour all his energy into a ma.s.sive canva.s.sing effort among Miami's huge population of liberal erstwhile New York Jews, pledging them "an undying fight against the kind of right-wing extremism that always eventually settled on Jews as its object." He pledged a "new national effort to rescue our cities." But South Florida Jews had fled those cities for the same reason their less well-off landsmen had left the Lower East Side for Forest Hills. "That b.u.m," one bubbe bubbe huffed at a shopping center. "He can't run New York and now he wants to run the country." huffed at a shopping center. "He can't run New York and now he wants to run the country."

Old warhorse Humphrey was also pus.h.i.+ng hard in the Suns.h.i.+ne State. He hoped to carry the black vote. But he was also courting backlash hero Frank Rizzo, who had been sworn in as the 120th mayor of the City of Brotherly Love on January 3 before an audience of three thousand pledging, "I will not tolerate gang rule or anarchy in the street." Humphrey promised to kick off his general election campaign in Philadelphia if Rizzo would endorse him-ignoring that the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was begging the city to stop stonewalling an investigation into abuses in his police department. But Rizzo was already committed to another candidate. The mayor was one of only three politicians-the others were Ronald Reagan and Nelson Rockefeller-on a regular calling schedule with top White House aides. Nixon received Rizzo in the Oval Office on January 24, the day before a big Vietnam speech-despite, or possibly because of, an aide's advice that "in dealing with Mayor Rizzo of Philadelphia, representatives of the Administration should be particularly conscious of the strong anti-black overtones which characterized his campaign." The leader of the "Rizzocrats" promised the president to do anything in his power to help a.s.sure his reelection.

Nixon and Humphrey's simultaneous courting of Rizzo, Lindsay's stand against imminent anti-Jewish pogroms, Scoop Jackson's traipsing across the rural precincts where George Smathers once beat Claude Pepper for a Senate seat by calling him a "s.e.xagenarian": it all paid silent tribute to the strangest Democratic aspirant of all.

Tom Turnipseed had been busy organizing to get George Wallace on the ballot of all fifty states as a third-party candidate when his boss casually drawled, "I'm tired of those kooks in the third-party business. It's crazy. I'm thinking about going back into the Democratic Party." Wallace traveled to Tallaha.s.see in January to announce he was entering primaries. Soon, he was ahead in the Florida polls, where he had adjusted his rhetoric for upwardly mobile professionals who'd moved from city to suburb for a better and safer life for their children; he wasn't just for rednecks anymore. A beautiful new, young wife by his side, he explained that blacks had the same right to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps as anyone else, buy a nice home, a car or two in the garage, send their kids to nice suburban schools. The problem was forced forced desegregation, which let folks jump the queue: "Now, on this busing, I said many years ago, if we don't stop the federal takeover of the schools, there'd be chaos. Well, what've we got? Chaos." Apparently, upward of 40 percent of Florida Democratic voters agreed. The "serious" contenders stopped scheduling big outdoor rallies. It only embarra.s.sed them when they could only pull in a quarter of Wallace's crowds. desegregation, which let folks jump the queue: "Now, on this busing, I said many years ago, if we don't stop the federal takeover of the schools, there'd be chaos. Well, what've we got? Chaos." Apparently, upward of 40 percent of Florida Democratic voters agreed. The "serious" contenders stopped scheduling big outdoor rallies. It only embarra.s.sed them when they could only pull in a quarter of Wallace's crowds.

The final group of contenders, meanwhile, believed Americans had never been more ready for an appeal to their better angels.

s.h.i.+rley Chisholm, the first black woman to win a seat in Congress, gave her candidacy announcement at Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn: "I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black black and and proud. proud.

"I am not a candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman, woman, and equally proud of that. and equally proud of that.

"I am the candidate of the people people of America.... Americans all over are demanding a new sensibility, a new philosophy of government in Was.h.i.+ngton. Our will can create a of America.... Americans all over are demanding a new sensibility, a new philosophy of government in Was.h.i.+ngton. Our will can create a new new America in 1972, one where there's freedom from violence and war at home and abroad, where there's freedom from poverty and discrimination...ensuring for everyone medical care, employment, and decent housing. Those of you who can vote for the first time, those of you who believe that the inst.i.tutions of government belong to all the people who inhabit it, those of you who have been neglected, left out, ignored, forgotten, or shunted aside for any reason, America in 1972, one where there's freedom from violence and war at home and abroad, where there's freedom from poverty and discrimination...ensuring for everyone medical care, employment, and decent housing. Those of you who can vote for the first time, those of you who believe that the inst.i.tutions of government belong to all the people who inhabit it, those of you who have been neglected, left out, ignored, forgotten, or shunted aside for any reason, give me your help give me your help at this hour." at this hour."

And even if s.h.i.+rley Chisholm was the longest of the long shots, a slew of New Politics candidates were telling the exact same story-that, as no less than Teddy Kennedy said at the Was.h.i.+ngton Press Club, America's problems stem "not so much from the fact that people mistrust their government as from the fact that the government so obviously mistrusts the people."

The New Politics Democrats' logic came down to a chain of antinomies. Americans were turning against Nixon in the polls, angry at his embrace of secrecy; so the candidate who could beat Nixon in November would be the one to most credibly embrace openness. Nixon dripped cynicism from every pore; so the candidate to beat Nixon would have to exude idealism. Nixon was all insincerity; the anti-Nixon had to be genuine, an antipolitician. Nixon attracted the alienated old. The anti-Nixon would have to be a magnet for the authenticity-seeking young. Nixon was a creature of the system. His vanquisher would have to come from the gra.s.s roots. Nixon was unprincipled and unpopular; the Democratic nominee would have to be principled to be popular. Nixon asked citizens to be spectators; a politics to oppose him would have to be based on partic.i.p.atory democracy. partic.i.p.atory democracy.

Most of all, Richard Nixon was dragging out an evil, awful, unpopular war. The candidate to beat him would be the one who pledged to end it the fastest. Such as George McGovern, who said in an August 1971 interview, "I would announce on Inauguration Day that we were simply leaving on such and such a date-lock, stock, and barrel. Perhaps I'd take a couple of days to notify the interested governments, but no longer." He called My Lai "just a tiny pimple on the surface of a raging boil. The whole war is a ma.s.sacre of innocent people and we all share in the guilt for it. Probably one million innocent people have been slaughtered or maimed by American bombs and artillery. Another four or five million have been systematically driven out of their homes and herded into miserable refugee centers."

Theorists such as Fred Dutton, in Changing Sources of Power, Changing Sources of Power, argued that the people who resonated to this message were America's ascendant political coalition: newly enfranchised students, highly educated professionals, dispossessed minorities, women coming into feminist consciousness. Even the Wallace surge fit into the theory: his followers were a subspecies of the argued that the people who resonated to this message were America's ascendant political coalition: newly enfranchised students, highly educated professionals, dispossessed minorities, women coming into feminist consciousness. Even the Wallace surge fit into the theory: his followers were a subspecies of the alienated American, alienated American, angry because they were shut out from the Establishment. Dutton insisted that "some of the younger voters who were for Wallace in '68 were concerned less with his racial connotations than his stance as a fighter and his role as the most anti-establishment candidate available that year." Speaking to those yearning for reform was not just a matter of right. The new path to power for the ambitious politician, Dutton argued, "the growing edge of the present," was the rising "coalition of conscience and decency." angry because they were shut out from the Establishment. Dutton insisted that "some of the younger voters who were for Wallace in '68 were concerned less with his racial connotations than his stance as a fighter and his role as the most anti-establishment candidate available that year." Speaking to those yearning for reform was not just a matter of right. The new path to power for the ambitious politician, Dutton argued, "the growing edge of the present," was the rising "coalition of conscience and decency."

Scotty Reston was one of Dutton's appreciative readers, giving his strategy an entire column. "The spreading estrangement of millions of Americans from the two traditional political parties makes increasingly relevant the possibility of a new national political base developing-not just a pa.s.sing protest vote, but an important mainstream development," Dutton told Reston, "humanistic, critical of big business, big labor, and big government-probably 'Nader populist' at heart." The Timesman found it "hard to deny" and compared the message's vote-getting power favorably to Spiro Agnew's. Corporate America, after all, took New Politics arguments seriously. One index was the continued hot sales of The Greening of America. The Greening of America. Another came when the huge new media conglomerate Warner Communications put out the first issue of a new feminist magazine, Another came when the huge new media conglomerate Warner Communications put out the first issue of a new feminist magazine, Ms., Ms., edited by Gloria Steinem, as an insert in the year-end issue of edited by Gloria Steinem, as an insert in the year-end issue of New York. New York. It brought in an immediate eighty-five thousand subscriber cards; the first stand-alone issue, which came out as the Equal Rights Amendment was about to pa.s.s the Senate, sold out in eight days. It brought in an immediate eighty-five thousand subscriber cards; the first stand-alone issue, which came out as the Equal Rights Amendment was about to pa.s.s the Senate, sold out in eight days.

New Politics presidential hopefuls were legion: Lindsay, Chisholm, McCarthy, Senators Harold Hughes of Iowa and Fred Harris of Oklahoma. Hughes and Harris dropped out, though, in the face of the fellow prairie populist who had concertedly been organizing for a presidential run since the summer of 1970. All he had to show for it was 3 percent in the year-opening Gallup poll. He was, however, drawing the attention of the president. George McGovern had made direct contact with the Communist enemy, and that placed him at the center of Richard Nixon's concerns.

McGovern was an idealist, confident in the power of goodwill to change the world. In graduate school at Northwestern, during a late-night bull session, another student asked him, "George, what makes you tick?" The South Dakotan thought of his father, a rural fundamentalist minister, and uttered a favorite quotation from the Gospel of St. Matthew: "Whoever shall save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it."

He kept that verse on his Senate office wall. Others, too, though they were too small for visitors to notice: "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk kindly with thy G.o.d."

"Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

"He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone."

"And as you would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."

A promising schoolboy debater, he had found joy in picking out the logical fallacies in his opponents' arguments. But his coach tried in vain to teach him to attack them at their other points of vulnerability, or to enliven his presentation with histrionics and hand gestures. "George's colorfulness," he recalled, "was his colorlessness."

In World War II, McGovern became a heroic bomber pilot. One time he completed a mission after taking a hit that blew out The Dakota Queen The Dakota Queen's brakes and hydraulics. Still another time, he lost his number two engine, landing miraculously on a too short runway under harrowing fire, calm the whole time: "Resume your stations," he called out to his crew. "We're bringing her home."

But he was a war hero who'd come away with a sense of war's madness seared deeply onto his conscience, a Cold War skeptic who thought the people ravening for another go at Russia were nuts. He cranked the Dakota Wesleyan history department's mimeograph machine for Henry Wallace's 1948 third-party, left-wing presidential bid, fought the bill Richard Nixon cosponsored with McGovern's home-state senator Karl Mundt to require Communists to register with the federal government, then fell in love with Adlai Stevenson and nearly single-handedly built the South Dakota Democratic Party. When it came time to run for office himself, to win the loyalties of the conservative farmers and farm wives of South Dakota, he mastered a difficult straddle. "I can present liberal values in a conservative, restrained way," he explained. "I see myself as a politician of reconciliation." The young professor won a congressional seat in 1956 despite the suspicious American Legion members who sat in on his cla.s.ses, taking notes. In his first roll call he was one of only sixty-one congressmen to vote against the "Eisenhower Doctrine," a kind of 1957 Gulf of Tonkin resolution for the Middle East.

His sincerity and charm weren't enough, in 1960, to b.u.mp him up to the Senate against Karl Mundt. President Kennedy felt guilty for his lack of coattails and tapped the now unemployed McGovern to set up the Food for Peace program, a scheme to strengthen Cold War alliances by distributing America's agricultural surplus. It suited his idealistic faith in the power of government to do good. He had learned about hunger in the Depression, witnessing the dust bowl firsthand; it was "the first day I knew that big men cried." He won the Senate seat he coveted in 1962, then in 1963 became the first member to speak against the gathering U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Bobby Kennedy called him "the most decent man in the Senate," adding: "As a matter of fact, he's the only one." He also, when he looked in the mirror, saw a presidential prospect staring back. By the middle of 1971, he was nearly alone in the opinion. "Is George McGovern Serious?" ran a typical headline. Jimmy the Greek, the Vegas oddsmaker, gave him a 501 shot to get the nomination (Muskie was 25).

McGovern had faced his first test in August of 1970, a fund-raising dinner at the home of actress s.h.i.+rley MacLaine. She was a good friend for McGovern to have; she had been part, alongside her brother, Warren Beatty, of JFK's Hollywood circle. The rich and famous guests saw him in his creased blue-and-white-striped suit that made him look as if he'd never dressed for a crowd outside of Pierre, South Dakota, heard him speak in what Norman Mailer would later describe as that "d.a.m.nable gentle singsong prairie voice" (it had a hint of a lisp) and pa.s.sed judgment: "This guy's better than Seconal," one said-the prescription tranquilizer. When McGovern had announced his candidacy at the beginning of '71, so few people had heard of him that George Gallup refused to poll him in matchups with Nixon.

McGovern gave an interview in Playboy Playboy for those thumbing their way toward Miss August. "It may sound old-fas.h.i.+oned to say that I love this country," he said, "but I do and I'm deeply distressed over the mistaken direction we're pursuing." And: "I think a sense of decency-not prudishness nor sanctimonious self-righteousness but old-fas.h.i.+oned concern and love for others-will be essential in the next president." And: "My princ.i.p.al a.s.sets I have as a candidate are my reputation and my record of being myself," and "steady dependable temperament, as well as a sense of history and some degree of imagination." for those thumbing their way toward Miss August. "It may sound old-fas.h.i.+oned to say that I love this country," he said, "but I do and I'm deeply distressed over the mistaken direction we're pursuing." And: "I think a sense of decency-not prudishness nor sanctimonious self-righteousness but old-fas.h.i.+oned concern and love for others-will be essential in the next president." And: "My princ.i.p.al a.s.sets I have as a candidate are my reputation and my record of being myself," and "steady dependable temperament, as well as a sense of history and some degree of imagination."

By fall, people started waking up. In September sweet, sappy George McGovern took a brave risk for peace. It was pro forma in every Nixon speech on Vietnam that the insolent Communists refused to entertain reasonable terms upon which to settle the war-and that no matter what the United States did, they would refuse to release American prisoners of war. McGovern decided to test the proposition for himself. He flew to Paris and asked the North Vietnamese negotiators whether the establishment of a date certain for withdrawal of American troops would get the prisoners released, even if the United States continued to support President Thieu's government in Saigon. They responded that it was only the presence of American troops in South Vietnam that kept Thieu in power and hinted that if Thieu faced a fair election, not one in which he was the only candidate, the Communists' conditions for releasing the prisoners would have been met. The war could be ended without further bloodshed, on terms the United States had always claimed it wanted: self-determination for South Vietnam.

On September 12, McGovern announced that what he had learned in Paris was 180 degrees from the official wisdom: the roadblock to a negotiated settlement was not North Vietnam but the United States of America. Then he flew to Saigon. Nguyen Van Thieu, dependent on American sufferance for his job and terrified Vietnamization would mean his death sentence, apparently didn't appreciate this American stranger hastening that day of reckoning. In Saigon, McGovern and his party met with the non-Communist opposition to Thieu at a church with broad gla.s.s windows and a lovely courtyard. McGovern's executive a.s.sistant Gordon Weil noticed a flash of light over his shoulder: a firebomb attack. Rocks started cras.h.i.+ng through the window. One missed McGovern's head by inches. The Saigon fire department arrived and poured water on the blaze-and, once it was out, retreated and let the rock throwing continue.

The Saigon police chief who had left the party to their fate, claiming they were meeting with Communists, was the fiance of President Thieu's daughter. These were the thugs American boys were fighting and dying for. George McGovern redoubled his resolve.

Nixon had held a November press conference announcing a pullback of forty-five thousand more troops by the beginning of the year. Then, on Christmas Day, 350 American planes began the most punis.h.i.+ng bombing raids since November of 1968-conducted, the White House said, "to protect the safety and security of our remaining American forces in South Vietnam."

After that, Nixon made another announcement: he was withdrawing seventy thousand more troops over the next three months. "This means that our troop ceiling by May first will be down to sixty-nine thousand.... There will be another announcement that will be made before May first with regard to a further withdrawal."

This pattern-fewer troops, more violence-gave Vietnamization a certain Lewis Carrolllike flavor: the closer the war came to ending, the more Vietnamese were ma.s.sacred. It was, at least, an effective strategy for tamping down domestic dissent: fewer Americans on the ground meant fewer American deaths. The only real antiwar action after the "Christmas bombings," in fact, came from Vietnam Veterans Against the War, who commandeered the Statue of Liberty and hung an American flag upside down from her crown. They had a hard time getting anyone to pay attention. On New Year's Eve in Times Square (where the armed forces recruiting station was boarded up), antiwar demonstrators were overshadowed by the new Christian hippie movement, the Jesus People.

The president had arrived at another stratagem to neuter antiwar voices. His every utterance on what America was trying to accomplish was now framed in terms of bringing home the prisoners of war. Since America was no longer fighting for anything palpable-let alone to contain China-the new rationale was circular: we were fighting the war by air to bring home those POWs that fighting the air war had created. On their hit TV variety show, Sonny and Cher began wearing copper bracelets inscribed with a prisoner's name. Citizens, especially children, started wearing two, three, a half dozen on each arm. A new b.u.mper sticker proliferated-a frowny face, and the legend POWS NEVER HAVE A NICE DAY. POWS NEVER HAVE A NICE DAY. Military public relations men began touring returned prisoners around the country. "Following the President's lead," Jonathan Sch.e.l.l of the Military public relations men began touring returned prisoners around the country. "Following the President's lead," Jonathan Sch.e.l.l of the New Yorker New Yorker observed, "people began to speak as though the North Vietnamese had kidnapped 400 Americans and the United States had gone to war to retrieve them." Dan Rather asked the president on January 2, 1972, about Americans who'd left the country to avoid military service: "Is there observed, "people began to speak as though the North Vietnamese had kidnapped 400 Americans and the United States had gone to war to retrieve them." Dan Rather asked the president on January 2, 1972, about Americans who'd left the country to avoid military service: "Is there no no amount of alternative service under which you could foresee granting amnesty?" Nixon responded, "As long as there are any POWs held by the North Vietnamese, there will be no amnesty for those who have deserted their country." After all, he said, a deal to withdraw all American forces in exchange for the release of American prisoners had been "under discussion at various times," but was "totally rejected" by the enemy. amount of alternative service under which you could foresee granting amnesty?" Nixon responded, "As long as there are any POWs held by the North Vietnamese, there will be no amnesty for those who have deserted their country." After all, he said, a deal to withdraw all American forces in exchange for the release of American prisoners had been "under discussion at various times," but was "totally rejected" by the enemy.

In other words, you could protest the president's conduct of the war, but not without betraying the residents of the Hanoi Hilton.

What Nixon was telling the nation was exactly the opposite of what the Provisional Army of Vietnam's negotiators had told George McGovern in Paris. So McGovern made a move.

At a press conference on January 8 he called the president a liar: "It is simply not true, and the president knows it's not true, that our negotiators in Paris never discussed with the North Vietnamese the question of total American withdrawal from Indochina in conjunction with the release of our prisoners." If the goal really really was getting prisoners released, why didn't Nixon announce that all troops would be withdrawn within six months of an agreement, which the enemy had said would be a satisfactory condition for releasing the prisoners? "There was nothing to lose," the idealist implored, "and, G.o.d willing, much to gain." What the North Vietnamese had told him led McGovern to believe that Nixon wasn't negotiating particularly intensely to end the war at all. Instead the president was cruelly was getting prisoners released, why didn't Nixon announce that all troops would be withdrawn within six months of an agreement, which the enemy had said would be a satisfactory condition for releasing the prisoners? "There was nothing to lose," the idealist implored, "and, G.o.d willing, much to gain." What the North Vietnamese had told him led McGovern to believe that Nixon wasn't negotiating particularly intensely to end the war at all. Instead the president was cruelly using using the prisoners in a rhetorical game to justify continued bombing and "propping up the corrupt Thieu regime." the prisoners in a rhetorical game to justify continued bombing and "propping up the corrupt Thieu regime."

A sucker's game, to try to play Vietnam politics with Richard Nixon, where honesty was always the worst policy. "They're out on a limb there," the commander in chief told Haldeman, with no small glee. He was about to saw that limb clear through.

The president stepped up to the TV cameras on January 25. He was sometimes asked, Nixon explained, if there was anything having to do with the negotiations in Paris that he wasn't sharing with the American people. He said his usual response was merely to say that "we were pursuing every possible channel in our search for peace."

Now he was ready to explain to the American people a little white lie.

"Early in this administration, after ten months of no progress in the public Paris talks, I became convinced that it was necessary to explore the possibility of negotiating in private channels, to see whether it would be possible to end the deadlock." So he sent Henry Kissinger to Paris twelve times on secret missions. "Privately," he explained earnestly, "both sides can be more flexible in offering new approaches, and also private discussions allow both sides to talk frankly, to take positions free from the pressure of public debate."

And wouldn't you know it, quelle coincidence: quelle coincidence: the exact moment at which one of his Democratic opponents had seized the public's imagination with the revelation that the enemy was ready to end the war on exactly the terms Richard Nixon claimed they had rejected, he was now able to reveal what secret negotiations had yielded, "a plan to end the war now. It includes an offer to withdraw all American forces within six months of an agreement; its acceptance would mean the speedy return of all the prisoners of war to their homes." the exact moment at which one of his Democratic opponents had seized the public's imagination with the revelation that the enemy was ready to end the war on exactly the terms Richard Nixon claimed they had rejected, he was now able to reveal what secret negotiations had yielded, "a plan to end the war now. It includes an offer to withdraw all American forces within six months of an agreement; its acceptance would mean the speedy return of all the prisoners of war to their homes."

He didn't mention George S. McGovern-just "some Americans who believed what the North Vietnamese led them to believe...that the United States has not pursued negotiations intensively." Nixon didn't say the timing of his speech had anything to do with this particular domestic political diversion-just that "nothing is served by silence when it enables the other side to imply possible solutions publicly that it has already flatly rejected privately." Instead, he implied that a certain meddling Democrat, who would have you trust the word of Communists over the word of the president of the United States, had almost queered the whole deal with his meddling.

"We are being asked publicly to respond to proposals that we answered, and in some respects accepted, months ago in private.

"We are being asked publicly to set a terminal date for our withdrawals when we already offered one in private."

He ended his speech in tones of rue: rue that a certain unnamed Democratic senator had let himself be used for the enemy's purposes.

"The truth is that we did did respond to the enemy's plan, in the manner they wanted us to respond-secretly. In full possession of our complete response, the North Vietnamese publicly denounced us for not having responded at all. They induced many Americans in the press and the Congress into echoing their propaganda-Americans who could not know they were being falsely used by the enemy to stir up divisiveness in this country." respond to the enemy's plan, in the manner they wanted us to respond-secretly. In full possession of our complete response, the North Vietnamese publicly denounced us for not having responded at all. They induced many Americans in the press and the Congress into echoing their propaganda-Americans who could not know they were being falsely used by the enemy to stir up divisiveness in this country."

All this was only possible, he implied, because certain Americans did not behave like Americans at all. They had the temerity to believe the president would lie.

"Some of our citizens have become accustomed to thinking that whatever our government says must be false, and whatever our enemies say must be true, as far as this war is concerned. Well, the record I have revealed tonight proves the contrary. We can now demonstrate publicly what we have long been demonstrating privately-that America has taken the initiative not only to end our partic.i.p.ation in this war, but to end the war itself for all concerned.

"This has been the longest, the most difficult war in American history.

"Honest and patriotic Americans have disagreed as to whether we should have become involved at all nine years ago."

(Remember who was president nine years ago.) "And there has been disagreement on the conduct of the war. The proposal I have made tonight is one on which we all can agree."

("To lower our voices would be a simple thing.") "Let us unite now, unite in our search for peace-a peace that is fair to both sides-a peace that can last.

"Thank you and good night."

A New York Times New York Times editorial revealed just how efficiently the olive branch McGovern had been sitting on was sawed off: "By agreeing to set a fixed date for the withdrawal of American forces from South Vietnam in exchange for the return of prisoners of war, the President has moved dramatically in the direction long advocated by many members of Congress." The tabloid editorial revealed just how efficiently the olive branch McGovern had been sitting on was sawed off: "By agreeing to set a fixed date for the withdrawal of American forces from South Vietnam in exchange for the return of prisoners of war, the President has moved dramatically in the direction long advocated by many members of Congress." The tabloid Daily News, Daily News, "New York's Picture Paper," ran a colossal front-page blare unaccompanied by a picture: "NIXON'S PEACE OFFER/Total U.S. Pullout in 6 Mos"-a wild exaggeration that revealed the skill of Nixon's bluff. "After really listening to what President Nixon had to say about Vietnam," said a letter-writer who used to be a Nixon skeptic, "I came to the conclusion that he's not as bad as I thought. He is concerned about his country, and we Americans must give him credit for doing his job as he sees it." Another skeptic-Senator Hugh Scott of Ohio, he of the "sooner we get the h.e.l.l out of there, the better"-praised Nixon's "superhuman efforts" to end the war: "Last night's speech is an answer to responsible people with reasonable doubts. Of course, there could never be an answer to those who want total surrender." Said Mrs. Sybil Stockdale, whose admiral husband was a prisoner in North Vietnam, "The president has done everything he can do. We'd like to know what Senator McGovern's solution is if the Communists will simply hold on to the prisoners." "New York's Picture Paper," ran a colossal front-page blare unaccompanied by a picture: "NIXON'S PEACE OFFER/Total U.S. Pullout in 6 Mos"-a wild exaggeration that revealed the skill of Nixon's bluff. "After really listening to what President Nixon had to say about Vietnam," said a letter-writer who used to be a Nixon skeptic, "I came to the conclusion that he's not as bad as I thought. He is concerned about his country, and we Americans must give him credit for doing his job as he sees it." Another skeptic-Senator Hugh Scott of Ohio, he of the "sooner we get the h.e.l.l out of there, the better"-praised Nixon's "superhuman efforts" to end the war: "Last night's speech is an answer to responsible people with reasonable doubts. Of course, there could never be an answer to those who want total surrender." Said Mrs. Sybil Stockdale, whose admiral husband was a prisoner in North Vietnam, "The president has done everything he can do. We'd like to know what Senator McGovern's solution is if the Communists will simply hold on to the prisoners."

The feint did not impress everyone. Two nights later a gathering of distinguished Orthogonians in formal dress were to enjoy a dinner in the White House East Room. On the bill were the Ray Conniff Singers, two dozen well-scrubbed