How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph.Sentence)
Quote #4
The more support I can have from the American people, the sooner that pledge can be redeemed; for the more divided we are at home, the less likely the enemy is to negotiate at Paris. (133.1)
Again with the veiled critiques of 1960s counterculture. Nixon is trying to blame the anti-war movement for failed negotiations between U.S. and North Vietnamese forces. Ouch.
Quote #5
Fifty years ago, in this room and at this very desk, President Woodrow Wilson spoke words which caught the imagination of a war-weary world. He said: "This is the war to end war." His dream for peace after World War I was shattered on the hard realities of great power politics and Woodrow Wilson died a broken man.
Tonight I do not tell you that the war in Vietnam is the war to end wars. But […]." (136.1-137.2)
Don't be fooled, dear Shmoopers. That's a big "but" at the end of this statement.
If Nixon doesn't want to compare World War I to Vietnam, why does he bring it up in the first place? Nixon wants his audience to associate his Vietnamization policies with the patriotism surrounding World War I. He even hints that anti-patriotic "power politics" got in the way of Woodrow Wilson's success just like the unpatriotic anti-war protestors are getting in Nixon's way.