Have your grandparents ever given you the old "back in my day, everything was better" speech? Well, Nixon is trying to pull that off here.
He's saying that back in the day, America was stronger. Back in the day, Americans listened to better music. And back in the day, Americans were more patriotic.
Those were the good ol' days, according to Nixon. But this wasn't really true. Americans were still patriotic during the 1960s; anti-war protestors even argued that they were the most patriotic people alive. But that doesn't keep Nixon from getting all sentimental about the past.
Questions About Patriotism
- What's the point of even bringing up patriotism? Isn't this a speech about ending the war in Vietnam?
- Using what you know about the 1950s and 1960s, do you think that Nixon is accurately portraying patriotism during those decades?
- Is Nixon right to say that "it may not be fashionable to speak of patriotism" (128.1) anymore?
Chew on This
Nixon's implication that the anti-war protestors are unpatriotic haters is unfair and honestly rude. These were the most patriotic Americans ever. They wanted America's pride back, and the best way to do that was to get out of Vietnam. If anything, Nixon is the least patriotic for encouraging more violence overseas.
Nixon may not be the perfect role model for patriotism (he did mess up really bad with Watergate), but he was ultimately right to state that patriotism should define the responses to the Vietnam War. Americans weren't feeling all that great about being American at this point in the nation's history, so a great patriotic act was totally necessary to get the country back on its feet.