Richard M. Nixon: “Silent Majority” Speech

On November 3, 1969, President Richard M. Nixon delivered, via television, his Address to the Nation on the War in Vietnam, about his plans for ending the war in Vietnam. The address is often referred to as the “Silent Majority” Speech, for near its end he appealed for support from “the great silent majority of my fellow Americans”—that is, those who supported his policies but did not speak up. Nixon was implicitly contrasting these mainstream Americans with vocal opponents of his policies who protested and demonstrated against the war, as they had in October of that year in Washington, D.C.

In his address, Nixon outlined the reasons for U.S. involvement in Vietnam and defended that involvement. He also summarized the steps he had taken to pursue peace talks, emphasizing that those talks were failing because of the recalcitrance of the North Vietnamese negotiators. He announced the policy of turning combat operations over to the South Vietnamese while continuing to provide South Vietnam with material support and training. Yet as the Vietnam War fades into history, most of these details are likely to be recalled only by students of the war. Nixon's use of one phrase, “silent majority,” in his Address to the Nation on the War in Vietnam seemed then and now to encapsulate the nation's deep divisions over the war and perhaps a host of other issues. It called attention to a cultural divide that in many respects defined the turbulent decade of the 1960s. This was a time when many people, particularly the young, seemed to be rejecting the values and attitudes of their parents and grandparents, who oftentimes looked on the social changes of the decade—manifested in demonstrations and protest, draft evasion and draft-card burning, pot smoking and “free love”—with silent disgust.