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Response from Steve Talbot to review in The Guardian by Charles Kaiser
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/27/vietnam-war-documentary-nixon-nuclear-weapons-pbs
"The demonstrations in October and November of 1969 did not have the appearance of changing anything because the war went on as before. And none of the people who participated knew that the war had been within days or weeks of erupting enormously and becoming much bigger.
The bottom line is I believe we would have had the first nuclear attacks since Nagasaki in 1969 had it not been for the October 15th demonstrations and the demonstrations in November."
As I said -- and you quoted me accurately -- no one knows for certain whether Nixon would have resorted to the use of nuclear weapons in Vietnam in 1969.
But we do know for certain that he and Kissinger used the nuclear threat repeatedly with the Russians and the North Vietnamese in 1969 and that the option of using tactical nuclear weapons was part of his Operation Duck Hook planning for a major escalation of the war.
The overall point of the film is that the October 15, 1969 Moratorium and the prospect of the Nov. 15 Mobilization pressured Nixon to cancel
his plans for a massive escalation of the war starting in November -- including extensive bombing of North Vietnam, bombing the dikes, and the threatened option of using tactical nuclear weapons.
Another point, which you and I discussed and we show in the film but Powers does not address, is Nixon's decision to order a worldwide nuclear alert of US forces in October 1969 to send in his words -- "a special reminder" -- to the Soviets that backing down from his escalation plans and nuclear threats in Vietnam that fall should not be misinterpreted as "weakness" on Nixon's part. And that nuclear alert carried the risk of provoking the Russians into a response. It was a dangerous, some would say, reckless move.
So, did the protests in the fall of 1969 stop Nixon from using nuclear weapons in Vietnam? I don't think anyone knows for certain. It certainly could have
been a bluff, as others in the film say -- I wanted to include a multiplicity of views in the film -- much as Putin's threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine may also be a bluff. Which is disturbing enough! Because sometimes a bluff -- saber rattling -- can trigger a response.
What we can say with a high degree of certainty is that the peace protests in the fall of 1969 forced Nixon to cancel his planned offensive. And that's the key point of my film.
Preventing that escalation was no small achievement, even if it fell short of the ultimate goal of forcing an end to the war.
Best,
Steve
P.S. A small thing, but I was a senior in college in 1969, not high school. My student film was my college project.
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Background and context for questions and discussions
The Movement and the "Madman" is a documentary about a tumultuous period in history for the US and Indochina. It is also about the relationship between protestors and their government which can apply at other moments of history or to the present.
At the beginning of 1969, a new administration led by Republican Richard Nixon was inaugurated on Jan. 20, after a close election in 1968. Nixon had claimed in his
campaign that he had a “plan” to bring the war in Vietnam to an “honorable”
conclusion, but now he and his national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, faced
huge difficulties in implementing any plan.
--Over 500
American soldiers were being killed in Vietnam every month; 31,000 had already
died. Morale among soldiers on the ground in Vietnam was rapidly declining, with
drug use common and “fragging” of officers increasing. Dissent was also rapidly spreading among
active-duty GIs and vets.
Could they reduce American casualties? Or even maintain a coherent fighting force on
the ground?
--Disillusion
with the war was spreading throughout the country; indeed, it was clear that
anti-war activity had undermined the previous administration of Lyndon
Johnson. Could the
new administration mobilize what they called the “silent majority” to support
their policies?
-- The draft,
necessary to maintain the huge American military presence in Vietnam (over
500,000), was increasingly viewed with suspicion as unfair. A small but visible
number of men were becoming conscientious objectors, others were burning their
draft cards, refusing induction, showing their willingness to face prison or
flee to Canada. Could the administration achieve its manpower goals, for example
by using a lottery system?
--The South
Vietnamese government, propped up by American funds, and by its military
presence, was widely seen as corrupt, ineffective, and disliked by most
Vietnamese. Was
there a way to stabilize the government in the South?
Initially, the Nixon administration seemed to think that escalating the war, or at least threatening to do so, would force North Vietnam to accept American terms. Would they increase bombing, even use nuclear weapons? Nixon, widely known as a ferocious anti-communist, was determined not to be responsible for “losing” Vietnam; could presenting himself as something of a “madman,” willing to do whatever, help him to achieve his goals?
Meanwhile, the anti-war Movement was faced with its own dilemmas: after four years of concerted activity the same war continued. 1968 had seen the murders of Martin Luther King, who had spoken against the war, and of Bobby Kennedy, who had begun mounting a peace candidacy for President. Demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic Party Convention in Chicago had led to what was later described as a police riot, the beating and jailing of hundreds of protestors, but not to peace. One of the leading anti-war organizations, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), had become increasingly divided: some factions committed themselves to violent forms of action to “bring the war home”; other activists were tired and uncertain about meaningful steps toward peace. How to contest continuation of the war?
What activities,
locally or nationally, might lead toward peace, or at least to American
withdrawal? How
could—could?—the threatening Nixon administration be constrained? What forms of protest,
if any, would work to engage ordinary Americans as distinct from activists? How might women be
involved when so many issues focused on male draftees and GIs? Were there ways to
seriously influence the new administration, which made a point of ignoring
American “peaceniks”?
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Possible questions for students
for distribution before watching the premier at home, for classroom discussion the day after the premier, or to accompany an in-class viewing via streaming.
1) The film shows four
kinds of protest activities:
--The nationwide “Moratorium” in October
--The symbolic March Against Death
--Public readings of the names of American war dead
--The massive “Mobilization” demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco in November.
Which seemed to you most effective? Why?
Which, if any, would you have been more likely
to join? Why?
What was the influence of the civil rights movement on the anti-war movement?
2) The film shows that the Nixon administration’s
policies changed as protests widened?
--How did they change the way they spoke about protestors and the Americans who supported the administration?
--In what ways did they actually alter military plans or the deployment of American military forces?
3) If you are interested in changing US
society and/or government policy, did you learn anything from the Vietnam
antiwar protests that could be useful in advancing your goa
4) Considering the currently warm and robust US diplomatic, economic, political, tourism and educational exchange relationships with Vietnam and shared concerns
about China, in retrospect was the war necessary, worth the cost or even useful?
5) Are their ways in which the US war in
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia or the US invasion of Iraq can be compared with the
Russian war in Ukraine? How do you compare Nixon's threatened use of nuclear weapons in Vietnam with Putin's threatened use of them in Ukraine? What was and is the impact of large scale self-exile by Americans and Russians to Canada and Europe to evade the draft?
Youtube video of pre-premier zoom with the director, producer and two historians is here https://vnpeacecomm.blogspot.com/2023/02/zoom-for-educators-and-organizers-re.html
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Preliminary outline of resource list
(should be available with other materials by mid April on the film website here)
Nixon/ Kissinger Plans for Vietnam as of October
October Moratorium
Response of Nixon Administration to October Moratorium (Silent Majority Speech)
March Against Death, Local readings of names of war dead
November Mobilization
Draft (the lottery, Dec. 1,
1969)
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