The silent majority, they've got too many things on their mind.
Paying their taxes, seeing that their kids are all right, not in trouble.
They work real hard, maybe their wives are working too.
And just being, just trying to stay out of trouble and doing the right thing every day, day in and day out.
Well, if there's anything to me that's a silent majority, it's a community like this.
This is the common or ordinary community in the United States right here.
This is, this is what the United States is.
The people who have their security tied up in their property, have, take pride in their property, take pride in their home.
And this is what they work for, this is their life.
So they are really silent because I feel that they, they just don't think that they can fight city hall in any way at all.
They don't have any organization, no one to back them up and lead them.
Is an Agnew that leader? Well, he's trying and that's why they're picking on him.
He's trying to be the silent majority leader and nobody has been a chance.
I'm telling you, I can't believe this.
See, nobody's saying that, that we're all silent majority here.
Nobody wants to get involved.
A lot of people say the same things, that they don't want to get involved until you, you play the right chord and then they're involved.
As long as it's somebody else's that goes, it doesn't bother you.
But when it's yours, it's a different story.
I think the thing that gets me the maddest is when I hear an announcer say on TV says only 68 of our men were killed this week.
What do they mean 68? That's 68 families that are torn to pieces because their boys got hit or we just had a thousand or 1100 of our boys that were injured.
What do they mean by injured? An arm or a leg or an eye? Doesn't that count? I'm a truck driver.
I drive a semi dump truck.
Actually, the war hasn't affected my job, but I have children of 19 years old boys, 1918 and I'm deadly against it.
I've just read Look Magazine and I read an article in there about a letter to the president and if a lot of people would look at these pictures of these poor guys that only got half a body or something or still there, it'd be really something.
Maybe they ought to go over there and personally and take a look at some of this stuff.
I've had a guy say to me if I had a gun or if I had a hand, I'd blow my brains out.
But he says I can't even pull the trigger.
We here on the side are very bitter about it because I think a lot of our boys, if you really take it down, have gone into the service.
I mean, there are so many here you don't know about it, but you just talk and you will find out that there are an awful lot of boys from this neighborhood that have left for the service.
Hey, Jack, you were there.
You were there for, you got wounded three times, twice or whatever it was.
Last time I got hit, I got hit in the head.
We had 57 killed and 140 wounded.
And my whole platoon was completely wiped out except for about three or four guys.
And it's really strange.
I went down to Indiana for my buddy's funeral, cuz he was a real good friend of mine.
And it's really to see it.
What the people really go through when their son gets killed, especially a favorite son, like he was the only son in the family.
You know, I went to a war, I didn't get killed.
I'm back here, he was in a war, he didn't get killed.
He had a son in a war, everybody doesn't get killed in a war.
So we went in there, the stat, time isn't from spreading, because we said Southeast Asia is a strategic position.
This was the original intent of the United States.
But now you see seven years later, all that is gone in the wayside.
And what have we but many lives that were lost, many main GIs that come back crippled for the rest of our life, okay? And it's not like a war where, you know, World War II, where we won and that was it and it's all over.
Now, how do you think we're ever gonna disinvolve ourselves from Vietnam? Win it.
Yeah, but you can't win a war like that.
Who's paying for the war? We are.
We are, that's right.
We are.
For what? We're just paying.
That's right, for what? For what? Yeah, for what? For what? Where's all the answers? Where's all the answers? Communism should be stopped somewhere and it might as well be in Vietnam, because first thing you know, communist China would love to get down into the Pacific.
They don't have enough room for their people as it is.
And they would just take over everything if they don't stop them in Asia.
In every war that they say we fight to stop communism, it doesn't seem right because after all, Russia hasn't lost a man.
And look what we've lost.
Do you feel that we've stopped the communism or do you feel it wasn't the real issue or, you know, how? No, I feel that there are children born in Vietnam that have now grown to manhood and have never known anything but war.
And I feel those people over there must be sick and tired of war.
And I think they're entitled to a time for peace.
I have heard it said that some of the boys come back and they say, those people don't even want us there.
So that makes you wonder, doesn't it? A lot of them were glad we were there.
A lot of them hated me.
Most of them thought that if you were an American, you owed them something.
And I think we do owe them something.
We owe them the right to live.
So if they had their way, I think that a lot of those people are peasant people.
They're ignorant.
They're going to go the way that the country offers them the most.
So perhaps they would go communists, communistic.
As Jake said, yes, it would be their choice.
Yes, but we're trying to save them from this.
Let me say, if we got out tomorrow, do you think that the government's contention that there would be a bloodbath would hold true? There would not be any bloodbath.
The only people that would suffer a bloodbath would be Tu and Key and all these people like that.
But they'll never suffer, you see, because when they lose, they're going to take off to Switzerland and live off all the money they've been hoarding away the last 10 years.
They'll never get touched.
If we get out, we're going to eliminate a bloodbath that's going on right now.
That's my contention.
Well, I'll tell you whether I'd become president Nixon or not, I'd like to end it.
I don't know how I'd do it, but I'd like to end.
I wouldn't be dropping atom bombs on the people because them people aren't to blame for being at that war.
They have their forms of government, which they believe in the same as we do.
And why shouldn't they stick up for their rights, whether they're one side or the other? I'd like to end it.
I'd like to get our boys out of there.
How I do it, I don't know.
I wouldn't want to hurt them, and the same as I don't want ours to be hurt.
As I say, I had a son, he was in Vietnam.
He says, Dad, why should I have to go over there? You asked me, he says, you answer that.
I said, well, Marty, what do you think? He said, well, it's because I'm an American and a citizen of this country.
He says, the only reason I go.
I think an 18 -year -old owes something to this country.
I have a son over there right now, and I lost two brothers in World War II.
We had something to fight for in World War II, and you had nobody that wouldn't volunteer.
Very few wouldn't volunteer.
I wouldn't mind, I don't think, serving my time in the army for the country, because I think the country's given me a lot of things, and it's given me a chance to go to school.
I had to work through school, but it gave me a chance to at least go.
But I don't know, I think I'd really sort of worry about going over to Vietnam, because I hate to fight somebody else's war.
What difference is there between World War II and the Vietnam War? When you want to base it back to facts, we were attacked.
I think I feel like how my dad said, you're getting attacked, it's direct attack.
It's at home, okay, it's right there.
It's Pearl Harbor, okay, there's, you know, they came in, and they like, Mike said, you know, some guy punches you in the mouth, you're not going to just let him walk away from you.
That's how I feel.
I think I'd be in the lines, you know, enlisting, but I really don't think I'd go to Vietnam.
I'd be damned if I go.
It's hard to say who is for and who is against, but I think what the hard hats are against is this real out is protesting and just tearing things up.
It's more that than I think that they're really for the war.
I resent your statement that I got a flag on my car and that makes me a hawk.
I don't think it's true.
I think people who do buy the American flag aren't concerned with keeping the war going.
I think they want to end it just as as much as I'd say I would, but they are trying to show that they are Americans and they will back the people up that are there.
Why are we there? Because some people made a lot of mistakes about, you know, 1963 or 64, and I think wrong decisions shouldn't have to cost me my life or my legs or my arms or something like that.
If they get out of Vietnam, what do you think is going to happen to your prosperity? It's the war that put people to work, give them salaries, give them big money.
That's why you've got to have these dog on things.
You've had World War II, you've had Korea, now you've got this.
After this, you're going to go to the East.
Every 10 years, this country has to have a war.
Why bring employment? So many people have to die and it's a dirty shame.
It's your politicians too that have to take a good portion of this blame because I think there's a lot of them that get a certain percentage of these defense contracts and things that go out, and I think there are a lot of politicians that are involved in this and they get their cut and this is what's just prolonging everything.
Michael talks about the black market there, or he talks about generals that have, you know, helicopters with chrome runners and stuff like that and guys that count rifles so they can get promotions.
They count rifles as a dead VC.
They count any weapons they capture.
They figure they got the weapons so they might as well consider the VC dead.
You know, I mean, maybe World War II is like that.
I don't know, it wasn't there, okay? I imagine there's a lot of innocent people that got killed in World War II and a lot of inequities, but, God, you know, why, you know, I mean, it's so obvious that the war is, so many things in the war are fixed around the dollar.
You know, somebody's making money, okay? And I don't want people making money off of me.
Well, that's true.
Money is being made left and right and that's why I think this war is being prolonged.
I've already buried one friend that was killed in Vietnam.
I've seen another come back, 50 % disability.
And there are two people right now that I know who probably end up there.
In Vietnam? Yes, I don't mean to get this nervous about it, but to see somebody come back who is 19 and you don't know what kind of future he's gonna have, you know, you kind of wonder, is it all worth it? And, like, well, I'm 20 right now, so my whole age group, you know, is likely to end up there.
And I'd just like to see it ended and I can't give an answer how.
I wish I could.
Well, it is true, it is a money -making deal.
It's the government.
I say the government, just keeping it going, that's all.
I thought it was the government for the people.
Yeah, it's for the people, all right.
Who, which people? The rich people.
Because their material, everything is being made by big manufacturers and they're making a profit.
Well, yeah, well, I got, you know, I got hit by a piece of General Motors shrapnel, you know, from an 81 mortar.
You know, they dug it out of my leg and it said GM and it had the numbers on it and everything, so General Motors is making mortars, man.
You know, that's, what else can I tell you? Like, they're making money, you know, that's what it's all about.
Like, they're supposed to be making cars.
If our government didn't spend so much money on other nations, giving them aid, giving them everything we have, we'd be better off because we could spend our money on poverty, we could clean up the cities.
Use the manpower and the money we're spending on the war to concentrate on the curing of the ills we have here, environmental problems and poverty and housing, education.
Like institutions, hospitals for brain -retarded children and muscular dystrophy and everything else.
We don't have to, money spent on war is non -returnable.
It's just money that's blown up.
A $500 bomb is $500 wasted.
I'm just against the war.
Sir, how do you feel about the effect of the war on this community, sons of this community and family? This war, I think, is wrong.
Why? Where's the time and money and human lives sacrificed for what? I don't know.
What? That's it.
Somebody tells us we're fighting communism or something.
That's where the war goes.
Why do we have to be the policemen of the world? What about our allies, so -called allies? What are they contributing towards it? I'll tell you what, their problem is if they start feeding the people that are hungry in this world, they wouldn't have any of this.
Let's face it, mostly pertains to hunger in the world.
That's what creates communism, actually.
They find a solution to feed them people, they won't have no problems.
Can you imagine the amount of hungry people they could feed just in this country, just in this country? And this is something I think is...
Look at the hospitals they could have built.
Well, you won't have your overcrowded schools, you won't have your poor transportation systems, you won't have children going hungry.
All these problems can be solved with the money that we're putting in the war.
If they put it to solve the social problems of this country, it would be such an improvement for us.
And if the whole world did the same thing, we wouldn't have the problems.
If we all tried and solve our own in our own country.
I think you're a little idealistic about believing that all the problems will be solved.
I agree with you, I think that money could be used someplace else.
It shouldn't be used by a couple thousand dollars to make a bomb and then just blow the bomb up and knock down some trees.
The money could be used here, there's a lot of people that need it.
I hope that you get by all the people that take their cut and get down to the people who really need it.
I don't know if that's gonna work because that's not the American way.
Yeah, in fact, they could improve conditions here, too.
We got it good, but we could have a hell of a lot better, too.
How would you improve it here with that money? Well, there's a lot of ways.
For one thing, towards educational purposes.
If you educate people, they'll avoid some of their poverty, too.
Wouldn't it? I'd like to educate people about the war, you know, so they could all understand that if we ended it, we'd have all this money.
You'd have to start in Washington.
And our representatives.
Educate them to our way of thinking, then.
If we're supposed to be the majority.
The silent majority is about to make itself heard.
Not by shouting obscenities, not with disorderly street demonstrations, waving Viet Cong flags and demanding that America throw in the sponge.
Oh, that's what he says.
But that's not necessarily the truth, is it? Did you find that out here? Well, all right.
How could he speak for the majority when he doesn't even know who they are? I'll see you.
We talk about divisiveness in the country.
I think Agnew is purposely going around to keep the country separated and divided.
I think that's his purpose.
Because when people are divided, they fight with each other and they forget about the major issues involved.
Like you were talking about what we have to do in this country to help the poverty program and the poor people or housing.
Housing has never been taken care of in this country.
It's just been side issues.
So if we fight among ourselves about Agnew's contention, the way he criticizes certain people, so we keep divided, then we can't really do much with our elected officials.
And I think that's the purpose behind it.
Yeah, but you're talking about our vice president doing these things.
Now, why? Who is he serving? He's serving as the interests of the party, and of the people that are running the country.
I don't think they want people like the average guy to get together and demand his representatives to make an accounting of what he's doing.
But you're talking about the people who are running the country.
But we're the people that are supporting the country.
I mean, it just doesn't make sense.
We really don't have much to say about what's going on.
We support the country and somebody else runs it.
Is that what you're telling us? That is exactly it.
I mean, I don't make the policy.
Somebody better than us makes the policy.
But, or somebody that should be more than a knower makes the policy.
But I hope they know what they're doing.
They don't know what they're doing.
We're in trouble.
The silent majority is just like it tells you in the Bible.
It's already told.
They brought that Bible up before.
In Romans, third chapter, second verse, obey the laws of your land, because the laws of your land, God seen fit to put people in power in government and you obey the laws of the land as you are at the laws of God.
We were brought up to never question authority.
Isn't that true? People of our age group.
And the government was right and the policeman was right and the priest was right and mom and dad were right.
The school board was right.
Anybody that was in authority knew what was best and how we should think and they told us how to think.
But I never told my dad he was crazy.
Shouldn't I let my government know that I think they're crazy? I think they are insane, really.
This is an insane thing we're doing to my group.
How we say it? Well, how should I say it? In a proper manner.
There's a lot of things I don't like, but I don't know, throwing bombs in places.
I didn't like school when I was going to school.
The teacher's sister over in the school slapped my hand one day.
I didn't go out and throw a bomb in the hallway and blow the school all over the intersection.
I just went home and told my father and then he gave me a couple more whacks.
What can we do so that we can be heard, that the government will hear us? We're the middle class, the so -called, you know, silent majority.
What can you do about it? What do you mean, what can you do about it? There's 200 of us in here right now.
Like what? There's 200 of us in here right now.
What can you do about it, man? That's why the younger generation is trying.
That's why they're protesting.
That's why they're doing all this, you know.
If you want to complain because you don't want to go to war, go vote.
What do you mean, go vote? Why, what's the reason for voting? What's the idea of voting? We can go to war.
If you say there's going to be a war every 10 years, what good is your vote going to do if there's going to be a war every 10 years? I didn't raise a kid to go 16 ,000 miles to fight for somebody else, somebody that you probably never see again.
And I don't blame them if they don't want to go.
But I look at it this way.
This is their country.
This is the country they were born in.
True, they didn't ask to be born here.
But it's their government that's in trouble.
Do your best to help them.
So many people get it wrong.
You have to understand that there's a definite difference between the country and the government.
You see, the people in this country aren't fighting a Vietnam War.
The government's fighting it.
Well, the government is the people, supposedly.
But in this instance, it is not.
Not anymore, it's not.
No, I agree with you.
It is not.
Not in this situation, it's not.
Are they going to force all of us to become unruly just because they utterly refuse to listen to us when we have on the white gloves and the lipstick and the nice smile? As a matter of fact, Nixon said he will not listen to us and that he will not be dictated to from the people in the streets.
The people in the streets are me.
But we have to have respect for each other's opinion and accomplish what we do, as we say, in a free society without anybody getting hurt.
Well, if you look back at American history, isn't it? We always looked up to the United States as being number one.
That means a lot, too.
You're going to have to lose lives.
If the people continue to feel like this and the majority rule, then we'll never disavow ourselves in NAMM, OK? But if the majority starts to pick up the trend that we have to withdraw from NAMM no matter what, then eventually it's going to reach the establishment and this bureaucracy is going to have to come down.
It's going to have to come down.
It's going to have to represent the people like it's supposed to.
Bureaucracy right now is too powerful.
The government is too powerful, right? All our neighbors and people who have lived in this community over 15, 20 years, I think that they're now beginning to realize they do have some stake in the politics of their government and that we are the government.
What can we do now here in Garfield Ridge to see that we are represented and that our voice is heard and that it means something? I don't care if I'm just heard and then they say, oh, well, the heck with it.
No one listens to us.
It might sound radical and everybody's talking about revolution, but I think that the most effective revolution in this country would be a tax revolution.
Just don't pay your taxes.
Well, I think it takes everybody, not just a few people.
I think it takes the minority and they should all get together and just strike.
Everybody strike.
Right.
Well, it's tough what it would do.
It might show the government that the people have to still a stronghold.
Listen, our taxes in this community go up every year.
We read a headline in 1969, taxes go up 13%.
Expect 20 % raise in 1970 and we all sit back and accept it.
It's been printed in advance.
Well, would you agree with me in saying that the only people who benefit, who can gain anything because of our tax laws are the very wealthy or the very poor who don't have anything so they don't pay any taxes and we support the country.
Yet we have the least to say about it.
We are the silent majority and I believe that we're becoming vocal and we really want to do something about it.
But the definition of your silent majority, I don't think agrees or is the same as President Nixon's talking about.
That's a myth.
That's a myth.
That's something that's not talking about the silent majority you're talking about.
No, we are the majority of people are not going to stay silent.
They are becoming, we're beginning to talk.
