History: War has always been Bipartisan

History is always something worth understanding.

Here is Nixon's speech, 'The Silent Majority', entering office after Johnson vowing to end Vietnam War. there are many aspects of it that relate to politicking of the day.

We can start with the following quote:

Now many believe that President Johnson’s decision to send American combat forces to South Vietnam was wrong. And many others, I among them, have been strongly critical of the way the war has been conducted.

Ron Paul has been repeatedly claiming Nixon ended Vietnam. He criticizes his Republican colleagues of supporting the war effort. He criticizes the Democrats of disagreeing with management of the war, but not the idea of the war itself. Clearly Ron Paul, if he is to invoke Nixonian initiative would concede he is infact not following the Nixon's footsteps and McCain and Huckabee are.

Those that think Bush is the only one to have a hold on the freedom agenda will do well remember the following from the same speech:

In 1963 President Kennedy with his characteristic eloquence and clarity said,

"We want to see a stable Government there," carrying on the [a] struggle to maintain its national independence." We believe strongly in that. We are not going to withdraw from that effort. In my opinion, for us to withdraw from that effort would mean a collapse not only of South Vietnam but Southeast Asia. So we’re going to stay there."¹

President Eisenhower and President Johnson expressed the same conclusion during their terms of office.

For the future of peace, precipitate withdrawal would be a disaster of immense magnitude. A nation cannot remain great if it betrays its allies and lets down its friends. Our defeat and humiliation in South Vietnam without question would promote recklessness in the councils of those great powers who have not yet abandoned their goals of worlds conquest.

If you read the entire Nixon speech it is a speech, it is remarkable how close it is to what McCain says about 'No Surrender' and hence to continue fighting until the insurgent forces are defeated or even annihilated:

It’s become clear that the obstacle in negotiating an end to the war is not the President of the United States. It is not the South Vietnamese Government. The obstacle is the other side’s absolute refusal to show the least willingness to join us in seeking a just peace. And it will not do so while it is convinced that all it has to do is to wait for our next concession, and our next concession after that one, until it gets everything it wants.

It is also important to understand that Clinton and Edwards policy of withdrawal of combat troops notwithstanding, their main stance on the war itself has been that it has been poorly managed. This is in itself is indistinguishable from the view McCain has held until Petraeus came on board. It is tough to know to what extent Edwards or Clinton support withdrawal of troops is contingent on the fact that their election depends on the democratic caucus.