TY - JOUR
T1 - Mobilizing a Majority
T2 - Nixon's Silent Majority Speech and the Domestic Debate over Vietnam
AU - Thelen, Sarah
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright Cambridge University Press and British Association for American Studies 2017.
PY - 2017/8/1
Y1 - 2017/8/1
N2 - President Richard M. Nixon and his staff intended his 3 November 1969 Address to the Nation on Vietnam to counteract the growing strength of the antiwar movement. Its appeal to a Silent Majority of Americans inspired an impressive outpouring of support, but this response owed as much to White House planning as to public opinion. Drawing on internal White House documents, this article traces administration efforts to secure this response and, then, to claim and promote this new Silent Majority. It demonstrates that White House public-opinion campaigns were designed to maximize control, and not necessarily to change attitudes.
AB - President Richard M. Nixon and his staff intended his 3 November 1969 Address to the Nation on Vietnam to counteract the growing strength of the antiwar movement. Its appeal to a Silent Majority of Americans inspired an impressive outpouring of support, but this response owed as much to White House planning as to public opinion. Drawing on internal White House documents, this article traces administration efforts to secure this response and, then, to claim and promote this new Silent Majority. It demonstrates that White House public-opinion campaigns were designed to maximize control, and not necessarily to change attitudes.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85008668636
U2 - 10.1017/S0021875816001936
DO - 10.1017/S0021875816001936
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85008668636
SN - 0021-8758
VL - 51
SP - 887
EP - 914
JO - Journal of American Studies
JF - Journal of American Studies
IS - 3
ER -