5. Editorial Note

In a campaign speech delivered in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 6, 1968, Richard Nixon proposed a “new diplomacy” to deal with future aggression:

“Since World War II ended, the United States has been actively involved in two major wars to defend the freedom of other lands from Communist aggression. We fought in Korea and we are fighting in Vietnam. In these conflicts, America has taken more than a quarter of a million casualties, and fifty thousand dead. In both wars, the United [Page 49] States provided most of the money, most of the arms and most of the men to defend these countries. The efforts that were made were right in my view, but I believe it is time now for a new diplomacy.

“While we are the richest nation and the most powerful nation in the non-Communist world, we must remember that we are only two hundred million Americans, and there are two billion people in the non-Communist world. It is time to develop a new diplomacy for the United States, a diplomacy to deal with future aggression—so that when the freedom of friendly nations is threatened by aggression, we help them with our money and help them with our arms; but we let them fight the war and don’t fight the war for them. This should be the goal of a new diplomacy for America.” (Nixon-Agnew Campaign Committee, Nixon on the Issues, New York, 1968, pages 1-2)