| This dissertation focuses on the Nixon administration's campaign to discredit and demonize the anti-Vietnam War movement, in the fight for public support, focusing specifically on the administration's use of rhetoric during 1969-70. Critical to this effort was the role of Vice President Spiro Agnew, who, while attacking the movement both broadly and specifically, won millions of supporters across the country. Although Agnew's popularity was concentrated most heavily in the South, by the fall of 1969 both his appeal and the reaction against him were a national phenomenon, making Agnew a political hero and conservative warrior, for many.;In pursuit of related influences and rhetoric, this study also examines precedents and parallels between Agnew's remarks and those of Alabama Governor George Wallace, who ran for president in 1968 and 1972. Wallace's conservative populist stance was ultimately far more influential than Agnew's, in the mobilization of "white rage" and the politics of resentment, though Wallace was never next-in-line for the presidency. An additional aspect of the era to be found in Agnew's speeches and those of many contemporaries were frequent references to Hitler and World War II, often issued while making the case against the threat of domestic "fascists" and the danger of "appeasement" in dealing with antiwar critics. While addressing the many references to the specter of totalitarianism, my dissertation also examines the language of half a dozen conservative/right-wing organizations, which I have dubbed the "ultra-patriots," ranging from the FBI to the American Nazi Party. These groups existed on a sliding scale of right-of-center conservatism to far-right extremism, whose rhetoric often echoed the administration's line of attack against the protest movement, while at other times differing considerably. The presence of sixties Cold War anti-communist rhetoric represents a further theme, and with it a related though modified form of American nativism, as expressed against native-born "un-Americans" who were perceived by their critics as "alien" and subversive. Off-setting this war of words and the administration's public campaign were the militant actions and rhetoric carried out by left-wing radicals, from the Black Panthers, to the Weathermen, to independent leftist figures, whose own rhetoric, attacking Nixon, the U.S. Government, and "Pig America," only served to further discredit the antiwar movement, thereby aiding the administration in the process.;Accompanying my focus on Agnew's rhetoric and occasionally that of other members of the administration, including various of Nixon's own speeches, this dissertation also seeks to paint at least a partial picture of the range and complexity of the protest movement, not only to provide greater context for the administration's attacks, but also to offer a counterpoint to Agnew's insistence on portraying the movement as a radical, subversive, criminal, and even treasonous entity, despite the presence of the moderate majority who comprised its bulk. Nixon and Agnew's efforts to tar the whole with the actions of the few was carried out amidst the president's strategy to capture the support of disaffected Democrats, as the issues of race, urban riots, student unrest, and the expansion of federal power tore away at the old New Deal coalition. In this Nixon benefited from and sought to expedite a decades' long process of political realignment towards a more conservative electorate. In the end, despite the resignations of both Nixon and Agnew within ten months of each other in 1973--74, indelibly imprinting each with legacies of disgrace, the broader American conservative movement continued to prosper and grow, with rhetorical similarities---the "ghosts of Agnew"---figuring prominently in domestic political attacks in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, long after Communist tanks had ceased to roll through the streets of Saigon. The politics of character assassination and resentment, along with conservative-populist attacks on the national media, are perhaps the greatest part of Agnew's legacy, for though he invented neither trend, he was a prominent articulator for both during the years of the Nixon presidency. |
