Goal Line Stand

Hail to the victors valiant,/Hail to the conquering heroes . . . So goes the fight song of the University of Michigan Wolverines. Fight the team across the field, show them Ohio’s here./Set the earth reverberating with a mighty cheer. So goes the fight song of the Ohio State University Buckeyes. For those addicted to football, these rousers are liturgical elements in an annual religious event, the Ohio State-Michigan game. Mr. Nixon, whose men deny that he watches television (other than to store up resentment about “distorted, vicious” Dan Ratherisms), has admitted watching this game on occasion. Indeed, in 1969 it was a matter of serious public policy for the White House to announce that Mr. Nixon watched the Ohio State-Michigan game. He watched it in the White House (those were the days when Mr. Nixon spent an occasional weekend in town). The White House that day was surrounded by empty Washington city buses, parked bumper to bumper, a motor-age barricade against the 100,000 or so people who were milling around the Mall petitioning for redress of their grievances against the Vietnam war.

November 1969 was the high point of the antiwar demonstrations—the “moratoriums,” as they were called— and on the day of the 1969 Ohio State-Michigan game Mr. Nixon, embattled in the White House, with his control of foreign policy threatened by mobs in the streets, let it be known that he was calm enough to spend the afternoon watching a football broadcast. He felt good that day because he had just begun a bold counterattack against his tormentors. He had recently gone on television to deliver the most effective speech of his Presidency, the “silent majority” speech. He had argued with force and clarity that, although his election just one year previously had been by a slim margin and although his mandate was ambiguous, he was elected, he was charged with the duties of chief executive officer of the United States, and he would not allow foreign policy to be dictated by mobs chanting slogans on the Mall. Mr. Nixon had just unleashed Mr. Agnew to deliver the Des Moines speech on the media. The counterattack was under way, a deadly serious battle to hold public opinion behind a policy of gradual disengagement from Indochina.

About the Author

George F. Will

George F. Will has been a columnist, beginning with National Review, since 1973.

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Hail to the victors valiant,/Hail to the conquering heroes . . . So goes the fight song of the University of Michigan Wolverines. Fight the team across the field, show them Ohio’s here./Set the earth reverberating with a mighty cheer. So goes the fight song of the Ohio State University Buckeyes. For those addicted to football, these rousers are liturgical elements in an annual religious event, the Ohio State-Michigan game. Mr. Nixon, whose men deny that he watches television (other than to store up resentment about “distorted, vicious” Dan Ratherisms), has admitted watching this game on occasion. Indeed, in 1969 it was a matter of serious public policy for the White House to announce that Mr. Nixon watched the Ohio State-Michigan game. He watched it in the White House (those were the days when Mr. Nixon spent an occasional weekend in town). The White House that day was surrounded by empty Washington city buses, parked bumper to bumper, a motor-age barricade against the 100,000 or so people who were milling around the Mall petitioning for redress of their grievances against the Vietnam war.

November 1969 was the high point of the antiwar demonstrations—the “moratoriums,” as they were called— and on the day of the 1969 Ohio State-Michigan game Mr. Nixon, embattled in the White House, with his control of foreign policy threatened by mobs in the streets, let it be known that he was calm enough to spend the afternoon watching a football broadcast. He felt good that day because he had just begun a bold counterattack against his tormentors. He had recently gone on television to deliver the most effective speech of his Presidency, the “silent majority” speech. He had argued with force and clarity that, although his election just one year previously had been by a slim margin and although his mandate was ambiguous, he was elected, he was charged with the duties of chief executive officer of the United States, and he would not allow foreign policy to be dictated by mobs chanting slogans on the Mall. Mr. Nixon had just unleashed Mr. Agnew to deliver the Des Moines speech on the media. The counterattack was under way, a deadly serious battle to hold public opinion behind a policy of gradual disengagement from Indochina.