The U.S. vs John Lennon Page #4

That's all.

We have to make it.

What would you say

to people like Richard Nixon?

I'd say, "Do something

positive about it

"and it really is economical

to have peace, Mr. Nixon,

and you would be really

popular if you did."

What should he do?

He should just declare peace.

He reduced it

to these very fundamental,

easy-to-grasp concepts

that some people thought

were Utopian and naive.

I believe sincerely

as soon as people want peace

and are aware

that they can have it,

they will have it.

The only trouble is they're not aware

that they can get it.

Is it naive to wish for peace?

Is it naive to think that

we can change the world?

Sure, probably.

But it's certainly worthy

of the thought process

and the art that comes out of it.

That's all I'm saying.

John once said to me,

"When I sing

'I Wanna Hold Your Hand',

hundreds of millions

of people hear that.

Why don't I sing

'Give Peace a Chance'?

Because hundreds of millions of people

would hear that as well."

All I'm saying!

I thought that was a great phrase.

That's the one that went,

"All we are saying

is give peace a chance."

They'd repeat that

over and over again.

I thought it was wonderful.

Give peace a chance.

Who can be opposed to that?

The administration was.

All right, everybody now!

Keep strong!

They scare people

into fighting wars

which we need not fight,

should not fight...

sometimes must fight,

but by and large not.

Why not go the other way?

Sing about human community,

sing about love and about peace.

And suddenly that

is a frightening voice

for people who want to hear "The Battle

Hymn of the Republic" over and over again,

and "Their eyes have seen the coming

of the glory of the Lord."

Yes, again.

Okay, beautiful.

Yeah!

You made it!

Woo-hoo!

The highlight

of the Bed-in for me

was the fact that after

all the reporters left

and there was

a beautiful moon

that was like a full moon,

and from our bed we can see

this beautiful full moon

and not one cloud there.

It was a beautiful sky,

and John was saying,

"Is this great?" and all that.

And he was saying that,

you know,

"We're just going to go on

communicating the world together,

"and our song is going to be played

all over the world,

and that's how it's going to be."

He was very,

very happy about that,

about the fact that we are promoting

world peace and love

and we have both.

It seems now

more certain than ever

that the bloody

experience of Vietnam

is to end in a stalemate.

This summer's almost

certain stand-off

will either end in real

give-and-take negotiations

or terrible escalation.

And for every means

we have to escalate,

the enemy can match us,

and that applies

to invasion of the North,

the use of nuclear weapons,

or the mere commitment

of 100 or 200 or 300,000

more American troops to the battle.

And with each escalation,

the world comes closer to

the brink of cosmic disaster.

You see, the war was such

a great mistake.

We went into Vietnam in order

to preserve a democracy

which did not exist.

The fact of the matter was South Vietnam

was a monarchy,

and a rather cruel one.

We were fighting

for an already lost cause

before we ever put the first foot

into the country.

Never has so much power

been used

so ineffectively as in Vietnam.

Lf, after all of this time

and all of this sacrifice

and all of this support,

there is still no end in sight,

then I say the time has come

for the American people

to turn to new leadership

not tied to the policies

and mistakes of the past.

I pledge to you, we shall have

an honorable end to the war in Vietnam.

He did run with the promise

that he had a secret plan

that he was going to unveil

after the election

to end the war.

The war was enough

to drive you crazy.

People were being drafted.

50,000 American soldiers

were killed.

50,000.

40% of all the young Americans

who died in Vietnam

died during those four years

after Nixon was elected in 1968.

We have adopted a plan

which we have worked out in cooperation

with the South Vietnamese

for the complete withdrawal

of all U.S. Combat

ground forces.

As South Vietnamese forces

become stronger,

the rate of American withdrawal

can become greater.

I have not and do not intend

to announce the timetable

for our program.

We meet today to reaffirm

those ageless values

that gave us birth,

life, liberty,

and the pursuit of happiness.

And we meet to declare peace,

to put an end to war

not in some distant future,

but to put an end to it now.

I like to be liked.

I don't like to say things that

everybody doesn't agree with.

When peace marchers

come to Washington,

it would be very easy to say,

"I agree with them.

I will do what they want."

But a President has to do what

he considers to be right,

because I believe that

sometimes it is necessary

to draw the line clearly,

not to have enmity

against those who disagree,

but to make it clear that

there can be no compromise

where such great issues

as self-determination

and freedom and a just peace

are involved.

I recall approaching the Treasury Building

one evening,

and there were just streams of them

coming down the street

and they all had candles.

Some sort of symbolism

that they were using.

Back in those days

I smoked cigars,

and I recall just walking up

to one of them,

grabbing his wrist

and taking the candle

and lighting my cigar with it.

And I looked him

in the eye and said,

"There, you have a use...

You're useful for some purpose,"

and then went on by.

That was our attitude

toward them.

Nixon would put out the line

during these demonstrations

that he was watching

a football game

or something like that.

He was very concerned

with the demonstrations.

They were making a definite impact

inside the White House.

Are you listening, Nixon?

Are you listening, Agnew?

Are you listening

in the Pentagon?

Well, "Give Peace a Chance,"

I remember photographing

a million people

at an antiwar demonstration

singing it with their hands up.

That song became

the national anthem

of the antiwar movement

in a way that the folk song

"We Shall Overcome"

became the national anthem of

the Civil Rights movement before that.

Sing it home!

War is over if you want it.

Peace.

With "War Is Over

If You Want lt,"

I said,

"Okay, let's do posters."

And then John said,

"No, let's do billboards as well,

in all different cities

in the world."

Wow.

He was like that because

his arena of communication

was much larger than mine.

So he thought of that.

It's in 11 cities

throughout the world.

That's New York, L.A.,

Montreal, Toronto,

Paris, Berlin, Rome,

London, Athens, and Tokyo.

And with a bit of luck,

Port of Spain

in the Caribbean.

We met a friend there

who said he'd fix it.

Where is the money

coming from

for the posters you've got now

and the billboards?

It's coming out of

our pocket at the moment,

but we've had

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes