Hello and welcome to today's history lesson.

My name is Mr. Merritt and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson.

Let's get going.

So today's lesson is looking at support for the war, and by the end of this lesson, we're gonna be able to explain why some groups supported the war.

In order to do that, we need to be using some key terms. And our key terms of today are patriotism, hard hats, and blue-collar worker.

Patriotism is a great love for one's own country.

A hard hat is a rigid protective helmet as worn by factory and construction workers.

And a blue-collar worker is someone who works in manual labour such as manufacturing, agriculture, construction, or mining.

Today's lesson is gonna be consisting of three different learning cycles, and our first learning cycle is the silent majority.

So let's get going with that.

So in late 1969, Richard Nixon was facing increasingly vocal calls to end the war in Vietnam.

On the 15th of October, the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam saw more than 15 million people take part in demonstrations across the country, making it one of the largest demonstrations in American history.

So the demonstration is taking place simultaneously in a variety of different American towns and cities right across the country.

Nixon had previously stated that demonstrations would have no effect on him as, and to use his words, "Policy made in the streets equals anarchy." So that was his reason for not bowing to public pressure.

In private, however, Nixon was infuriated by the demonstrations because North Vietnam would not accept his negotiation demands if they thought that US public opinion was against the war, and so he sought a way to answer them.

So from Nixon's perspective, this lack of unity between the American government and the American people was exactly what the North Vietnamese wanted, they could exploit that around the negotiation table.

So that was Nixon's big fear in that respect.

So, two weeks later, on the 3rd of November, Nixon gave his response to the nation via a speech on television.

And Nixon was certain that most Americans supported his efforts to end the war despite evidence of the contrary, but they were not as vocal as the anti-war protestors.

And this silent majority, as Nixon referred to them, was made up of predominantly of the older generation, blue-collar workers, and conservatives living primarily in the South and the Midwest.

Nixon encouraged them to make their voices heard and his appeal worked.

The White House phone line was jammed for hours after the speech as thousands of people called to congratulate the president on his speech.

Nixon's approval ratings, which is, they are polls, they are surveys carried out with regularity in America, trying to find out how popular somebody or a particular policy is.

So his approval ratings jumped from 50%, which means that half of people thought that Nixon was doing a good job, and that jumped to 81%.

So 31% increase in the number of people who are publicly willing to admit that they thought that Richard Nixon was doing a good job as president.

So this Silent Majority speech, as it came to be known, had a really, really profound impact on people's perception of Nixon as a president.

So, very quick check for understanding here.

Following his Silent Majority speech, how much did Nixon's approval ratings increase by? Was it A, 11%, B, 31%, or C, 51%? Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose B, 31%, then congratulations.

That is indeed correct.

Another quick check for understanding here.

Why did Nixon call for the support of the Silent Majority? Is it because A, anti-war protests made it harder to negotiate with North Vietnam? Is it because of B, anti-war protests were dividing the nation? Was it because of C, he needed more votes to win an election in 1969? Or was it because of D, he needed to send more troops to Vietnam? So make your choice now.

All right, if you chose A then congratulations, that is indeed correct.

Arguably some of those other, some of those other answers are correct as well, but the question is why did Nixon call for support? So this is what Nixon wanted.

He wanted to be able to negotiate on simpler terms with the North Vietnamese.

The protest in America complicated matters from his perspective.

Alright, let's go for our first task then.

So on the next slide, I've got an extract of Nixon's Silent Majority speech from the 3rd of November, 1969.

And I'd like you to get yourself two different colours and I'd like you to highlight where you can see examples of the following.

So first of all, Nixon's desire to win peace with honour.

So this is one of the campaign slogans that he was elected on.

And secondly, Nixon's frustration with anti-war protestors.

So when you see examples of each of those different features, I'd like to highlight them in their respective colour.

So the pause video now, have a go at that task, and I'll see you once you're done.

Just to be clear, "So tonight, to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support.

I pledged in my campaign for the presidency to end the war in a way that we could win the peace.

I have initiated a plan of action which will enable me to keep that pledge.

The more support I can have from the American people, the sooner that pledge can be redeemed for the more divided we are at home, the less likely the enemy is to negotiate at Paris." This is where the peace negotiations were happening.

"Let us be united for peace.

Let us also be united against defeat.

Because let us understand, North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States.

Only Americans can do that." Right, so get yourself two different colours.

In one colour, highlight where you can see Nixon's desire to win peace with honour.

In the second colour, highlight Nixon's frustration with anti-war protestors.

Pause the video whilst you're doing that and I'll see you once you're finished.

Okay, welcome back.

So hopefully you got on okay with that task here.

So, hopefully you can see on the screen in front of you here I've got my first one.

Nixon's desire to win peace with honour has been highlighted in purple, and it's the majority of that first paragraph that he's talking about there.

And that second point, Nixon's frustration with anti-war protestors picks up at the end of the first paragraph and is the entirety of that second paragraph.

So, hopefully you got something similar to myself there.

Let's move on now though to our second learning cycle for today, which is why did people support the war? So Nixon's silent majority.

(sighs) So Nixon's silent majority supported the war for several reasons, such as the US's fear of communism.

One of the main reasons though, was a sense of patriotism.

Americans grew up pledging allegiance to their flag every morning in school, they sang the national anthem before every sporting events, and it was a crime to burn the American flag.

Many Americans believed that it was right to love their country and supporting the actions of their government was the correct way to show that.

They also believed that supporting Nixon's effort to win the war in order to achieve peace would prevent the USA from looking weak.

This is especially important as a weak America could allow communism to spread.

So those are some of the reasons there for why people supported the war.

So, very quick check for understanding then.

Choose two examples that demonstrate American patriotism.

So A, singing the national anthem before every meal, B, singing the national anthem before sporting events, C, making it a crime to burn the American flag, or D, making it a crime to have dual citizenship.

So choose two examples now.

Okay, if you chose B and C, then congratulations, those are two examples that Americans use to demonstrate their patriotism.

Right, let's have a go at this task here then.

So what I'd like to do, there's a little gap-fill activity.

All I'd like you to do is to read through the paragraph and to fill in the gaps with some of the words from down at the bottom there.

Now to make it a little bit more challenging, there are some words at the bottom which should not appear in the paragraph.

So they're called distractors.

So you need to work out exactly which words need to go where and which words can be ignored.

So pause the video while you are doing this, have a go at the task, and I'll see you once you're finished.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully got on fine with that task.

So I'll read through this paragraph now, this is how it should look, and hopefully this is what you've got as well.

So, "Although there were large anti-war protests, many Americans supported the war in Vietnam because of their fierce patriotism.

Many Americans felt that loving their country also meant supporting their government.

They also did not want America to look weak by failing to win the war.

People were also in favour of war in Vietnam due to their fear of communism and their wish to prevent it from spreading to other countries." So hopefully you got those as well.

Let's move on now then to our final learning cycle for today, which is entitled The Hard Hats.

So in the 4th of May, 1970, the Ohio National Guard broke up a student demonstration at Kent State by firing live rounds into the crowd, which killed four students and injured nine more.

Student demonstrations across the country intensified as a result.

I don't think that should be any surprise, people were naturally very angry about this event.

On the 8th of May, a student demonstration in New York was met by a counter demonstration of construction workers and office workers.

The construction workers broke through police lines and attacked the students.

They were beating them with their hardhats, their tools, and their steel toe cap boots as well.

So they became known as the Hard Hats and then they laid siege to city hall.

They forced the mayor to raise the flag to full-mast.

It had been lowered to half-mast to commemorate the students who died at Kent State.

And the link there, why you might be wondering why is, why is the city of New York commemorating this? Why is it so sad? One of the students who died was originally from New York, so that is the link.

That's why the mayor felt it had been right to lower the flag to half-mast as opposed to full-mast.

Lowering the flag to half-mast is a sign of respect.

It's generally a sign that they are mourning the loss of somebody.

Generally speaking, that's the case.

In any case, once they had forced the mayor to raise the flag to full-mast again, they then stormed Pace University, the university in New York, they attacked students and professors in their classrooms. These are people who are just going about their day, going about their studies.

A mob then descends within the university and just starts attacking people.

More than a hundred people were injured in the Hard Hat Riots, roughly a quarter of them were women, were women as well.

But only six people were actually arrested for this.

And out of those six people, only one of them was a construction worker.

So effectively this mob attacked a group of peaceful demonstrators, they then forced city officials to do their bidding, and then they just stormed a university and started attacking students and lecturers at random and almost nobody was convicted for this.

What was the response? Well, emboldened by their actions and the lack of response from the authorities, blue-collar workers in New York continued to demonstrate against the anti-war protestors and in favour of the war in Vietnam.

And on the 20th of May, an estimated 150,000 blue-collar workers took part in a rally where they were showered with ticker tape by Wall Street office workers in surrounding buildings.

So for the 150,000 people are marching through the streets of New York, and from the windows kind of overlooking their parade route or their march route, there are people throwing ticker tape, which is a bits of kind of confetti, bits of paper, generally seen as a course of celebration is why you would throw ticker tape.

So this is what's happening at this point in time in America as well.

You have demonstrations and riots, or not necessarily riots but demonstrations and marches taking place against the war.

And you've also got demonstrations and marches taking place in favour of the war as well.

And generally speaking, when these two groups meet violence ensues.

It's certainly in this case anyway, in what's called the Hard Hat Riots.

So, this therefore, these demonstration, this particular demonstration suggested that support for the war was far more widespread than had previously been believed as well.

So on the 26th of May, about a week or so later, President Nixon invited the leaders of the construction workers to the White House in order to publicly show his support for the Hard Hats.

So Nixon comes down on the side of the Hard Hats.

And the reason for that is quite simple, it's because they supported him and they supported the war effort and therefore Nixon kind of overlooks the fact that they attacked innocent people for absolutely no good reason whatsoever and shows his public support for them as well.

In return, Nixon was presented with his own hard hat and American flag badge, and therefore they cemented the friendship between the government and the blue-collar workers who supported the war.

The Hard Hats presented Nixon with concrete proof that the silent majority were real and were silent no more.

So, let's go for a quick check for understanding now then.

So true or false, the Hard Hats supported the student anti-war protestors.

So true or false? If you chose false, then congratulations, that is indeed false, but let's justify the answer.

Now, why is it false? Is it false because the Hard Hats attacked student anti-war protestors in Ohio? Or is because the Hard Hats attacked student anti-war protestors in New York City? So choose your justification now.

Right, if you chose B then very well done, that is indeed correct.

Right, let's go through this task C one now then.

So what I'd like you to think about is how did views about President Nixon differ between the Hard Hats and the student protestors? So what I'd like you to do is fill in the speech bubbles with what the different groups might have said.

So, what would Hard Hat protestors think and say about Richard Nixon? And what would student protestors think and say about their president as well? So pause the video now whilst you complete that task and I'll see you once you've finished.

Okay, welcome back.

So I've got some ideas up on the board here, hopefully some of whatever you've got is something similar to what I've got here as well.

So, I said the Hard Hat protester might have said something on the lines of, "The president's alright! He understands that force is sometimes what is needed to get the job done in Vietnam and at home." So that may well be what a Hard Hat protestor, sort of thing he might have said.

From on the other perspective, a student protester may well have said, "We are not safe under this president! First he sends our troops to be killed in Vietnam, now he sends his supporters to attack us at home." And certainly from a student protestor, having seen your fellow students being shot and killed in Kent State in Ohio, and then to be attacked as well in New York, I imagine it must have been quite a difficult time.

In any case, hopefully you've got something along the same sort of lines as that.

We've got our second task now then.

I'm gonna show you some interpretations and what I'd like you to do is explain which interpretation you most agree with and why.

And when you are explaining your perspective, I'd like you to include specific evidence to support your particular interpretation as well.

So the first interpretation, Aisha's interpretation, "Anti-war protests were taking place for years and happened all over the US before the Hard Hat Riot.

Most Americans were anti-war." So that's one perspective we have right here.

A counter perspective comes from Sophia and she says, "Nixon's popularity jumped after his Silent Majority speech, and his supporters took action when he called for it.

And therefore most Americans were pro-war." So what I'd like you to do is think to yourself, which of these two interpretations do you most agree with? Which of these two interpretations can you provide evidence to support as well? So pause the video whilst you do that, and I'll see you once you've completed that task.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got on okay with that task here.

So I've included on the screen in front of you my response in support of Aisha's perspective, first of all here.

So if you chose Aisha as the interpretation you most agree with, hopefully your answer is somewhat similar to what I've got on the screen here.

But let's read it out now and see what we've got.

So, "Aisha's interpretation is the most convincing.

On the 15th of October, the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam saw more than 15 million people taking part in demonstrations across the country, making it one of the largest demonstrations in American history.

There were also a variety of groups who opposed the war, such as students and the Black civil rights movement, meaning that there was a range of different people who wanted the US to leave Vietnam.

Protests had also occurred since the beginning of US involvement in 1954, meaning that anti-war feelings were well established in America by the time of Nixon's Silent Majority speech." So hopefully you can see that I've used some specific details to support the point of view that I'm trying to get across.

If you chose Sophia's interpretation to try and support on this, if that's more like what your own interpretation is, then again, I've got an example answer on the screen here, which hopefully is somewhat similar to yours, but let's read through this one now as well and see what we've got.

So, "Sophia's interpretation is the most convincing.

Nixon received a 31% jump in approval ratings after his Silent Majority speech, demonstrating that most people were happy to support the government when they were called upon to do so.

The size of the blue-collar worker rallies so soon after the Hard Hat Riot, up to 150,000 strong, as well as the support from office workers lining the route, also demonstrates that pro-war supporters were simply waiting for a signal to show their supports.

Most Americans regularly demonstrated their patriotism and support for the war in Vietnam was seen by many Americans as another example of patriotism." So once again, hopefully you can see there, I've got some specific details that support Sophia's interpretation.

Regardless of which one you've chosen, there's no right or wrong answer.

The the key aspect of this task was to first of all have an interpretation, to have an opinion of your own, and then to try and support that with specific evidence.

If you can try and include more than one piece of evidence, I always say that a minimum of two bits of evidence is the bare minimum really for a good answer.

The more evidence you can include, the stronger your overall argument will be.

So hopefully that's what you were doing with your answer for this task as well.

Okay, so to summarise this lesson then.

So in the wake of large anti-war protests, Nixon called on the silent majority of Americans to support his methods of ending the war.

Nixon's popularity increased greatly after the speech.

People supported the war because of their patriotism and fear of communism.

Blue collar workers in favour of US involvement in Vietnam held their own rallies and attacked anti-war protestors.

So thank you very much for joining me today.

Hopefully you've enjoyed yourself, hopefully you learned something, and hopefully I'll see you again next time.

Bye-Bye.