Peace with Honor
{{Short description|Phrase}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2021}}
"Peace with Honor" was a phrase U.S. President Richard Nixon used in a speech on January 23, 1973 to describe the Paris Peace Accords to end the Vietnam War. The phrase is a variation on a campaign promise Nixon made in 1968: "I pledge to you that we shall have an honorable end to the war in Vietnam."{{Cite web |url=http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTYzOTI1MmY3ZTk2OGIxY2E4NjE5MTBiOGVkY2VkNTg= |title=Nixon TV ad |access-date=2009-05-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919093107/http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTYzOTI1MmY3ZTk2OGIxY2E4NjE5MTBiOGVkY2VkNTg= |archive-date=2008-09-19 |url-status=dead }} The Accords specified that a ceasefire would take place four days later. According to the plan, within sixty days of the ceasefire, the North Vietnamese would release all U.S. prisoners, and all U.S. troops would withdraw from South Vietnam. On March 29, 1973, the last U.S. soldier left Vietnam. On 30 April 1975, Saigon was taken by North Vietnamese troops.Gilbert Morales, Critical Perspectives on the Vietnam War, [https://books.google.com/books?id=8mjtd8DljZEC&pg=PT123&dq=I+have+asked+for+this+radio+and+television+time+tonight+for+the+purpose+of+announcing+that+we+today+have+concluded+an+agreement+to+end+the+war+and+bring+peace+with+honor+in+Vietnam+and+in+Southeast+Asia&ei=o0NeSuv9JYaCywTBicS-BwThe p. 120-125], 2005, {{ISBN|1-4042-0063-0}}, {{ISBN|978-1-4042-0063-0}}
Closely connected with the phrase is the idea that Nixon claimed in 1968 to have a secret plan to end the war. Nixon never made such a claim during his campaign, but neither did he explain how he would achieve peace. Therefore the assumption that he had a secret plan became a widespread belief and is commonly misattributed as a direct quote.{{cite book|first=Andrew|last=Johns|year=2010|title=Vietnam's Second Front: Domestic Politics, the Republican Party, and the War|page=198}}
Earlier uses
- 49 BC, Cicero: "Until we know whether we are to have peace without honour or war with its calamities, I have thought it best to for them to stay at my house in Formiae and the boys and girls too."Cicero, [https://books.google.com/books?id=jMS9bEGhswwC Cicero: Letters to Atticus], Volume 4, Books 7.10–10, p. 29.
- {{Circa|1145}}, Theobald II, Count of Champagne: "Peace with honor" written in a letter to King Louis VII of France.Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations, 1922.
- 1607, William Shakespeare: "That it shall hold companionship in peace/With honour, as in war."Shakespeare, William, Coriolanus Act iii. Sc. 2.
- 1775, Edmund Burke: "The superior power may offer peace with honor and with safety… But the concessions of the weak are concessions of fear."Burke, Edmund, "[http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/burke10.txt On Conciliation with the Colonies]" (1775).
- 1878, Benjamin Disraeli: "Lord Salisbury and myself have brought you back peace—but a peace I hope with honour, which may satisfy our sovereign and tend to the welfare of our country."Safire, William, [https://books.google.com/books?id=jK-0NPoMiYoC Safire's Political Dictionary] (2008), p. 531 Said upon returning from the Congress of Berlin. Wags paraphrased this as "Peace with honour — and Cyprus too."
- 1916, Wilson Business Men's League: "Wilson and peace with honor or Hughes with Roosevelt and War?" Part of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's reelection campaign.Commager, Henry Steele and Richard B. Morris, [https://archive.org/stream/woodrowwilsonand001945mbp/woodrowwilsonand001945mbp_djvu.txt Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era 1910-1917] (1972).
- 1934, A. A. Milne: Peace with Honour: An Enquiry into the War Convention [book title]
- 1938, Neville Chamberlain: "My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is 'peace for our time.' Go home and get a nice quiet sleep." Said upon returning from the Munich Conference.Chamberlain, Neville, "[http://www.britannia.com/history/docs/peacetime.html Peace for Our Time] {{Webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180814220825/http://www.britannia.com/history/docs/peacetime.html |date= 2018-08-14}}, September 30, 1938.
- 1938, Winston Churchill criticizing Chamberlain's appeasement with Hitler, commented: "You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war."Churchill, W.S., "[http://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/world-war-ii-churchill-quotes.html Dishonour and War]", September 30, 1938.
- 1939, Józef Beck speaking in the Sejm (parliament) on the 5th of May 1939 in response to Hitler's demands for annexing the Free City of Danzig to Germany: "We in Poland do not know the meaning of a peace at every price. There is only one thing in the life of people, nations and states that is priceless. That thing is the honour."{{Citation | title = Lat temu Józef Beck wypowiedział słowa my w Polsce nie znamy pokoju za wszelką cenę | url = https://dzieje.pl/aktualnosci/80-lat-temu-jozef-beck-wypowiedzial-slowa-my-w-polsce-nie-znamy-pokoju-za-wszelka-cene | work = Dzieję}}.
See also
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- [http://www.watergate.info/nixon/73-01-23_vietnam.shtml Complete Text of Nixon's Speech]
{{Presidency of Richard Nixon}}
Category:Presidency of Richard Nixon