Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia

by Carolyn Woods Eisenberg

In late September while on the campaign trail in Columbus, Ohio, McGovern was walking through the Western Electric plant shaking hands when he was stopped by factory worker Dan Gischler, who demanded: “How come you want amnesty for traitors?” Pointing to a bracelet inscribed with the name of a prisoner of war, the man denounced people “who won’t fight for Vietnam and for America.” McGovern replied that Nixon was actually “keeping him in jail by keeping this war going.”1 Gischler seemed unconvinced, countering that the president was “trying to get him out.” “How,” retorted McGovern, “by bombing the hell out of people?” Gishler insisted that Nixon would get the prisoners out, “every last one of them.” He only wished the president had “bombed a hell of a lot more of them,” because it was necessary to show people that we’re “not just a flunky second-rate country.” While McGovern searched for a reply, another worker chimed in: “We don’t believe in surrendering,” which was why he planned to vote for Nixon. Did either man really think Richard Nixon would end the war? the candidate queried. Gischler retorted that it was Lyndon Johnson who had put 500,000 soldiers into Vietnam, while Nixon was “taking people out.”