Nixonland: America's Second Civil War and the Divisive Legacy of Richard Nixon 1965-72

by Rick Perlstein

In a way, the most honest messages about Vietnam available in the mainstream came from the massively popular annual NBC broadcasts of Bob Hope’s Christmas shows for the troops. Time was the place to go each week if you wanted to read about how the American GIs “main concern in off-duty hours is aiding Vietnamese civilians.” None of that bullshit from Bob; he told winking jokes about prostitutes. To connect with his audience, Hope had to earn their trust. He did it by telling home truths. At Qi Nam, he acknowledged the war’s hopelessness with a joke about LBJ’s proposed tax hike: “When a Texan says we need money, you know we’re really in trouble.” To a crowd at Da Nang, fifteen thousand marines bigger than the year before, he acknowledged the conflict’s uncontrollable growth: “I probably look like Mickey Rooney from back there!”