WI: The Enterprise completes its five year mission (Star Trek survives for 5 seasons)

[dsp19]

Last updates for the day.

SHATNER LOVES CAPTAIN KIRK, BUT DOESN'T WANT TO PLAY HIM FOREVER

May 20, 1970

The Gazette spoke to William Shatner by phone from Los Angeles, where he is currently producing Star Trek. We have published an excerpt of the interview.

Gazette: It is a pleasure talking to you. Another Montrealer has become world-famous, and we are proud to call you one of our own.
Shatner: It is a pleasure talking to the Gazette.
Gazette: Before we talk about Star Trek, are you a little disappointed the Canadiens did not lift the Stanley Cup this year?
Shatner: I am. Those Bruins are tough though. Leonard Nimoy was really happy. He's a big Bruins fan, being from Boston, and loves Bobby Orr. We had a disappointing season, but we'll definitely be back to win the Cup in 1971, like we usually do.
Gazette: How do you get along with Nimoy as Mr. Spock?
Shatner: We get along really well. We often debate about the number of lines we get on each show, but we have an equitable agreement.
Gazette: What is shooting Star Trek like?
Shatner: The days are really, really long. I get up at 5 in the morning, drive to Hollywood around 6:30 AM to beat the traffic, and don't get out of work until 6:30 PM, sometimes later. I bring my Doberman Pinscher with me while shooting to give me a little extra company.
Gazette: You own a Doberman?
Shatner: Yes, he's my best friend. You know that dogs are a man's best friend.
Gazette: How long are you going to play Captain Kirk?
Shatner: This is the final season of the show. I love this character because it has brought me worldwide fame. However, I don't want to be Captain Kirk forever. I'd like to be a big movie star, like Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood, who I count as acquaintances. They think I can join them as a movie hero, a leading man in Hollywood.
Gazette: Do you think they are going to make any Star Trek movies?
Shatner: I guess, maybe they'll make one or two for television, but I can't see our show as a big movie feature. Imagine what it would cost Paramount to make a feature film for the fans. They would demand too much, and we've already had our issues with Paramount, which have just been resolved.
Gazette: We heard they gave everyone a big raise.
Shatner: Yes they did. That's why I held that press conference. I was doing poorly in contract negotiations and they weren't going to pay me adequately for being the lead on a top-rated TV drama. So I went public with the negotiation.
Gazette: Do you fear that you will not be hired for future jobs?
Shatner: I feel like I can write my own ticket. I'm now the world famous Captain Kirk of Star Trek fame, and I expect movie studios to be banging down my door for roles after Star Trek ends.
Gazette: Thank you for your time, Mr. Shatner.
Shatner: Thank you. It's always a good thing to talk with the folks from home again.


NIMOY TO SPLIT TIME BETWEEN TREK, MISSION FOR 1970-1971

May 25, 1970

It is official. Leonard Nimoy is leaving Star Trek midway through the fifth season.

Nimoy has signed on to the cast of Mission: Impossible and will join the show midway through its production. He will conclude his Star Trek work in November, and join the highly rated CBS series. Star Trek fans will be very disappointed not to see Mr. Spock on their television screens for part of the fifth and final season, but Nimoy has grown tired of the role, and it has affected his family life, according to Sandra Nimoy, his wife. "Leonard needed a break from Star Trek, and we are fortunate that he is going to work in a less stressful environment with the Mission: Impossible cast," said Mrs. Nimoy. "This decision was very hard for Leonard. He loves Star Trek and has made the show famous, but the strain on his home life is too much. He has entered a rehabilitation program in order to save our marriage," Mrs. Nimoy continued. It is unknown how many episodes of Star Trek Mr. Nimoy will appear in before he says goodbye to the cast he has known for four, going on five seasons.


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, May 28, 1970

Leonard Nimoy is leaving Star Trek? He's the only reason I watch that show. Mr. Spock is the sexiest man in show business with those ears and eyebrows, and I will miss him dearly. I hope they make movies someday and Spock can come back. I love Mr. Spock with all my heart, and wish Mr. Nimoy well on Mission: Impossible, a show which I will definitely switch to with him now a member of that cast.

 

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STAR TREK DOMINATES THE EMMYS, WINNING FOUR AWARDS, INCLUDING A WIN FOR NIMOY

June 8, 1970

At the 22nd Primetime Emmy Awards, Star Trek, the hit science fiction drama, won four awards. Star Trek won for Outstanding Dramatic Series, edging ABC's new hit Marcus Welby, M.D., NBC's Ironside, the Forsyte Saga, CBS's Gunsmoke, and NBC's The Name of the Game. As part of his acceptance speech, Gene Roddenberry said, "We have accomplished the ultimate goal of a television show, winning the highest honor one can receive. We owe this award to our wonderful fans. Without them, it would not have been possible."

Leonard Nimoy, after falling short for the last three years, finally won an Emmy for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, besting Josh Brolin on Marcus Welby, M.D. and Greg Morris on Mission: Impossible. In an emotional acceptance speech, Nimoy broke his famously stoic Spock character and said, "I've been through hell and back in my personal life, but this award means the world to me. It has validated all the work I have placed into my Spock character, and I bet the Star Trek fanbase is over the moon right now."

Star Trek also won for Outstanding Dramatic Program, for the fourth season two-part finale, "Tomorrow Was Yesterday," written by the young David Gerrold. Gerrold said, "This is the pinnacle of my career. I never dreamed of winning a Hugo, let alone an Emmy." The special effects crew of Star Trek won the show's fourth award of the night, in art direction and scenic design. The special effects award was accepted by Walter Matt Jefferies, Jim Rugg and John M. Dwyer. Jefferies said, "The miracles we were able to pull off on the budget we were on were something else. We earned this Emmy the hard way, and we will cherish it."

Nimoy:

I felt like it was a fitting capstone to my career as Spock. I was looking for a way to leave the show, and I earned the highest television honor one can receive. I felt like all the work I put into Spock was worth it in that very moment. I was going through major life problems at the time, and the Emmy refocused me to solve those problems. I felt like life was worth it again and beat the drinking addiction, saved my marriage, and got closer to my children, who were at that point teenagers. It was a turning point for my life, in a positive way.

Roddenberry:

I thought, can you believe it. Douglas Cramer cancelled the Emmy winning series I created. I didn't call him out on stage, although I should have. I was actually grateful to win the Emmy. I never dreamed it was possible.

Gerrold:

I was heralded as a young science fiction genius, on par with the famous Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. I could never DREAM to be on their level as writers. I thanked them for the Emmy because I looked up to their writing and tried to emulate their style in some aspects.

Jefferies, Rugg and Dwyer:

On the budget we were given, we should have won 5 Emmys for art direction and scenic design, but we were grateful for that one. Our careers were made by that award.

 

[Ogrebear]

Well congratz to Star Trek!

I am surprised after this NBC does not goto Paramount and demand a reboot/reluanch of StarTrek with fresh actors and/or a few familiar faces since the show is HUGE.

A 1972 or 3 restarted Star Trek with say Scotty as Captain? Perhaps that's the animated series mentioned upthread? It's going to need to be really good quality to replace the live action show though; much, much better than OTL.

 

[dsp19]

Well congratz to Star Trek!

I am surprised after this NBC does not goto Paramount and demand a reboot/reluanch of StarTrek with fresh actors and/or a few familiar faces since the show is HUGE.

A 1972 or 3 restarted Star Trek with say Scotty as Captain? Perhaps that's the animated series mentioned upthread? It's going to need to be really good quality to replace the live action show though; much, much better than OTL.

1972-1973 is too soon for a completely new cast. Roddenberry has a couple of pilot ideas but they never get past the outline stage. Doohan voices cartoons, but not anything Star Trek related. He's on timeout because of the dustup with Shatner...

 

[hammo1j]

This is awesome! Please save John. Through the power of Trek. OTL the nomark opened the bible and read the opening line of I am the Walrus which convinced him.

Can we pretend to be fans submitting our star trek scripts? I tried to get an agent but they all turned me down. Let me know!

 

[dsp19]

This is awesome! Please save John. Through the power of Trek. OTL the nomark opened the bible and read the opening line of I am the Walrus which convinced him.

Can we pretend to be fans submitting our star trek scripts? I tried to get an agent but they all turned me down. Let me know!

My timeline is PG-13, so no slash fic or rated XXX stories 😆

 

[dsp19]

This is awesome! Please save John. Through the power of Trek. OTL the nomark opened the bible and read the opening line of I am the Walrus which convinced him.

Can we pretend to be fans submitting our star trek scripts? I tried to get an agent but they all turned me down. Let me know!

I'll have him watching a rerun of Star Trek when the attempted assassination occurs. Lennon catches the Trekker bug from McCartney, who he has reconciled with a bit by 1980. Lennon considers the show a hopeful representation of the future, and Lennon's whole business is writing hopeful music for the future

 

[dsp19]

Preview of the fifth season: In Gene Roddenberry's casting call for young writers, he finds two great female talents: Jean Lorrah (32 years old in 1970), a fan fiction writer who actually submitted a script to the series IRL that was unproduced, and at the time, 22-year old Vonda McIntyre. Both go on to write a series of Star Trek novels IRL, but ITTL, they each get one episode produced. They are Lorrah's KATHI and McIntyre's THE ENTROPY EFFECT. The Entropy Effect was a tremendous book that I always wanted to see in live action. McIntyre actually wrote The Entropy Effect as a script for live action while TOS was on the air, as an 18 year old!

 

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PAUL McCARTNEY TO APPEAR ON STAR TREK

June 11, 1970

Gene Roddenberry has scored another coup for the Emmy winning series Star Trek. He has convinced Beatle Paul McCartney to make a guest star appearance on an episode of the series. McCartney and Roddenberry struck up a friendship while Roddenberry was on a vacation in Mexico. McCartney was seen on the Paramount lot, conversing with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, the recently crowned Emmy winning supporting actor who plays the world famous Mr. Spock. The Beatle frontman always wanted to play a role on Star Trek, as he is a famous fan of the show. "I would appear on Star Trek for free if it was possible," McCartney commented to TV Guide. "It is the best American TV show going because it gives us hope for the future. My music, when I was leading the Beatles, provided this same hope for the world." McCartney continued, "I'm not going to do what Cary Grant did and demand more money after the fact. This is a series I love with all my heart and I know they will do right by me. If you just saw the Emmy's, you know they've done a lot right." McCartney is rumored to play the leader of a 23rd century band that is on the verge of breaking up. It will supposedly be the job of the Enterprise crew to keep the band together. McCartney is also trying to get Ringo Starr, his former Beatle drummer, to appear on the show, but "Ringo isn't that big a fan of the show," according to him. "It will be a tough job to get Ringo to join me."


NIXON PLANS TRIP TO CHINA; KISSINGER DISCUSSES VIETNAM SITUATION WITH CHINESE

June 12, 1970

President Richard Nixon, through back channels with the Communist Chinese leadership, is planning a trip to the reclusive nation, sometime in 1971. H.R. Haldeman, Nixon's chief of staff, told the Post that "negotiations with the Red Chinese and Mao Zedong have taken a turn for the better, and we are developing the basic outline for a full diplomatic delegation to the Communist Chinese next year." Henry Kissinger, Nixon's national security adviser, discussed the situation in Vietnam with the Chinese. Kissinger reports that Communist China will stop supplying the Viet Cong with weapons on the condition the American government agrees to free elections in the divided country. Back in 1954, the Geneva Conference attempted to settle the Vietnam situation after the Vietnamese threw their colonial overlords, the French, out of their nation at the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Elections were promised to unite the country in 1956, but they never took place due to South Vietnamese and American reluctance out of a fear that the late North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh would win and Vietnam would go Communist. Nixon is considering this move because he is trying to figure out a way out of the war that has lasted over a decade and has cost the United States tens of thousands of lives. However, it is unlikely that a South Vietnamese candidate would win an election at this point, considering the political situation in Southeast Asia.

 

[JonClark]

News blurbs for today:

PAUL McCARTNEY TO APPEAR ON STAR TREK

TV Guide, June 11, 1970

Gene Roddenberry has scored another coup for the Emmy winning series Star Trek. He has convinced Beatle Paul McCartney to make a guest star appearance on an episode of the series. McCartney and Roddenberry struck up a friendship while Roddenberry was on a vacation in Mexico. McCartney was seen on the Paramount lot, conversing with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, the recently crowned Emmy winning supporting actor who plays the world famous Mr. Spock. The Beatle frontman always wanted to play a role on Star Trek, as he is a famous fan of the show. "I would appear on Star Trek for free if it was possible," McCartney commented to TV Guide. "It is the best American TV show going because it gives us hope for the future. My music, when I was leading the Beatles, provided this same hope for the world." McCartney continued, "I'm not going to do what Cary Grant did and demand more money after the fact. This is a series I love with all my heart and I know they will do right by me. If you just saw the Emmy's, you know they've done a lot right." McCartney is rumored to play the leader of a 23rd century band that is on the verge of breaking up. It will supposedly be the job of the Enterprise crew to keep the band together. McCartney is also trying to get Ringo Starr, his former Beatle drummer, to appear on the show, but "Ringo isn't that big a fan of the show," according to him. "It will be a tough job to get Ringo to join me."

Imagine if they manage to get John Lennon to make an unannounced cameo in the episode. Nothing big, just a line or two as a lark.

 

[dsp19]

Imagine if they manage to get John Lennon to make an unannounced cameo in the episode. Nothing big, just a line or two as a lark.

Yoko Ono is a huge Star Trek fan IRL so this is possible. She and her son Sean Lennon have attended conventions. Yoko once got to sit in the captains chair on a simulated version of the TNG set at a London convention

 

[dsp19]

I'm also going to do some stuff with Vietnam and China, because Nixon goes to China earlier ITTL and will attempt to win the Vietnam War in a very "tricky" way

 

[dsp19]

Two more article updates:

JOHN AND PAUL PLANNING BEATLES REUNION IN LOS ANGELES?

June 14, 1970

John Lennon was seen drinking coffee with his former Beatles partner, Paul McCartney, in Los Angeles this past week. Are the Beatles reuniting? We don't know right now. However, we know that the Beatles' breakup will cause a lot of legal issues with Apple Records and Neil Aspinall, their former road manager. There have been major issues between McCartney and Lennon over Lennon loving Yoko Ono over his love of the band. Once Lennon left the band for Yoko, the band was destined for breakup. However, we are curious as to why they are meeting again. Is it possible that they have resolved their issues and will return together? This means they would have to meet with George Harrison and Ringo Starr, who also want to start solo careers. McCartney and Ringo have a very poor relationship right now, and Paul and George clashed over Paul's desire to leave Apple Records. It seems impossible, but we hope the Fab Four make up and get out on the road again!


IN REVERSE OF VIETNAMIZATION, NIXON PLANS MORE TROOP DEPLOYMENTS TO VIETNAM

June 22, 1970

Displeased with Secretary of State Melvin Laird's Vietnamization program, President Nixon sided with his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, and will authorize more troop deployments to Vietnam. The number of GIs to be drafted into the service is unknown at this time, but Kissinger told the Post that it is in the range of 100,000 to 150,000. Nixon bluntly told Laird that Vietnamization "wasn't working" and that he would not be the first American president to lose a war. It is possible that Nixon wants to expand the Cambodia campaign into Laos, in an effort to choke off the Ho Chi Minh trail, the supply line for the Viet Cong operating in South Vietnam. Nixon believes that the South Vietnamese are not prepared to take the war effort on without American assistance, and Kissinger told the Post that "the future troop deployment is largely to train the South Vietnamese to better prosecute the war." Nixon's move was met with approval by General Creighton Abrams, in charge of the Vietnam War. Abrams said, "I have had my hands tied behind my back by Vietnamization. We can now prosecute the war more effectively, either by training the ARVN with more American troops to assist them, or to attack the North Vietnamese ourselves." This decision by Nixon will cause a lot of controversy; there have been significant anti-war protests on college campuses and in major cities for several years. However, Nixon has also seen some pro-war protests, primarily from blue-collar workers who voted for him in 1968 and in the South, an area he is trying to win in both the 1970 midterms and the 1972 presidential election.


Roddenberry:

We got Paul to appear on our show, but I had no idea John wanted to show up as well! I think Yoko Ono got in John's ear one night and convinced him.

Kissinger:

Vietnamization was not working as a tactic to force the North Vietnamese to the peace table. We either needed to bomb the North Vietnamese cities, expand the war in Cambodia and extend the theatre of operations to Laos to cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail, or face defeat. The South Vietnamese army was incapable of withstanding their Communist enemies from the North, as we saw in combat for several years. Daniel Ellsberg at the RAND corporation told the Administration that there was no scenario where we could win, but I refused to accept a no win scenario, because the United States should never lose a war. So I told the President that we could not continue with Vietnamization, and he agreed, cutting off Laird. I told him that we should resume bombing in North Vietnam, but he refused, because he believed that bombing would damage our fragile talks with the Chinese. So we decided to send more troops in the guise that they were training the South Vietnamese, and they did, until Nixon went to China and engineered the brief armistice that led to planned elections in April 1971.

 

[farmerted555]

PLEASE SAVE JOHN! PLEASE SAVE JOHN! PLEASE SAVE JOHN! PLEASE SAVE JOHN! PLEASE SAVE JOHN! PLEASE SAVE JOHN! PLEASE SAVE JOHN!

 

[dsp19]

PLEASE SAVE JOHN! PLEASE SAVE JOHN! PLEASE SAVE JOHN! PLEASE SAVE JOHN! PLEASE SAVE JOHN! PLEASE SAVE JOHN! PLEASE SAVE JOHN!

Lennon delays the mixing of Walking on Thin Ice at the Record Plant Studio until December 9, 1980 to watch a Star Trek rerun. Therefore, Lennon never meets Mark David Chapman. The doorman at the Dakota intercepts Chapman at the door late at night with a firearm. He calls the police; Chapman wounds the doorman, but the cops come to arrest Lennon's would-be assailant. The doorman survives his injuries and is credited with saving Lennon's life. That's how I save John.

OTOH, Vietnam is going to take some VERY interesting turns

 

[farmerted555]

Three guesses on Nam: China, Russia and nukes.

 

[dsp19]

Three guesses on Nam: China, Russia and nukes.

China helps broker a truce in Vietnam when Nixon goes there in early 1971 (one year before RL). However, Nixon has tricks up his sleeve that I don't want to fully reveal yet. That story will evolve over the coming months. The US Army will expand their presence in Cambodia and enter Laos in an attempt to interdict the Ho Chi Minh trail. Their efforts will meet with mixed success. No nukes involved, WWIII doesn't happen ITTL

So the US runs an expanded version of Operation Lam Son 719 where they get involved in addition to the ARVN. They devote 75K troops to the effort. Instead of the Laotian operation failing IRL, it is moderately successful ITTL, happens several months earlier in the fall of 1970, and forces everyone to the peace table for talks

 

[dsp19]

After reading These Are the Voyages, Part Three, I had to edit the dates where the POD occurs. So I went back to the start of the TL and did that...

 

[dsp19]

Today's updates will be news articles plus a speech by Leonard Nimoy at a massive anti-war protest in Los Angeles. I'll write the news articles first, then get to Nimoy.

MASSIVE ANTI-WAR PROTESTS BREAK OUT IN AMERICAN CITIES

July 12, 1970

Hundreds of thousands of anti-war protesters swamped the streets of American cities in a planned response to President Nixon's announcement that he is drafting up to 150,000 more American men to the Vietnam War effort. In New York, 200,000 people marched down Fifth Avenue, shutting the main Manhattan artery for the day. New York Police Department officers deployed pepper spray and tear gas on the protesters, but they marched on, down from 96th Street to St. Patrick's Cathedral, where they prayed for peace. Several New York protesters burned their draft cards and called President Nixon "a fascist pig." In Los Angeles, police estimated the crowd at 175,000 along Santa Monica and Sunset Boulevards. The crowd was led by Leonard Nimoy, the famous Mr. Spock of Star Trek, a noted opponent of the war. Nimoy spoke at the gathering that concluded their march at the famous Capitol Records Building. Nimoy reiterated his support for Eugene McCarthy, the failed 1968 Democratic candidate for President, as a man who can bring peace to Vietnam and the world. In Washington D.C., a crowd of 50,000 marched from the Capitol Building to the Ellipse, where they picketed the White House, demanding Nixon's resignation. Signs at the Washington protest depicted Nixon as a "madman who will bring on World War Three" and a "bloodthirsty warmonger." One protester in Washington even attempted to set himself on fire, but his self-immolation was handled by District of Columbia Police. The man was brought to the hospital with second degree burns, and is expected to recover.


DEMOCRATS, LEADING RACE FOR CONGRESS, DEMAND REMOVAL OF NIXON WAR POWERS

July 14, 1970

Buoyed by President Nixon's unpopular decision to deploy more GIs to Vietnam, Democrats have opened up a 15-point lead in congressional preference polls for the 1970 midterms. A Gallup poll found that Democrats hold a 54-39 lead on their Republican rivals in the race for Congress this November, while a Louis Harris poll showed the Democrats with a similar 56-41 lead. The Democrats currently hold wide majorities in both houses of Congress, as they have done since the 1954 elections, and look set to expand their majorities. Mike Mansfield, Democratic majority leader in the Senate, looks forward to a possible 8 seat Democratic gain in the upper chamber. "President Nixon has badly mishandled the fallout from the Kent State massacre and is making a suicidal decision to add more troops to the failing Vietnam War effort," Mansfield said. "We are on course to expand our majorities and remove the President's war powers due to his disastrous policy maneuvering." Democratic Speaker of the House John McCormack of Massachusetts is retiring, setting off a leadership battle in the House Democratic ranks. The two leading contenders for Speaker of the House, assuming Democrats retain control of the lower chamber, are Carl Albert, a moderate from Oklahoma who supports the Vietnam War effort, and Morris Udall, a liberal Democrat from Arizona who staunchly opposes the war. Udall has promised a bill stripping Nixon of war powers, removing American troops from Vietnam, and calling for a permanent peace between the United States and North Vietnam.


CRAMER ATTENDS STAR TREK SHOOT, MARVELS AT PRODUCTION

July 17, 1970

Douglas S. Cramer, famed opponent of Star Trek's success, made a rare appearance on the Star Trek set to observe the production of an episode. He was amazed at the amount of work the production staff, especially the special effects crew, placed into the sets, lighting, costumes and props. "Walter Matt Jefferies, Jim Rugg and John Dwyer deserved their Emmy," Cramer said. "I am astonished by the effort they place into their endeavors, especially the attempt to make the sets as realistic as possible. Star Trek almost runs like a weekly hourly movie with its production values." Cramer is beginning to regret cancelling the series, and talked to the cast about future Star Trek TV movies. "The cast is open to making television movies that are shot like movies on the silver screen," Cramer continued. "I don't want to lose this property forever, and would like to shepherd it to the Paramount Pictures division for big screen production. This series will become one of the biggest money-spinners of all time if it is produced into a big screen movie, or series of movies."


DeFOREST KELLEY IS RELIEVED THAT STAR TREK'S RUN IS ENDING

July 24, 1970

DeForest Kelley, the famed Doctor McCoy on Star Trek, is glad that he has rocketed to worldwide fame, but is also pleased that the stresses of working on Star Trek will end soon. He cited the negative experiences his co-stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy face in their personal lives as rationale for his thinking. "I saw Bill's marriage decline, and Leonard's troubles, and I was very fortunate not to experience the same stresses," Kelley said. "If the series continued, I'd be worried that my marriage would also suffer, because Star Trek is the hardest show in history to make. The amount of attention to detail we as actors have to place in our roles is unparalleled among any television show." He cited the fact that actors from other television series and even feature films attend Star Trek shoots and tell him that the level of focus and skill required is extreme. "Clint Eastwood once attended a shooting on our set and said, 'I could never be a guest star on Star Trek. The amount of detail placed into every role is off the charts,'" Kelley recalled. "The actors from The Mod Squad also appeared at one of our shoots and said, 'We have it so easy compared to you guys. All we have to do is act as ourselves. You have to play characters that are completely different from your personalities and never break character. We especially don't know how Nimoy does it.'"

 

[dsp19]

THE NIMOY SPEECH

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is an honor to have marched with you this summer afternoon. I am especially glad to note that my fellow actors, George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Nichelle Nichols have joined me this afternoon. I would like the crowd to acknowledge them as well." (Crowd cheers).

"President Nixon's leadership, especially when the Vietnam War is concerned, has been disastrous. He campaigned on a platform of 'peace with honor,' but his behavior, as I am concerned, is illogical, if I am allowed to break back into my character for a second. Nixon initially decided to embark on a policy of Vietnamization, where American troops would slowly disengage from the war and train the South Vietnamese army to standard to defend their country. This, I believed, was sound policy, because we were leaving South Vietnam to the South Vietnamese. In the end, it is up to them to determine whether they can remain an independent nation, as it was for South Korea back in the 1950s. The South Koreans successfully became a bulwark against the expanding Communist bloc with American assistance at their border, so why can't South Vietnam do the same? If Saigon cannot achieve the same success as Seoul in forming a stable government, they will fall to the Hanoi regime, regardless of what military assistance the United States provides."

"President Nixon is demonstrating impatience with the Vietnamization policy he outlined. The South Vietnamese have the capability to learn, just like any other people, in the ability to defend their nation. Our deployment of another 100,000 to 150,000 troops to the Southeast Asian theatre is simply more meat thrown into the infamous war grinder. There is no victory scenario in Vietnam without a lasting peace where the South Vietnamese can prove to form a clean government with strong leadership and a competent army. No number of American troops can fix inherent flaws in the South Vietnamese political structure, which has failed to win over the hearts and minds of many of the people within its borders."

"I wonder what President Nixon is trying to accomplish with the extra troop deployment. Will he add more troops to Cambodia, a completely illegal war? Will he attempt to invade Laos to a chorus of international condemnation? Or will he simply throw them into Quang Tri and Quang Nam provinces, where so many of our brave young men in uniform have met their deaths? The North Vietnamese, as much as many despise them, have shown an undying commitment to defend their country, which has remained unbroken despite incessant bombing and attempts to cut off their supply chain to their enemy in the South. I see no scenario where that will change, aside from a peace treaty which guarantees the sovereignty of both nations."

"Lastly, I would like to compliment a man I hold great respect for, Senator Eugene McCarthy. Mr. McCarthy was one of the first senators in Washington to speak out against the war in Southeast Asia, and his vision has proven prescient. Had we elected Senator McCarthy to the Presidency in 1968, we would not be in the situation we are currently facing. Senator McCarthy would have negotiated that 'peace with honor' that Nixon campaigned on, but is refusing to promise the American people. If Eugene McCarthy decides to run for the presidency again two years from now, I will wholeheartedly support his efforts to win back the White House from a man in Nixon who I consider a danger to the world. Thank you."


Nimoy:

I thought I was going to end up on Nixon's enemies list for sure, but I had to speak out. His leadership style was that of a madman who was blind to reality. My endorsement of McCarthy did not help the good senator's cause though. He would have made a great President, but unfortunately, it never came to pass for him.

Daniel Ellsberg:

Leonard Nimoy was a brilliant man. If he wasn't an actor, he was intelligent enough to work at the RAND corporation with me. Leonard's speech redoubled my efforts to reveal the Pentagon Papers, either in the Senate or through the press. Eventually, I went to the New York Times and they published the papers almost a year later, in June 1971.