President Richard Nixon’s “Silent Majority” Speech, delivered via television and radio toward the end of his first year in office, was significant in the context of both the Vietnam War and broader American politics. In 1969, Nixon presided over of a nation that was visibly struggling with the Vietnam War at home and abroad. U.S. military casualties topped 40,000 killed and approximately 250,000 wounded. North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese casualties were estimated at over a million. Even as the United States spent almost $80 million per day on the war, the press reported that U.S. victory in Vietnam was not possible, and college campuses were boiling over with student protests.