"Only one thing will get these hands clean..."
The cartoon depicts an army general or official with hands that are dirtied by Vietnam holding up "Silent Majority Soap." This cartoon is meant to show how the government (or Nixon) is covering up everything bad that was happening in Vietnam by saying that there is a majority of people that agree with the war, but aren't open about it. It is trying to show how the government were justifying their actions with "support" of their people, but there was no proof that they actually existed. The only way that the government would appear to be "doing the right thing" was if most of its people supported it, however this was not the case, so Nixon created a term to get his bloodied hands clean.
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"Onward and Upward and --"
This cartoon depicts a man (probably a President or government official) climbing up bombs, symbolizing how the government kept bombing Vietnam, hoping it would end. The U.S. was not very prepared for the Vietnam war, and every time they thought they were losing, they would just bomb even more. In fact, more bombs were dropped by the U.S. in Vietnam, than all of World War II. This also shows the frustration of American citizens because the U.S kept escalating their involvement and bombing more, even when the last bombing attacks had done nothing to stop Viet Cong.
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"I hope the Viet Cong know this!"
This political cartoon is comparing what American people were hearing about Vietnam versus how G.I. soldiers actually saw the war. Many soldiers who were fighting in Vietnam didn't think that they were going to win because Viet Cong was so sneaky and the G.I.'s could see that Viet Cong was more stealthy than they were. In fact, while the man is listening to the radio broadcast, a member of Viet Cong has a gun pointed at the other soldier without him realizing it, showing that they had the upper hand and were definitely capable of winning the war. This also shows how the government was trying to convince its people that they weren't going to lose, and that they weren't sending soldiers to Vietnam to die.
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"Johnson"
This cartoon depicts Lyndon B. Johnson with a very long nose, comparing him to Pinocchio, implying that he was lying about Vietnam. This is referring to the Pentagon Papers and how they showed that LBJ was advised to pull out of Vietnam, but he couldn't bear losing a war so he lied about the prospects of the war in order to stay in Vietnam. LBJ and the other presidents during the war knew that they were going to lose, but they would lie about it to the public so that they wouldn't protest and revolt against their decision.
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