Opinion: Lower Your Voice

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President Richard Nixon's inaugural speech, generally considered one of the best of his career, received high marks for empathy with the temper of the nation. It was summed up best by the New York Post's Max Lerner: "Mainly, it fitted in with the mood of the people—far better than most wishful Democrats would agree. What they want most, after all the confrontations and anger and hate, is a quieter breathing spell in which America can catch up with the gains registered on its statute-books and its conscience."

Even the Post's Liberal James Wechsler conceded that "few documents have so effectively achieved their immediate purpose—the temporary political disarmament of many who viewed Nixon's accession with mingled anger and apprehension." As Conservative David Lawrence saw it, the speech was "a timely presentation of thoughts which lie deep in the hearts of the American people." Joseph Kraft, with grudging appreciation, noted that "Mr. Nixon was speaking in homilies. But he had the right homilies for the moment."

Criticism—what there was of it—tended to be muted and a bit oblique. Joseph Alsop viewed the speech as "eloquently phrased, redolent of good intentions, admirably delivered but—to put it very mildly—not enormously informative." Mary McGrory, the Washington Evening Star's sentimental liberal, reproduced a parade-route confrontation between a 60-year-old South Carolina Republican and a "furious youth" with long bleached hair, who ranted on behalf of peace. "I voted for the man who just went by," said the South Carolinian. "He's for peace, too. Didn't you hear his speech?" The boy sneered: "Words, words, words."

Rhetorical Blight. Conservative William F. Buckley, who likes Nixon but loves style, delivered a toast in acid. To him, "the striking passages of his address had to do with the human spirit. These passages he could speak feelingly because he is the primary American exemplar of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. The astronauts never had such dark and lonely moments as Nixon had, and out of that experience he fashioned a philosophy which is essentially hopeful." Still, he found banal passages: "We are going to turn our swords into plowshares yes yes yes." Buckley also detected "the rhetorical blight" of Kennedy Speechwriter Ted Sorensen, who, Buckley claimed, first employed "those false antitheses which are substitutes for analytical invigoration: 'We cannot expect to make everyone our friend, but we can try to make no one our enemy' (ho hum)."

Imaginary Dialogue. Among the few who found a light side to the speech was James ("Scotty") Reston, the New

York Times's executive editor and columnist. He picked the most noted lines of the address, then slipped them into an imaginary dialogue between himself and a Nixon spokesman. Thus:

"How does the press adjust to the new Administration?" we asked.

"Lower your voice," he said.

"How's that?"

"Lower yet. The lower the better."

"I have heard from a well-informed Republican circle that Herbert Brownell is Mr. Nixon's choice to replace Earl Warren."