Nation: Nixon's Unsilent Supporters

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Closer to the Nixon concept of the silent majority are the promoters of National Unity Week. This move was initiated by Edmund Dombrowski, an orthopedic surgeon from Redlands, Calif., and led by Show Business Celebrities Bob Hope and Art Linkletter. They sent telegrams urging almost all of the nation's mayors and governors to proclaim last week as "National Unity Week" and to ask their citizens to fly the flag, turn on car headlights, leave house lights on all weekend, pray for U.S. prisoners of war and sign petitions stating: "We are proud to be Americans. We support and respect the integrity of our elected leaders." The group claims that "thousands" of mayors as well as governors of California, Michigan and Florida agreed to cooperate. The group's pro-Nixon position is explained by Hope: "If we ever let the Communists win this war, we are in great danger of fighting for the rest of our lives and losing a million kids, not just the 40,000 we've already lost."

Dombrowski, a Republican who voted for John Kennedy in 1960, had never organized anything bigger than a Fourth of July parade. But campus and peace demonstrators made him angry. He talked to a group of high school students in Redlands about Moratorium activities and found that they did not like being pressured into an "either/or proposition; either you are for or against the war." They felt that the President was doing all he could to end the war, but they did not want to have to parade in the streets to show their support. They preferred a more modest expression of unity. Dombrowski donated $5,000 to promote the cause, solicited another $5,000 from Mrs. Mary Shirk, a Redlands heiress to the Kimberly-Clark fortune. He opened offices on both coasts, began distributing some 200,000 "National Unity" bumper stickers daily. "We merely want all Americans to stand up and be counted for justice, honor and integrity," he says.

More than $500,000 worth of newspaper ads inviting readers to clip and mail coupons with statements like "Mr. President: You have my support in your efforts to bring a just and lasting peace" have been placed by United We Stand, a group organized by H. Ross Perot. 39, a Dallas millionaire. No right-winger, Perot, who heads Electronic Data Systems Corp., was inspired by a recent talk with Lyndon Johnson. "He is still deeply concerned about the war and wants peace," says Perot. "In fact, the four Presidents who have administered this war have felt it necessary to stabilize Asia. I must assume that if I knew what they know, I would have acted the same way." Perot says he would be pushing the same campaign if Hubert Humphrey were President. "Regardless of your opinion of the man, the President's power is the most effective tool for bringing about a fair peace. This is not Nixon's war, not Johnson's war; it is our war, and we can help end it."