September 26

This Day in History

Also on This Day

Lead Story
First Kennedy-Nixon debate, 1960
American Revolution
Congress elects agents to negotiate treaty with France, 1776
Automotive
First day of work at the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation, 1928
Civil War
Rebels begin attack against Fort Davidson, Missouri, 1864
Cold War
Anti-censorship law approved by Soviet legislature, 1989
Crime
Mistrial declared in Phil Spector murder case, 2007
Disaster
Ferry sinks off Gambian coast, 2002
General Interest
Drake circumnavigates the globe, 1580
Bernstein's West Side Story opens, 1957
Shannon Lucid returns to Earth, 1996
Hollywood
The Brady Bunch premieres, 1969
Screen legend Paul Newman dies, 2008
Literary
T.S. Eliot is born, 1888
Music
West Side Story premieres on Broadway, 1957
Old West
The famous frontiersman Daniel Boone dies in Missouri, 1820
Presidential
Kennedy and Nixon square off in a televised presidential debate, 1960
Sports
Four 20-game winners, 1971
Vietnam War
First American soldier killed in Vietnam, 1945
Nixon responds to critics, 1969
World War I
Meuse-Argonne offensive opens, 1918
World War II
Allies slaughtered by Germans in Arnhem, 1944

Vietnam War

Sep 26, 1969:

Nixon responds to critics

Previous Day September 26 Calendar Next Day

President Nixon, speaking at a news conference, cites "some progress" in the effort to end the Vietnam War and says, "We're on the right course in Vietnam." Urging the American people to give him the support and time he needed to end the war honorably, Nixon said, "If we have a united front, the enemy will begin to talk [at the negotiating table in Paris]." Nixon branded the attitude of Senator Charles Goodell (R-NY), and others like him in Congress as "defeatist." Goodell had only days before proposed legislation which failed to pass, but would have required the withdrawal of U.S. troops by the end of 1970, and barred the use of congressionally appropriated funds after December 1, 1970, for maintaining U.S. military personnel in Vietnam. In response to Nixon's remarks, 24 liberal Democratic congressmen held a private caucus. The group decided to endorse the nationwide protest scheduled for October 15 and agreed to press in Congress for resolutions calling for an end to the war and a withdrawal of U.S. troops; over the next three weeks, there would be 10 such proposals. None of these passed, but they indicated the mounting opposition to "Nixon's war."

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Previous Day September 26 Calendar Next Day

This Week in History, Sep 26 - Oct 2

Sep 26, 1945
First American soldier killed in Vietnam
Sep 26, 1969
Nixon responds to critics
Sep 27, 1967
Antiwar sentiment increases
Sep 27, 1969
Thieu comments on Nixon's Vietnamization policy
Sep 28, 1968
Battle for Thuong Duc begins
Sep 28, 1972
Weekly casualty figures contain no U.S. fatalities
Sep 29, 1965
Hanoi announces that downed pilots will be treated as war criminals
Sep 29, 1969
Charges dropped against Green Berets
Sep 30, 1964
First large scale antiwar demonstration staged at Berkeley
Sep 30, 1968
Humphrey announces that he would halt the bombing of North Vietnam
Oct 01, 1961
South Vietnam requests a bilateral defense treaty
Oct 02, 1966
Soviets report that Russian military personnel have come under fire
Oct 02, 1967
Aerial offensive against North Vietnam continues

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