History Book: President Nixon withdraws troops from Vietnam

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, July 1, 2024. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Next up, the WORLD History Book. Today, an iconic landmark is presented to the United States. And, placing Bibles in hotel rooms.

EICHER: But first, American soldiers set out for home. Here’s WORLD reporter Anna Johansen Brown.

NEWSCAST: At last, Americans are in sight of an end to their commitment in Vietnam, the third most costly war in American history.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: One sweltering day in July, a battalion of U.S. infantry takes off from Saigon. It’s July 7th, 1969, and these are the first US troops to be withdrawn from the Vietnam war.

During the first four years of armed conflict, the US military has been supporting South Vietnam in its fight against the communist North. But the fight has dragged on…with no end in sight.

CRONKITE: It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate.

As the list of casualties grows, so does anti-war sentiment at home.

SOUND: [VIETNAM PROTESTS]

In early 1969, newly-elected President Nixon announces a new strategy: Vietnamization. The plan is to withdraw US troops, but increase artillery and aerial bombardment, while giving South Vietnam the training and weapons they’d need to continue on in the fight.

Over the next four years, waves of American troops leave Vietnam. The last withdrawal is in 1973. Just two years later, North Vietnamese forces take control of Saigon, uniting the nation under communist rule. It leaves many Americans feeling disheartened, wondering if the sacrifice was worth it.

Next, we jump back to 1899 to rural America and the season of the traveling salesman.

John Nicholson and Sam Hill met at a hotel in Wisconsin. Both were salesmen who spent a lot of time on the road. The hotel was full up and only had one room left, so the two men shared it. They soon realized they were both Christians and decided to spend the evening praying together.

DOCUMENTARY: It was this accidental meeting in room 19 of the Central House Hotel that would become the humble beginnings of The Gideons International.

The two men felt that God was telling them to start a ministry. Their goal was to unite traveling salesmen for evangelism. On July 1st, 1899, their group meets for the first time…with all of three members in attendance.

It isn’t until 1908 that the Gideons launch their trademark strategy: Placing Bibles in hotel rooms.

Here’s Gideon member Brad Morris.

MORRIS: The ministry of the Gideons International is all about saved souls and our ministry is accomplished through this word, this book, God’s word.

Today, there are over a quarter of a million Gideons. Each year, they distribute over 70 million Bibles, an average of two Bibles every second. Every day, the organization hears testimonies of people whose lives were changed by that copy of scripture.

MORRIS: There is a need and there is a thirst for God’s word all over the world, and that is why we do what we do.

Recently, some hotel chains have decided to forgo any religious literature…including Gideon Bibles. But about 65 percent of hotels still accept them. So, next time you’re traveling, if you open that drawer in the bedside table, you’re still likely to find a copy of the Word of God…whether you’re a traveling salesman or not.

Finally, Independence Day, 1884, 140 years ago this week: France formally presents the Statue of Liberty to the American ambassador in Paris.

French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi began the statue eight years earlier.

But its story goes back even farther than that, to the 1860s. At the time, France had an authoritarian government. A group of French thinkers and abolitionists got together just after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Here’s Edward Berenson, professor of French history at NYU.

BERENSON: Their idea was to try to come up with a way of commemorating the life and achievements of Abraham Lincoln…and to make a critical comment on their own government. And so their idea was to sort of obliquely criticize their own government by talking about how much better the American system of politics was.

In 1870, Bartholdi began designing the statue of “Liberty Enlightening the World.” He got help from French engineer Gustave Eiffel to create the statue’s skeletal framework.

After the official presentation in 1884, the statue is dismantled and shipped across the Atlantic to New York harbor, where it is painstakingly reassembled. Lady Liberty opens to the public two years later, becoming a beloved symbol of hope for millions around the world.

DOCUMENTARY: When you come into New York harbor, and you see the symbol of America, it’s a lady with a torch of hope and torch of freedom. That’s why we call her lady…because she’s not a statue to us.

MUSIC: O BEAUTIFUL…

That’s it for this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

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