“I can’t watch this.” Bobby stood. “Let’s see what the papers say tomorrow. They tend to make more sense.”
“Yep. Course this is easier,” Grandpa said.
“Yep,” Bobby echoed him. “Course, like you taught me, the easiest way usually isn’t the right way.”
“Yep,” Grandpa said. He rose and turned the set off. “Glad you was listening.”
On the eighth, the day Red arrived in California, Bobby turned to the recent newspapers he’d stacked but hadn’t read. The stories irritated him. Gallup polls showed 77 percent of those who had heard Nixon’s speech approved of his planned de-escalation. Only 6 percent were opposed. President Thieu of South Viet Nam hailed the speech as important, and Nixon, clutching a stack of telegrams, claimed the support of the Great Silent Majority. But Fulbright and Mansfie
