AMERICAN SOLDIERS LISTENING TO RADIO; SOLDIERS LISTEN BY FIELD GUN; SOLDIERS WATCHING RESULTS ON TELEVISION IN A SAIGON CLUB.




Initials RM/VS/AS/GJB



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Background: IT WASN'T ONLY IN THE UNITED STATES THAT AMERICANS KEPT AN EXCITED TALLY AS THE RESULTS FROM THE 50 STATES POURED IN AFTER THE VOTING FOR THE NEXT PRESIDENT. AMERICANS ABROAD AND VOTING ABSENTEE DID TOO -- AND NONE OF THEM MORE ENTHUSIASTICALLY THAN THE AMERICAN TROOPS FIGHTING IN SOUTH VIETNAM.

THE U.S. SOLDIERS -- WHO WILL KEEP UP THE FIGHTING IN VIETNAM OR LEAVE FOR HOME ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF THEIR PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF -- ENTHUSIASTICALLY CHEERED THEIR FAVOURITES OF THE THREE CANDIDATES AS NEWS OF THE NECK-AND-NECK PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS REACHED THEM BY RADIO AND TELEVISION.

THERE WERE NO POSTERS ADVERTISING ANY OF THE CANDIDATES, MR. RICHARD NIXON (REPUBLICAN), MR. HUBERT HUMPHREY (DEMOCRAT) AND MR. GEORGE WALLACE (INDEPENDENT PARTY), ON THE U.S. ARMED FORCES PROPERTY, AS THIS IS BANNED. HOWEVER, THIS DID NOT PREVENT THE SOLDIERS TAKING PRIVATE BETS ON WHO WOULD WIN. EVENTUALLY, ARMY TELEVISION ANNOUNCERS WEARING "BATTLE FATIGUES" BROKE THE NEWS THAT MR. NIXON HAD WON BY A SMALL MAJORITY.