1. Personal and national honor and what do they mean in politics.

National:

As absolutist governments declined, national honor (once solely the concern of individual monarchs)
became a factor that influenced whole peoples. President Woodrow Wilson felt the pull of national
honor. In 1916 he asserted that “the nation’s honor is dearer than the nation’s comfort; yes, than the
nation’s life itself”.

During World War II, the French dishonored themselves by surrendering so quickly to the Germans in the
spring of 1940. They were not willing to fight the Nazis in the streets of Paris and see their beautiful city
destroyed. But the British, expecting an invasion soon afterward, were willing to sacrifice London.
Winston Churchill told the House of Commons on June 4, 1940, immediately after the Dunkirk evacuation
that “we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be…; we shall never surrender.”

The US involvement in the Vietnam War can also be viewed through the perspective of national honor.
As the costs of the war became more than the American public was willing to bear, the nation’s leaders
struggled to find a way for the United States to leave Vietnam while maintaining its appearance as a
strong and proud world power. Even when the chances of military success in Vietnam became remote,
the United States continued to send troops into the field, as diplomats tried to negotiate an acceptable
peace. In 1973 President Richard M. Nixon addressed a national audience that he had concluded an
agreement to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam. Ultimately, it can be argued that
Nixon’s agreement brought neither real peace nor real honor to the United States, yet the importance of
maintaining an appearance of honor was essential to any plan that extricated the United States from its
involvement in Vietnam.

Personal: