On election night, MacLaine was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with the McGovern entourage. She was eating dinner at a Mexican restaurant with consultant Bob Shrum and journalist Pete Hamill, thinking there was plenty of time, when they heard that the television news media was already calling victory for Nixon. With so many Americans wanting to believe him, Nixon had won the race in a landslide. Six weeks later, Nixon ordered the bombing of Hanoi – an escalation of the war. Historian Jon Wiener said, "I remember election night, 1972, as like the worst night in American politics in my life. Here was this stark choice between war and peace, truth and lies, and the American people rushed to embrace war and lies."