As Nixon witnessed the death toll in Vietnam, he began a process known as Vietnamization. When running for president he told the people he had a secret plan to end the war with Vietnam. After taking office in January 1969, the Vietnam War had been in progress for four years, 31,000 Americans had been killed since action, and the training of South Vietnamese was in the process of being scheduled (Breen, T. H.). Over 540,000 Americans were in Vietnam with no plans of reduction and no progress had been made at the negotiations in Paris, as the United States did not have an exact peace proposal. Nixon and his advisors created a strategy known as Vietnamization, which was a plan to slowly withdraw American combat forces and help prepare South Vietnam …show more content…
In 1972, the Strategic Arms Limitation talks occurred where both Nixon and Russian, General Brezhnev made appearances. This talk was an effort to reduce tensions in the Cold War and extend further arm control. Later, Alexei Kosygin, a Soviet Premier, met at Glassaboro State College in New Jersey with Johnson in order to gain “control of the ABM race” (U.S. Department of State) The United States eventually learned that the Soviet Union began an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile buildup, allowing this powerhouse to strike and prevent incoming missiles from the other side. As a result, on November 17, 1969, SALT talks commenced in Helsinki, Finland where they argued rather the nation should continue plans of ABMs. Richard Nixon and Soviet General, Leonid Brezhnev signed the ABM treaty, thus leading to the SALT agreement on May 26, 1972. This treaty established that both sides would limit nuclear missiles in their arsenals, which was an important achievement for Nixon’s plan of détente. Nixon’s success continued as he reestablished relations with the Middle East, therefore obliterated Soviet power in the area during the Cold War. These treaties helped Nixon form better relations around the World, specifically communist countries like present day
In 1972, President Nixon engaged in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) with Soviet Secretary General Brezhnev in his attempt to ease tension with USSR through diplomatic détente.
The Vietnam war was a costly matter for America that infected U.S. politics and destroyed the economy. When President Nixon took office, he tried to improve the United States relation with Russia through detente in 1969. This couldn’t solve the problem in Vietnam. This lead to the US leaving the fight in Vietnam in 1973 with the help of a peace agreement. President Nixon also continued his negations with Soviet Russia and visited China.
Nixon used his power of executive agreements manipulatively in a strategy that he called, linkage politics; this is a term for strategically organizing the United States relationships with communist powers (Small 1999, 63). Nixon knew that he must settle the Vietnam War with honor because it was a stake in Southeast Asia. Using his theory of linkage politics he saw that the end of the Vietnam War would affect negotiations with China and Russia (Small, 1999 65). He first tried to make an executive agreement with Russia, by explaining to them his idea of “strategic parity. This was an idea that because both nations had enough weapons to completely demolishes the other, neither should start war, and peace would continue. Like Eisenhower’s attempts, Nixon was unable to make an agreement with the USSR and talks continued to be slow (PBS Nixon 2002, 2).
When President Nixon took office in 1969, the U.S. was currently sending american troops to fight in the Vietnam war.Shortly after taking office in 1969, President Nixon introduced a policy called Vietnamization that was intended to end american military involvement in Vietnam war by encouraging all south vietnamese to take more responsibility for fighting the war on their own.
The investigation assesses the level of success President Richard Nixon’s Vietnamization policy attained during the Vietnam War to end U.S. involvement in the war. In the strive to evaluate the level of success this policy demonstrated, the investigation evaluates the ability of the policy to equip, expand, and train Southern Vietnamese forces and allocate them to a substantial combat position, all while simultaneously reducing the quantity of U.S. combat troops in a steady manner. The Vietnamization policy is investigated and analyzed by both its causes and effects. The motivation that led to Nixon’s creation of this
The Nixon administration was forced to de-escalate the war in Vietnam. The antiwar movement fueled US troop withdraws from Vietnam. Through his ‘Vietnamization' program, President Nixon entailed withdrawing American troops and strengthening the South Vietnam's army. Nixon hoped to calm domestic opposition to the conflict and thereby buy time for his effort to a force favorable outcome to the war. The antiwar movement accomplished congressional legislation that cut off U.S. funds for the war. Wells,
Because Johnson believed in the domino theory, that if one county turned Communist, namely Vietnam, then neighboring nations would also turn Communist, his approach to the Vietnam War was to escalate the attacks to the point in which the Communists could no longer fight back. Johnson escalated the war through a variety of attacks, including Operation Rolling Thunder, which was the first of many aerial bombings on North Vietnam. Moreover, it was under Johnson’s administration that tens of thousands of American troops were dispatched to Vietnam which was another factoring intensifying the war. On the contrary, Nixon’s approach to the war in Vietnam was to pull out American troops because he valued American lives over containing Communism in Vietnam. Therefore, because the war had reached a stalemate by the time Nixon was in office and he valued American lives over containing communism, he implemented the process of Vietnamization, the organized transaction of American troops in Vietnam that were replaced by South Vietnamese troops. The reason why Johnson chose to escalate the war while Nixon tried to bring American troops home was because of their differing political views. Since Johnson was a Democrat and held some fairly liberal beliefs, like helping the impoverished at any cost, it was only natural for him to show compassion for the South Vietnamese by fighting Communism in order to create a better quality life for them even if it meant sacrificing American lives. However, because Nixon held more conservative views and believed in preserving order in one’s own nation before reaching out to others, Nixon implemented the process of Vietnamization in order to bring
The politics of the ultratight resonated deeply with Richard Nixon. Nixon had cut his political teeth as a young Red-hunting member of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. His home district in Orange Country, California, was widely known as a Birch Society stronghold. The Los Angeles-area Birch Society claimed the membership of several political and economic elites, including members of the Chandler family, which owned and published the Los Angeles Times. According to the writer David Halberstam (1979, 118) the Times, which was once described as “the most rabid Labor-bating, Red-hating paper in the United States,” virtually created Richard Nixon.
It was mid-summer 1968; the Vietnam War has been ongoing for several years. The American public as well as many of the allied countries did not support the war or its objectives so any news of the war received with mild protest and uneasiness. As the political structure of Southern Vietnam reestablished itself and United States political status with the war, President Nixon made a promise to the American people that he had a plan to
Nixon’s first term of presidency was full of accomplishments. Once in office, Nixon and his staff faced the problem of how to end the Vietnam War. Nixon made a nationally televised address on November 3, 1969, calling on Americans to renew their confidence in the government and back his policy of seeking a negotiated peace in Vietnam. Earlier that year, Nixon and his Defense Secretary Melvin Laird had unveiled the policy of “Vietnamization,” which entailed reducing American troop levels in Vietnam and transferring the burden of
In 1960s, the US was faced with another crisis of communist expansion in the war between North and South Vietnam. The Kennedy Administration decided to further pursue their containment strategy out of fear being seen by the international community as weak towards communism. During the Johnson Administration, an attack against American vessels that happened in the Gulf of Tonkin led to President Johnson being granted the ability to conduct broad military operations without congressional approval. The American public began to largely oppose American intervention in Vietnam because the optimistic statements made by the government ran contradictory to the reports of the violent fighting by American news outlets. During the Nixon administration, the US switched to a policy, later known as Vietnamization, where the main goal was to strengthen the South Vietnamese forces and provide them with better armaments so they can better defend themselves. Vietnamization proved to be ineffective as the South Vietnamese forces were unable to hold their own against the North without US air support as proven during Operation Lam Son 719 and the Easter Offensive. The signing of the Paris Peace Accords officially ended US involvement in the Vietnam War. The US followed containment policies during beginning of the war due to the underlying fear of the spread of communism and since the policies were inherited from previous
In a nation divided by war in 1969, Richard Nixon delivered a speech with the hope that it would bring Americans together. At this time the American people stood divided on their views on the war. Many people wanted to withdraw from the war and many people supported the war in the quest for peace. The Vietnam War had already been going on for quite some time when Nixon came into office. Nixon was the second youngest president; he came to office in 1969 as the 37th president of the United States. (Sheppard) The goal of his speech was to unite the nation as he pursued the war and to try to win peace. Americans were divided among going to war and ending the war for peace. The tone
In 1958, Communist-led guerrillas, eventually known as the Viet Cong, began to battle the government of the South Vietnamese. The United States then sent 2,000 military advisors t support South Vietnam’s government. This number grew to 16,3000 by 1963. The military force slowly deteriorated. By 1963 the fertile Mekong Delta was lost to the overpowering Viet Cong. The war rose in 1965, when President Johnson issued commencing air strikes on North Vietnam and ground forces, which had risen to 536,000 by 1968. The Tet Offensive by North Vietnam turned many Americans against the waging war. President Nixon, following Johnson, promoted Vietnamization, the withdrawing of American troops and handing over the great responsibility of the war to South Vietnam. Protesting of the war dramatically increased, especially after Nixon’s attempt to slow North Vietnam forces and supplies into the South by sending American forces to destroy supply bases in Cambodia in 1970, which violated Cambodian neutrality. This provoked antiwar protests on many of the United Stats’ college campuses. In 1968 through 1973 attempts were made to end the ongoing conflict through diplomacy. Then in January 1973, an agreement was reached. U.S. forces withdrew from Vietnam and the U.S. POWs were released. In April 1975, South Vietnam surrendered to the North and Vietnam was once again united. The Vietnam War ended, but it took the lives of 58,000
In Nixon’s effort to end the war, his first policy was to send a message to Hanoi that he meant business. His policy consisted of escalated strategic bombings near the border of Cambodia in hopes to get the North Vietnamese to fear that the United States was capable of doing anything to achieve victory. Even Johnson was skeptical of expanding the war into Cambodia but Nixon’s first policy in full effect. Unfortunately, America was blinded by the corruptness of Nixon’s “peaceful presidency” since
He tried his best not to lose the war because he does not want American war to be the loser. The United States troops were completely pulled back from Vietnam before the finish of March of 1973, yet America continued battling in Cambodia. North Vietnam did not respond to US notices and before the year 's over Nixon stayed weak after Watergate. In his article, the author said that Nixon tried to protect the Thieu administration in South Vietnam and let South Vietnam on the safe side because he needed the Thieu government to be secure. North Vietnam needed to have a unity but South Vietnam strived to be a free country. Nixon 's mission was to help and support the nations that are US partners such as South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, but other nations would need to shield themselves from the communism. When Nixon attempted to stay faithful to his obligation to the Thieu government in South Vietnam, Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger needed to proceed onward to different United State interests gradually. The purpose for these spending is to secure the Thieu government in South Vietnam. In his article, the author said that Nixon’s administration shows how much Kissinger feel afraid from the Negotiations that are full of twists. Despite the hostility between United State and North Vietnam, Nixon still threatening them that he doesn’t want to pay the amount if they do not want to adhere to the guarantee of the understanding, but when Richard Nixon resigned, the