B. Summary of Evidence
War Circumstances before Nixon
- American involvement in Vietnam escalated in 1964 under the leadership of President Lyndon Johnson, who sent American forces to fight in South Vietnam.
- When Nixon was inaugurated on January 20, 1969, 31,000 Americans had already been killed in action, 540,000 Americans were in Vietnam, no progress had been made at the negotiations in Paris and the United States had not put forth a comprehensive peace proposal.
Vietnamization Policy
- Nixon introduced his “Vietnamization” strategy on November 3, 1969.
- Nixon stated, “In the previous administration, we Americanized the war in Vietnam. In this administration, we are Vietnamizing the search for peace.”
- “Vietnamization” aimed to end of U.S. 's involvement in the war and "expand, equip, and train South Vietnam 's forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role.”
- Nixon offered a strategy based upon the twin approach of negotiations and Vietnamization of the war, accompanied by the gradual withdrawal of more than 500 000 American soldiers.
- Nixon and members of his administration directed military strategy towards a reduction of American casualties and costs, and continued troop withdrawals.
War After Policy Implementation
I. American Military Withdrawal
- On November 30, 1972, American troop withdrawal from Vietnam was completed. 16,000 Army advisors and administrators remained to assist South Vietnam 's military forces.
- After
President Dwight Eisenhower conditionally pledged to support South Vietnam’s new nation in 1955. In the time period between 1955-1961 the United States pumped seven billion dollars in aid so that Vietnam would not “go over quickly” like a “row of dominoes” (McNamara 31). In the next 6 years Vietnam would cost America billions of dollars, thousands of lives, and the disaffection of much of the United States public. Yet in the end, South Vietnam would fall to the North less than 2 years after the United States military involvement ceased.
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
President Richard M. Nixon’s administration had to face many international and domestic challenges in the United States between 1968 and 1974, some positive and some negative. His achievements in expanding peaceful relationships with both China and the Soviet Union are contrastingly different with his continuation of the Vietnam War. In the end, Nixon’s scandals and abuse of presidential power caught up to him, and his administration did much to corrode America’s faith in the government.
For many in the United States "Vietnam" is a term which conjures up visions of war, anarchy, and finally defeat and humiliation. It was a war that many felt the U.S. should never have gotten involved in, and was a waste of more than 50,000 American lives. And for many years after the war ended the prevailing wisdom remained that the U.S. had failed. But as years turn to decades, and Vietnam is fading into the recesses of history, one can begin to look at the war in an objective manner; as just one part of the larger "Cold War." When viewing Vietnam as part of the larger Cold War, one can see that the United States should not only have been there, but it was necessary as part of the overall strategy to defeat Communism world wide.
Nixon achieved, or possibly strived to accomplish, peace with honor in Vietnam. Many feel that it’s
January 1969, Richard Nixon entered the executive office picking up the pieces Lyndon Johnson who had left while the Vietnam War was still in effect. Many Americans had the expectation that Nixon would be the “peaceful president”, visualizing he would put an end to this war in Southeast Asian and bring back home our troops. A policy Nixon redefined was the American role in the world by suggesting to limit the U.S resources and commitments. Therefore, Nixon’s set his efforts to end the war since the withdrawal from Vietnam was not an immediate option. Also, Nixon had his radar on Moscow and China because according to George C. Herring, they felt that they must release the United States from the war in a way that would uphold United States credibility with their friends and foes alike. During Nixon’s term in office, he tries a number of different strategies in his effort to end the war, but to this day, one can see that Nixon only prolonged the war when it could have ended earlier.
Republican Party 's leading spokesman on Vietnam, Nixon forced the administration to acknowledge and respond to his rhetoric, Nixon 's hawkishness on the Vietnam conflict during 1964-66 has been largely ignored by students of the war.(2) Given Nixon 's role in Nixon as a critic of America 's Vietnam policies during the Johnson administration 's escalation of the American presence in the conflict In the turbulent political climate of the mid-1960s, Nixon and Johnson had ample opportunity to Vietnam became the issue that would return Nixon to public life, most prominently as a critic of Lyndon Johnson 's policies Nixon 's criticism of the Johnson administration began in earnest in 1964.
To start with responding to the widespread protests, Nixon outlined his new Vietnam War policy in this speech; Called “Vietnamization”, Nixon’s war policy called for contraction in American troops but continued fighting. Nixon contrasted his international strategy of political realism with the idealism of a vocal minority. He ended his speech with the famous words that his speech became known by: “So tonight, to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support;”
Taking the oath of office in January of 1969, Nixon was thrown head-first into a war that was escalating quickly and, at the same time, infuriated many Americans who believed that it wasn't the nation's job to be world police. Now holding the reigns of the country, he was stuck in a Vietnam predicament -- his first decisions would be of utmost importance for the safety of our soldiers and for the well-being of the nation. Nixon had very few plausible options however. While a vocal sector of the public was clamoring for immediate withdrawal of troops, he understood that its disadvantages were too great -- not only would withdrawal compromise American credibility as a world power, he felt that it would also undermine his ability to negotiate with foreign powers during the remainder of his term (Bondi 237). Nuclear weapons were also not an alternative. We were still involved in the Cold War with the USSR -- if we opted to nuclear weapons, not only would we most likely end up instigating a World War III, we could not risk setting the precedent by using nuclear warfare to dictate world order (Bondi 237). Nixon's last choice, attempting to persevere for a conventional military victory in Vietnam, was a large risk to our
Around the same time, America made history with the first man on the moon. Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong landed using the Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969. Armstrong became the first man to take a step on the moons soil and the two men planted the American flag deep into the dirt to make our accomplishments known to all. Five days later, Nixon came out with the Vietnam Policy also known as the Nixon Doctrine. The doctrine stated that the United States would keep all their treaty commitments, the government would protect any of our allies, as well as ourselves, if nuclear power was threatened and we will assist countries with violence with accordance to our treaties but make sure that the country we are helping does the majority of the work. This was a great action because it allowed us to continue fighting against communism while keeping the body count and protests at a minimum. The fewer soldiers overseas, the less publicized it will be and would therefore upset or anger fewer citizens causing more peace at
And the Saigon Government has pledged to accept the result of the elections.” It was because of this that he announces the Nixon Doctrine, with this he limits US involvement in wars by stating that the nation would send support through aid and other means but no more ground troops would be sent.
In this investigation the effectiveness of Nixon’s Vietnamization policy from the year of 1969 to 1972 is assessed. For evaluation of Nixon’s policy in Vietnam, this investigation inspects the development of the policy in Vietnam and how the practice of vietnamization was executed. The research will also inspect the ambition of Vietnamization juxtaposing with the influence of this policy in the United States politically. Also the decisions made by Nixon and his consultants’ suggestions will be noted in this research along with the steps of Vietnamization policy that took effect in the end of the question. The research will not focus on American’s position rather it will focus mainly on Nixon’s positions and Nixon’s advocates. Also the investigation
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
In November of 1969 President Richard Nixon introduced a new strategy called “Vietnamization,” a change in United States policy with the goal of having South Vietnam take more responsibility
The United States intervention in Vietnam is seen by the world as America’s greatest loss and longest war. Before the start of the war in Vietnam, the thought of the United States losing this war was unheard of because America was technologically superior, no country in south East Asia could contend with them. Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would not be the president to allow South East Asia to go Communist . Why the United States lost the war has been a huge debate since the end of the war, because there were so many factors affecting why they lost; the war was a loss politically, after losing support from not only the American public but also the South Vietnamese and losing a political mandate for the war by 1973, when the last