Who Was Richard Nixon Evolved Into The Vietnam War?

Richard Nixon, the 37th President United States, once stated, “Let us move from the era of confrontation to the era of negotiation” and when he said this he reflected it in his presidency. (Bondi 236) Nixon was the first US president to engage in foreign affairs with the most powerful communist countries, China and the Soviet Union. He negotiated an end the Vietnam War and made a breakthrough with the SALT agreement with the Soviet Union. Towards the beginning of his second term he ruined his career with a scandal known as Watergate. All of the negotiation and accomplishments with foreign policy that Nixon made in his five years of office was masked by Watergate.

When Richard Nixon took office in 1969, The United States was well into the Vietnam war, four years in fact. When Nixon fought North Vietnam the matter of the

The reason for this was failing military strategies and protests by the American people.. One of the tactics he formulated was Vietnamization. On November 3, 1969 Vietnamization was televised nationally after negotiation between Nixon, his advisors, and the Secretary of Defense, Melvin Laird. As the History.com Staff explained it “[Vietnamization was] a gradual, phased withdrawal of American combat forces, combined with an expanded effort to train and equip South Vietnam to take over military responsibility for its own defense.” (1). As Vietnamization took place, the United States military would withdraw 150,000 from South Vietnam within a year (Dean 73). Simultaneously, he was supplying the Southern Vietnamese people with military support and even helping with their government. When Nixon helped politically, he “expand[ed] its political base in rural areas… offered U.S. assistance to help South Vietnamese officials organize local elections and implement social reforms and economic development initiatives” (History.com Staff 1). While Vietnamization was taking place a treaty titled The Paris Peace Accords was negotiated between all of