President Nixon and Vietnamization (1968 – 1975 )
By 1968, the USA had decided that it needed to withdraw from Vietnam. Negotiations for peace began under President
Lyndon B Johnson (a Democrat) in May 1968. However, a presidential election was coming up and the rival to Johnson’s
party, Richard Nixon (a Republican), tried to delay peace negotiations until after the election. He wanted to prevent
Johnson’s Democratic Party from making peace in Vietnam so as to damage the chances of the Democratic candidate,
Hubert Humphrey, winning the election.
Nixon won the election and became president in early 1969. During his campaign, he had promised ‘peace with
honour’ in Vietnam. He wanted the USA to leave but not look like they had failed. To put this into practice,
representatives from South Vietnam, the National Liberation Front (NLF) and North Vietnam met in Paris in January
1969. The US negotiator, Henry Kissinger, began to work on peace negotiations.
Vietnamisation
During the peace negotiations in 1969, Nixon’s plan to secure ‘peace with honour’ became clear. His policy was
called ‘Vietnamisation’, which involved:
the gradual withdrawal of US troops from South Vietnam
an increase in the number of Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) troops to replace the US forces
the Nixon Doctrine, which was a promise to supply US military equipment to support the ARVN instead of
providing US troops
Key fact
The aim of Vietnamisation was to bring US troops home while trying to support the government of South Vietnam
Early successes
Nixon announced a plan to bring back the first of the 538,700 troops in June 1969. By 1970, the number of US troops in
Vietnam had dropped to 334,600. At the same time, the ARVN’s forces grew from 820,000 in 1969 to 968,000 in 1970.
At first, Vietnamisation looked like a successful policy. However, there were still problems, such as:
the ARVN’s forces suffered high casualties in conflicts and their morale was low
corruption and poor management of the ARVN
the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops were still a serious threat to ARVN
Peace and the failure of Vietnamisation
The Vietnam War had become so unpopular in the USA that the government was determined that peace talks would
result in agreement. In January 1973, representatives of the USA, North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the Viet Cong
signed a peace agreement in Paris. It was agreed that:
The USA would withdraw all of its troops.
North Vietnam and South Vietnam would respect a dividing line at the 17th parallel and work together to reunite
the two countries through peaceful means.
However, the peace terms were not honoured. Forces from the North later invaded South Vietnam. On 30 April 1975,
the last few Americans still in South Vietnam were airlifted out of the country as Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Minh
City) came under the control of communist forces. South Vietnam surrendered later that day.
By the end of 1975, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were all controlled by communist leaders.
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