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Vietnam and President Nixon
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In the 1968 presidential campaign, Richard Nixon promised to achieve "an honorable end to the war" and to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam. Five years later, peace negotiators from the United States, South Vietnam, and North Vietnam signed the Paris Peace Accords. The next day President Nixon said the accords would bring "peace with honor." To what extent and in what respects did the Nixon administration achieve the goal of peace with honor?
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In formulating your answer, use the sources (provided below) and your knowledge of the Nixon administration's policies, both domestic and foreign, from 1968 through 1973.
Use the sources and your knowledge of the period 1961–68 to assess the validity of the preceding question. Be sure to discuss not only the political, economic, or social problems on the home front but also military strategy and tactics.
Primary source: Number of U.S. troops and battle deaths in Vietnam 1965–72, table, 1973.
Background information: This table shows the numbers of U.S. troops and of battle deaths in Vietnam in the period 1965 through 1972.
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, "Vietnam Conflict—U.S. Military Forces in Vietnam and Casualties Incurred: 1965 to 1972," table 428, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1973 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, Social and Economic Statistics Administration, Bureau of the Census, 1973), 267.
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Primary source: Richard M. Nixon, acceptance of the Republican nomination for president, speech, 1968.
Background information: In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Miami in 1968, Richard M. Nixon (1913–94) announced his plans for "an honorable end" to the war in Vietnam.
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. . . For four years this Administration has had the support of the loyal opposition for the objective of seeking an honorable end to the struggle.
Never has so much military and economic and diplomatic power been used so ineffectively. And if after all of this time, and all of this sacrifice, and all of this support, there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American people to turn to new leadership not tied to the mistakes and policies of the past. That is what we offer to America.
And I pledge to you tonight that the first priority foreign policy objective of our next Administration will be to bring an honorable end to the war in Vietnam....
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Richard Nixon, Acceptance of the Republican Nomination for
President (8 August 1968), reproduced at http://www.nixonlibrary.org/Research_Center/Nixons/speeches/Acceptance_of_Nomination.shtml.
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Primary source: President Nixon, "Vietnamization," speech, 1969
Background information:
While peace negotiations were underway in Paris, President Nixon (1913–94), in a televised talk to the American public, outlined his policy for "Vietnamization" of the war.
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We have adopted a plan which we have worked out in cooperation with the South Vietnamese for the complete withdrawal of all U.S. combat ground forces and their replacement by South Vietnamese forces on an orderly scheduled timetable. This withdrawal will be made from strength and not from weakness. As South Vietnamese forces become stronger, the rate of American withdrawal can become greater.
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Richard M. Nixon, speech, 3 November 1969, reproduced at http://www.nixonlibrary.org/Research_Center/Nixons/speeches/Vietnamization.shtml.
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Primary source: Presdident Nixon, "Address to the Nation on the Situation in Southeast Asia," speech, 1970.
Background information: In April 1970, President Nixon (1913–94), in a televised speech to the American public, defended his decision to send U.S. troops into Cambodia. That action would widen the war.
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In cooperation with the armed forces of South Vietnam, attacks are being launched this week to clean out major enemy sanctuaries on the Cambodian-Vietnam border.
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This is not an invasion of Cambodia. The areas in which these attacks will be launched are completely occupied and controlled by North Vietnamese forces. Our purpose is not to occupy the areas. Once enemy forces are driven out of these sanctuaries and once their military supplies are destroyed, we will withdraw.
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Richard M. Nixon, "Address to the Nation on the Situation in Southeast Asia," 30 April 1970, in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard Nixon: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President, 1970 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1971), 405–10.
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Primary source: U.S. invasion of Cambodia, newspaper editorial, 3 May 1970.
Background information: Shortly after President Nixon's (1913–94) announcement that he would send U.S. troops into Cambodia as the scope of the Vietnam War had widened, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published an editorial in which it criticized his decision.
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President Nixon now has his own Indochina war and his own credibility gap. Neither one is inherited any longer. In asking the American people to support the expansion of the Vietnam war to Cambodia, as he has already expanded it to Laos, he asks them to believe the same false promises which have repeatedly betrayed them against their will into ever deeper involvement on the mainland of Asia.
They are asked to seek peace by making war; to seek withdrawal of our troops by enlarging the arena of combat; to diminish American casualties by sending more young men to their death; to save the lives of 450,000 American troops by one more round of escalation. And all this Mr. Nixon asks in the name of preserving the credibility of America as a great power!
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"A Cut-Off Date for War Funds," editorial, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3 May 1970, p. 2D.
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Primary source: "National Guard personnel walking toward Taylor Hall," photograph, 4 May 1970.
Background information: Shortly after President Nixon (1913–94) announced his decision to send U.S. troops into Cambodia, students at college campuses across the United States protested. On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired on student protesters at Kent State University, and four undergraduates were killed.
"National Guard personnel walking toward Taylor Hall, tear
gas has been fired," photograph 705/4-1-34. University News
Service, Photographs (30 April 1970 to 4 May 1977).
Kent State University Libraries, Department of Special
Collections and Archives, May 4 Collection, available at http://www.library.kent.edu/exhibits/4may95/box28/28.html.
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Primary source: Paul McCloskey, "Esprit de Corps of the Armed Forces Demands Disengagement from Vietnam," speech, 1971.
Background information: In 1971, Paul McCloskey, congressman from California, spoke on the morale of U.S. troops in South Vietnam and offered a suggestion to President Nixon (1913–94).
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The situation is clear. Many GI's in Vietnam are no longer willing to obey orders. To order an offensive operation today is to invite a wholesale mutiny. There is a growing danger of confrontation between American troops and their officers which could prove ugly and disastrous. There is likewise a growing danger of confrontation, if not combat, between the diminishing number of American troops and various groups of disaffected South Vietnamese.
This being the case, I suggest that the President has an obligation, as Commander in Chief, to preserve the remaining esprit de corps and professional competence of our Army by disengaging from Vietnam at the earliest practicable date.
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Paul McCloskey, "Esprit de Corps of the Armed Forces Demands Disengagement from Vietnam," 28 October 1971, Congressional Record 92d Cong., 1st sess. (26 October–1 November 1971), 117, pt. 29: 38,082–84.
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Primary source: Paris Peace Accords, article 15, 1973.
Background information: Negotiators representing North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the United States signed the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973, in hopes of ending U.S. military involvement in South Vietnam. One of the provisions for the reunification of Vietnam is excerpted below.
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The reunification of Viet-Nam shall be carried out step by step through peaceful means on the basis of discussions and agreements between North and South Viet-Nam, without coercion or annexation by either party, and without foreign interference....
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U.S. Department of State, "Ending the War and Restoring
Peace in Viet-Nam: Agreements and Protocols: Signed January 27, 1973,"
TIAS 7542, United States Treaties and Other International
Agreements, vol. 24 (1973), pt. 1: 1–224. Excerpts are
available online at http://vietnam.vassar.edu/doc16.html.
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Primary source:
Toronto Star, "Nixon on Viet Nam: A pullout, but not yet a peace," newspaper editorial, 1973.
Background information: After the signing of the Paris Peace Accords, the Toronto Star published an editorial in which it argued that President Nixon (1913–94) was disingenuous in announcing that the United States had achieved "peace with honor."
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It's evidently impossible for a president of the United States to come clean about Viet Nam; there is too much shame and failure in the American record there to be even hinted at. Thus President Nixon kept proclaiming the achievement of "peace with honor" last night, when all he can really promise is that the Americans are going to pull out of that wretched area in fairly good order, with their prisoners returned, instead of fleeing in abject humiliation.
"Exit with face saved" would have been a more accurate phrase than peace with honor; for, whatever the terms of the Paris agreement may say, it's obvious that there is no guarantee of peace between North and South Viet Nam. Hanoi maintains its goal of unifying all Viet Nam under Communist rule, while the government of South Viet Nam and a considerable number of its people mean to resist that dubious blessing.
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"Nixon on Viet Nam: A pullout, but not yet a peace,"
Toronto Star, 24 January 1973, p. 6.
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