Chapter 30: The Vietnam EraSection 4: Nixon and Vietnam

April 22

Section 4 Objectives

• Explain the steps Nixon took to end the war in Vietnam.

• Understand the various costs of the Vietnam War.

Key Terms• Vietnamization• martial law• MIAs

A New Strategy• Nixon wanted to pull U.S. troops out, but he

didn’t want it to look like a defeat.• Nixon’s strategy-peace w/ honor-had 3 parts:– Began drafting fewer men– Nixon turned responsibility for fighting over to

South Vietnamese=Vietnamization.– Nixon authorized an expansion of the bombing to

help the South Vietnamese troops by destroying enemy supply routes and hideouts in Laos and Cambodia. This was kept secret.

Renewed Opposition at Home

• In late 1969, more than 300,000 people held an anti-war protest in DC.

• Nixon hoped the bombing raids would force the North Vietnamese to the peace table.

• The North Vietnamese were aware of the protests in the U.S. and thought that if they waited long enough, these protests would force America to withdraw.

Renewed Opposition at Home

• The war widened in Southeast Asia when civil war between Communist and non-Communist forces began in Cambodia.

• In April 1970 Nixon sent American troops to destroy Communist bases in Cambodia.

• Many people in Congress and among the American public were outraged by the attacks

• They said that by invading a neutral nation, Nixon had overstepped his constitutional authority.

Renewed Opposition at Home

• The invasion of Cambodia sparked a series of protests on college campuses across the U.S.

• Two protests ended in tragedy.• On May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in

Ohio, a clash between student protesters and members of the National Guard ended in the death four students; 13 others were wounded.

Kent State

Renewed Opposition at Home

• On May 14, at Jackson State College in Mississippi, police shot and killed two students, after a night of campus violence.

• In both cases, Nixon blamed the protesters for the violence.

• A commission found that the shootings at Kent State were unjustified.

• But a majority of Americans seemed to side with President Nixon.

“Peace Is at Hand”

• U.S. representatives continued peace talks with representatives of the North Vietnamese government even during the bombing of Southeast Asia and the protests.

• In March 1972, however, the North pushed forward with another huge offensive against South Vietnam.

• Nixon ordered renewed bombing of the North and the planting of mines in Northern harbors.

“Peace Is at Hand”

• To get a peace settlement, Nixon relaxed his terms.

• He stopped insisting that the North remove all of its forces from South Vietnam.

• Nixon sent Henry Kissinger to meet privately with the North Vietnamese foreign minister to hammer out a treaty.

• In the fall of 1972, just before the presidential election, a peace agreement was reached.

“Peace Is at Hand”

• The Nixon administration announced the peace agreement, but it soon collapsed because the president of South Vietnam objected to North Vietnamese forces remaining in the South.

“Peace Is at Hand”

• After he won reelection, Nixon was determined to put an end to the Vietnam War.

• In December 1972, U.S. forces unleashed the heaviest bombardment of the war on the North.

• This outrage U.S. citizens and the rest of the world.

• But Nixon stood his ground, and North Vietnam soon returned to the peace table.

“Peace Is at Hand”

• The U.S. pressured South Vietnam to accept the peace treaty.

• The peace agreement was signed in Jan. 1973.• The U.S. agreed to pull all of its troops out of

Vietnam, and the North Vietnamese agreed to return all American POWs.

• The Paris Peace Accords ended American involvement in Vietnam, but the conflict there continued.

“Peace is at Hand”

• The North Vietnamese did not abandon their goal of unifying Vietnam under their control.

• In early 1975, they launched a major offensive against the South.

• The weak South Vietnamese army collapsed. • Within days, North Vietnamese tanks were on the

outskirts of Saigon. • In April 1975, Saigon fell to the Communists, and

South Vietnam surrendered—this ended the Vietnam War

Legacy of War

• About 1.4 million Vietnamese–civilian and military–died.

• Vietnam lay in ruins.• More than 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam• 300,000 were wounded, many permanently

disabled. • The war cost the US $150 billion.

Legacy of War

• Many American soldiers were classified as missing in action, or MIA.

• Relatives demanded that the U.S. pressure the Vietnamese for information on the MIAs.

• Several American groups were allowed to search in Vietnam, but with no success.

• Most MIAs have remained missing.

Legacy of War

• Vietnam Veterans did do receive a hero’s welcome

• Americans just wanted to forget the war.• As a result, soldiers returning from Vietnam

were largely ignored.• However in 1982, a Vietnam Veterans

Memorial was constructed in D.C., to honor those who served in the war.