Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War

Introduction
It took two months after the signing of the Vietnam peace agreement, for the last of the American prisoners to be released by Hanoi and American troops to exit South Vietnam. The closing of an eight-year long war in Vietnam ended. Saigon had an estimated 7,000 American Department of Defense civilian workers remain to assist South Vietnam against communist North Vietnam. The Vietnam War was a taxing experience for everyone in the United States. It took over five presidencies with the last presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald R. Ford having to deal with the ongoing struggle and aftermath of the war.
Former President Lyndon B. Johnson became engulfed in the war as it became the major initiative in his presidency. President Nixon had to deal with public outcry from American citizens and pulling back of American troops. Former President Gerald R. Ford declared a formal end to the war in Vietnam and concluded this years-long conflict. But what led to the pulling back of the troops by then President Nixon that would ultimately lead to the end of the war? President Richard Nixon ordered the withdraw of United States forces in Vietnam; however, protests by the American people as well as political pressure from other politicians influenced his decision.
Ends
The U.S. intervention in the Vietnam War formally began March 8th, 1965. Although this is the official data, just a month before, then President Johnson a retaliation that would spark the desire for the United States to intervene in this long war.
Using as a pretext a Vietcong attack on 7 February 1965 at Pleiku that killed eight American soldiers, Johnson ordered retaliatory bombing north of the Demilitarized Zone along the 17th parallel that divided North and South Vietnam, within a week, the administration began ROLLING THUNDER, a gradually intensifying air bombardment of military bases, supply depots, and infiltration routes in North Vietnam (Anderson, 1999).
These actions helped provide what would end up being an eight-year long conflict in Vietnam. While the United States did not want to spread communism in the world, there was a need once the United States entered the war, to end it. Protestors arrived by the thousands to protest the war and many believed it was unnecessary. The American public believed the war hurt their men fighting in Vietnam and hurt the American economy.
President Nixon, who began to pull troops away tried to bolster South Vietnam soldiers in a method called Vietnamization. “Vietnamization was a strategy that aimed to reduce American involvement in the Vietnam War by transferring all military responsibilities to South Vietnam. The increasingly unpopular war had created deep rifts in American society” (History Staff, 2010). He believed that by strengthening military forces in South Vietnam, they could win and keep Vietnam as a whole from adopting a communist ideology. However, the idea did not seem to have the intended effect after it was implemented. Still, former President Nixon continued to bring back American troops to appease the American public and from the pressure of other politicians in Congress and the White House.
Although the Vietnamization strategy was not effective, there were other DIME strategic concepts applied. DIME stands for Diplomacy, Information, Military, and Economic. Nixon attempted to set up objectives to be achieve via implementation of DIME concepts although neither this or Vietnamization were successful. This shows the failure of Nixon and the United States government at accomplishing what they felt was necessary in Vietnam, while also creating a problem for the next President, former President Ford to handle.
Ways: DIME
The United States saw Vietnam as a potential ideological opponent similar to Cuba and North Korea. They aimed to isolate and contain such ideology as much as possible. When the South lost to the North Vietnamese government, the United States to that as a loss for democracy. The main reason that the U.S. intervened in the war was due to the diplomatic mission to make Vietnam a Democratic Nation. The main American interest in the region, “was prevent the fall of Indochina to the Communists.” The Truman administration, and all successor administrations, believed the fall of all of Vietnam to communist rule would result in communist takeover in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and all of Southeast Asia” (Sema, 2015).
Information strategies during the Vietnam War often involved a search and destroy strategy. Search and Destroy or also known as Seek and Destroy, and simply S&D, denotes a military strategy the United States military adopted during the Vietnam War to gather information. The strategy involved inserting ground forces into hostile territory. Once in enemy territory, they would search out the enemy and destroy them. After the objective was accomplished, they would withdraw immediately afterward.
The strategy was partially effective, but at times led to heavy casualties on the side of the Americans and often prisoners of war that would only be released after Nixon began to withdraw troops. Regarding the military aspect, former President Nixon performed bombing raids on Hanoi in 1972. “To compel Hanoi to agree to Washington's terms and doubtless to demonstrate his willingness to support the Thieu Government after America's withdrawal, Mr. Nixon unleashed furious bombing raids against the Hanoi-Haiphong complex in December 1972 - the so-called Christmas bombing” (Chase, 1985). This of course also did not spell well for the United States troops and the Vietnam War began to be taxing on not just the American military, but the U.S. citizens having to witness the United States on the losing side of a long war.
Economically, the United States aimed to build South Vietnam as well as fight a war. “By asking military strategists to simultaneously fight a war and build a nation, senior U.S. policymakers had asked too much of those crafting military strategy to deliver on overly ambitious political objectives” (American History, 2017). These political objectives, if accomplished, would have strengthened Southern Vietnam. But, that was asking too much for military strategist as they were already suffering heavy casualties from the ongoing battles. So, from all fronts, it looked the DIME concepts were not working.
Means
Although the aim for Nixon and the United States government was to strengthen the Southern Vietnam forces and their economy, they failed to do it because they were also fighting a war. They should have pulled out much earlier and focused only on strengthening Southern Vietnam through better weapons, better training and so forth. Had they only stuck to one strategy versus trying to do both, the American public would not had been so angry with the American government and not as many resources and American lives would have been wasted.
They could also have gone the full military route and hit North Vietnam hard with multiple bombings in key areas. The search and destroy tactic could have been carried out more effectively with less soldiers on the ground. Locations would have been spotted and bombs could have been sent to those locations. This would save manpower and allow for a faster ability to destroy North Korean forces.
Risks
The risks for not participating in the Vietnam War were clear at least for the United States government at the time. Since the aim was to avoid a communist country and the spread of communism, they risked resources and a stable economy because the United States did not want a country being run by a dictator. They felt the loss of human rights and democracy would spell disaster for the world as a whole.
Although the American public fought for America to not participate, the United States government felt obligated to join so they can protect the interests of America overseas. That meant protection of democracy and avoiding the spread of communism. Had they accomplished their objectives, South Vietnam would have won. However, they did not and ended up with debt, economic hardship, and an unstable America.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Vietnam War saw five United States Presidents aim to do what they felt was best for the country. Former President Nixon through public pressure and outcry, chose to pull American troops out of Vietnam. Such a move came due to growing protests and resentment towards what many believed was an unnecessary war. What amounted to a diplomatic, military, and economic problem led to a divisive conclusion that provided the means for ending the war a short while later.




References
American History. (2017). American Military Strategy in the Vietnam War, 1965–1973 - Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. Retrieved from http://americanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-239
Anderson, D. L. (1999). The Military and Diplomatic Course of the Vietnam War. Retrieved from http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/anderson.htm
Chase, J. (1985, April 7). How America 'Lost the Peace'. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/06/14/specials/nixon-vietnams.html?mcubz=3
History Staff. (2010). Vietnamization - Vietnam War - HISTORY.com. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnamization
Sema, F. P. (2015, April 28). Nixon’s Retrospective on the Vietnam War | The Diplomat. Retrieved from http://thediplomat.com/2015/04/nixons-retrospective-on-the-vietnam-war/