Editing Richard Nixon (section)

==== Vietnam War ====
{{Main|Vietnam War|Vietnamization|Role of the United States in the Vietnam War}}
[[File:NixononCambodia.jpg|thumb|left|Nixon delivers an address to the nation about the incursion in Cambodia]]

When Nixon took office, about 300 American soldiers were dying each week in Vietnam,<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwc24.htm | title = Vietnam War Deaths and Casualties By Month | access-date = June 22, 2012 | publisher = The American War Library | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131204020044/http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwc24.htm | archive-date = December 4, 2013 | url-status = live }}</ref> and the war was widely unpopular in the United States, the subject of ongoing violent protests. The Johnson administration had offered to suspend bombing unconditionally in exchange for negotiations, but to no avail. According to Walter Isaacson, Nixon concluded soon after taking office that the Vietnam War could not be won, and he was determined to end it quickly.{{sfn|Drew|p=65}} He sought an arrangement that would permit American forces to withdraw while leaving South Vietnam secure against attack.{{sfn|Black|p=569}}

Nixon approved a secret [[Boeing B-52 Stratofortress|B-52]] carpet bombing campaign of North Vietnamese and [[Khmer Rouge]] positions in Cambodia beginning in March 1969 and code-named [[Operation Menu]], without the consent of Cambodian leader [[Norodom Sihanouk]].{{sfn|Black|p=591}}<ref name="Kiernan"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Clymer|first=Kenton|title=The United States and Cambodia, 1969–2000: A Troubled Relationship|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2013|isbn=978-1-134-34156-6|pages=14–16}}</ref> In mid-1969, Nixon began efforts to negotiate peace with the North Vietnamese, sending a personal letter to their leaders, and peace talks began in Paris. Initial talks did not result in an agreement,{{sfn|Ambrose|1989|pp=281–283}} and in May 1969 he publicly proposed to withdraw all American troops from South Vietnam provided North Vietnam did so, and suggesting South Vietnam hold internationally supervised elections with [[Viet Cong]] participation.<ref>[http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=2047&st=&st1= Address to the Nation on Vietnam] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304043247/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=2047&st=&st1= |date=March 4, 2016 }} May 14, 1969</ref>

[[File:President Richard Nixon greets a U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division Soldier.jpg|thumb|upright|Nixon visits American troops in South Vietnam, July 30, 1969]]

In July 1969, Nixon visited [[South Vietnam]], where he met with his U.S. military commanders and President [[Nguyễn Văn Thiệu]]. Amid protests at home demanding an immediate pullout, he implemented a strategy of replacing American troops with [[Army of the Republic of Vietnam|Vietnamese troops]], known as "[[Vietnamization]]".{{sfn|Nixon Library, President}} He soon instituted phased U.S. troop withdrawals,{{sfn|''Time''|1971-04-05}} but also authorized incursions into Laos, in part to interrupt the [[Ho Chi Minh trail]] passing through Laos and Cambodia and used to supply North Vietnamese forces. In March 1970, at the explicit request of the Khmer Rouge and negotiated by [[Pol Pot]]'s then-second-in-command, [[Nuon Chea]], North Vietnamese troops launched an offensive and overran much of Cambodia.<ref>{{cite book|first=Dmitry |last=Mosyakov |chapter=The Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese Communists: A History of Their Relations as Told in the Soviet Archives |editor-first=Susan E. |editor-last=Cook |title=Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda |series=Yale Genocide Studies Program Monograph Series |issue=1 |date=2004 |page=54ff |chapter-url=http://www.yale.edu/gsp/publications/Mosyakov.doc |quote=In April–May 1970, many North Vietnamese forces entered Cambodia in response to the call for help addressed to Vietnam not by Pol Pot, but by his deputy Nuon Chea. Nguyen Co Thach recalls: 'Nuon Chea has asked for help and we have liberated five provinces of Cambodia in ten days.' |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130309074636/http://www.yale.edu/gsp/publications/Mosyakov.doc |archive-date=March 9, 2013}}</ref> Nixon announced the [[Cambodian campaign|ground invasion of Cambodia]] on April 30, 1970, against North Vietnamese bases in the east of the country,{{sfn|AP/''St. Peterburg Independent''}} and further protests erupted against perceived expansion of the conflict, which resulted in Ohio National Guardsmen killing four unarmed students at [[Kent State shootings|Kent State University]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Gitlin|first=Todd|title=[[The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage]]|publisher=Bantam Books|year=1987|isbn=978-0-553-37212-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/sixtiesyearsofho00gitl/page/410 410]}}</ref> Nixon's responses to protesters included [[Richard Nixon's visit to the Lincoln Memorial|an impromptu, early morning meeting with them]] at the [[Lincoln Memorial]] on May 9, 1970.{{r|Safire pp205–209}}{{sfn|UPI/''Beaver County Times''|1970-05-09}}{{sfn|Black|pp=675–676}} Nixon's campaign promise to curb the war, contrasted with the escalated bombing, led to claims that Nixon had a "[[credibility gap]]" on the issue.{{sfn|''Time''|1971-04-05}} It is estimated that between 50,000 and 150,000 people were killed during the [[Operation Freedom Deal|bombing of Cambodia]] between 1970 and 1973.<ref name="Kiernan">{{cite magazine|last1=Owen|first1=Taylor|last2=Kiernan|first2=Ben|title=Bombs Over Cambodia|magazine=The Walrus|date=October 2006|url=http://www.yale.edu/cgp/Walrus_CambodiaBombing_OCT06.pdf|pages=32–36|access-date=January 29, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420220434/http://www.yale.edu/cgp/Walrus_CambodiaBombing_OCT06.pdf|archive-date=April 20, 2016|url-status=live}} Kiernan and Owen later revised their estimate of 2.7 million tons of U.S. bombs dropped on Cambodia down to the previously accepted figure of roughly 500,000 tons: See {{cite web|authorlink1=Ben Kiernan|last1=Kiernan|first1=Ben|last2=Owen|first2=Taylor|url=http://apjjf.org/2015/13/16/Ben-Kiernan/4313.html|title=Making More Enemies than We Kill? Calculating U.S. Bomb Tonnages Dropped on Laos and Cambodia, and Weighing Their Implications|work=The Asia-Pacific Journal|date=April 26, 2015|access-date=November 15, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912002843/http://www.yale.edu/cgp/Walrus_CambodiaBombing_OCT06.pdf|archive-date=September 12, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1971, excerpts from the "[[Pentagon Papers]]", which had been leaked by [[Daniel Ellsberg]], were published by ''[[The New York Times]]'' and ''[[The Washington Post]]''. When news of the leak first appeared, Nixon was inclined to do nothing; the Papers, a history of United States' involvement in Vietnam, mostly concerned the lies of prior administrations and contained few real revelations. He was persuaded by Kissinger that the Papers were more harmful than they appeared, and the President tried to prevent publication, but the Supreme Court [[New York Times Co. v. United States|ruled in favor of]] the newspapers.{{sfn|Ambrose|1989|pp=446–448}}

As U.S. troop withdrawals continued, [[Conscription in the United States|conscription]] was phased out by 1973, and the armed forces became all-volunteer.{{sfn|Evans}} After years of fighting, the [[Paris Peace Accords]] were signed at the beginning of 1973. The agreement implemented a cease fire and allowed for the withdrawal of remaining American troops without requiring withdrawal of the 160,000 [[North Vietnam Army]] regulars located in the South.{{sfn|Ambrose|1991|pp=53–55}} Once American combat support ended, there was a brief truce, before fighting resumed, and [[1975 spring offensive|North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam in 1975]].{{sfn|Ambrose|1991|p=473}}