Editing Nixon Doctrine (section)

==Doctrine in practice==
{{Further|Foreign policy of the Richard Nixon administration}}
The doctrine was exemplified by the process of [[Vietnamization]] regarding South Vietnam and the Vietnam War.<ref>John G. Keilers, "Nixon Doctrine and Vietnamization" (U.S. Army Military History Institute, June 29, 2007) [https://www.army.mil/article/3867/nixon_doctrine_and_vietnamization  online]</ref> It also played elsewhere in Asia including [[Pahlavi Iran|Iran]],<ref>Stephen McGlinchey,  "Richard Nixon's Road to Tehran: The Making of the US–Iran Arms Agreement of May 1972." ''Diplomatic History'' 37.4 (2013): 841-860.</ref> [[Taiwan]],<ref>Earl C. Ravenal, "The Nixon Doctrine and Our Asian Commitments." ''Foreign Affairs'' 49.2 (1971): 201-217.</ref> [[Kingdom of Cambodia (1953–1970)|Cambodia]],<ref>Laura Summers, "Cambodia: Model of the Nixon doctrine." ''Current History'' (Dec 1973) pp. 252-56.</ref> and [[Third Republic of Korea|South Korea]].<ref>Joo-Hong Nam, and Chu-Hong Nam. ''America's commitment to South Korea: the first decade of the Nixon doctrine'' (1986).</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2020}} The doctrine was an explicit rejection of the practice that sent 500,000 U.S. soldiers to South Vietnam, even though there was no treaty obligation to that country. A major long-term goal was to reduce the tension between the United States and the [[Soviet Union]] and mainland [[China]], so as to better enable the policy of [[détente]] to work.<ref>Robert S. Litwak, ''Détente and the Nixon doctrine: American foreign policy and the pursuit of stability, 1969-1976'' (1986).</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2020}}

The particular Asian nation the doctrine was aimed at with its message that Asian nations should be responsible for defending themselves was South Vietnam, but Shah [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]] of Iran seized upon the Nixon Doctrine with its message that Asian nations should be responsible for their own defense to argue that the Americans should sell him arms without limitations, a suggestion that Nixon eagerly embraced.<ref name=":0" /> The U.S. turned to [[Saudi Arabia]] and Iran as "twin pillars" of regional stability.<ref name="time doctrine">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1574151,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-bottom|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207081727/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1574151,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-bottom|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 7, 2009|author=Beinart, Peter|title=Return of the Nixon Doctrine|date=2007-01-04|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|TIME]]}}</ref> [[Price of oil|Oil price]] increases in 1970 and 1971 would allow funding both states with this military expansion. Total arms transfers from the United States to Iran increased from $103.6 million in 1970 to $552.7 million in 1972; those to Saudi Arabia increased from $15.8 million in 1970 to $312.4 million in 1972. The U.S. would maintain its small naval force of three ships in the [[Persian Gulf|Gulf]], stationed since [[World War II]] in [[Bahrain]], but would take on no other formal security commitments.<ref name="III2009">{{cite book|last=Gause, III|first=F. Gregory|title=The International Relations of the Persian Gulf|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0c0LAQAAQBAJ|access-date=25 December 2013|date=2009-11-19|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781107469167|page=22}}</ref>

One factor in reducing open-ended American commitments was financial concern as the war in Vietnam had proven to be very expensive.<ref>''The Gold Battles Within the Cold War: American Monetary Policy and the Defense of Europe, 1960–1963''. [[Francis J. Gavin]], University of Texas at Austin</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2020}} In South Korea, 20,000 of the 61,000 U.S. troops stationed there were withdrawn by June 1971.

The application of the Nixon Doctrine "opened the floodgates" of U.S. military aid to allies in the Persian Gulf.<ref>[[Michael Klare]], ''Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Petroleum Dependency'' (New York: Henry Holt, 2004)</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2020}} That in turn helped set the stage for the [[Carter Doctrine]] and for subsequent direct military involvement in the [[Gulf War]] and the [[Iraq War]].{{citation needed|date=May 2019}}