From War to Détente

Section 21.2

American personnel being evacuated from US embassy in Saigon, April 1975

What is Vietnamization?

• Nixon’s policy of withdrawing US troops while training S. Vietnam to take over the fighting

– Part of Nixon Doctrine

• Nixon Doctrine

– US would provide financial & weapon support to anti-communist allies

– But no US troops!

Above: South V. army officer; below: as labeled

Vietnamization

Capture from clip on Vietnamization

What were the Paris Peace Talks?• Peace conferences between

US/S. Vietnam and N. Vietnam

• Started in 1968

• S.V. and U.S. insisted N.V. withdraw from South, and that the Thieu (regime in South) remain in power.

• N.V. demanded U.S. withdraw and a coalition government w/Vietcong

Above: cartoon shows exhausted dove labeled ‘Vietnam Talks’ impaled atop the Eiffel Tower; below: U.S. negotiators in Paris

Who was Henry Kissinger?• Nixon’s chief foreign policy

adviser

• Eventually Nixon’s Secretary of State.

• German Born Jewish escapee of Nazi oppression.

• Harvard Professor.

• kept foreign policy secret from press b/c of unpopularity of war

Above: Kissinger on the phone; below: Kissinger on cover of Time

Describe the the Secret War of Nixon and Kissinger:

• Massive bombing of communist bases in Laos and Cambodia

• Wanted to cut off supply line and bring N.V. to the negotiating table

• Utilized Madman Theory– Nixon wanted N.V. to think he

was crazy enough to Nuke• From 1969-1973 US conducted

over 3, 600 missions• Did not work• Led to invasion of Cambodia

(April 1970)

Above: Nixon and Kissinger confer; below: aerial photo of bombing Cambodia

Secret War

Capture from clip on Cambodia bombing and the issue of secrecy

How did the public react?• Kent State University

– 4 students died during violent protests

• Pentagon Papers

– NY Times article revealed that US Govt. had lied to the American public about war

• Did not directly implicate Nixon

• But public now believed that the government (Nixon) could not be trusted

• Significance: Nixon becomes obsessed with stopping leaks of info to the press

Below: Time magazine further spreads the story the NY Times had broken

Pentagon Papers

Capture from clip on Pentagon Papers

Describe the Final Years of the War:• Vietnamization failed

– S.V. troops defeated handily by N.V. troops

• October 1972- U.S. and N.V. agree to cease-fire.

• All U.S. troops would leave Vietnam, POWs would be returned, VC could play an active role in a coalition government in the South

• Kissinger: “Peace is at hand.”• Thieu refused to sign the treaty and

peace fell apart

Above: Kissinger meets with Vietnamese leaders; below: Nixon does the same

What was the Christmas Bombing?• To force peace, Nixon

intensified bombing during a 12 day campaign – lasted from December

18-30.• Bombed major N.V. cities

and installations in Laos and Cambodia

• Killed thousands of civilians

• NY Times called the bombing “diplomacy through terror.”

Above and below: USAF carpet-bombing SE Asia to ‘force peace’

POWsCapture from clip on US POWs

• US and NV agreed to peace terms (1/1973)

• Last US troops left in March of 1973

• War b/t South and North resumed

• Saigon scene of chaos as S.Vietnamese desperately tried to flee on US helicopters

• April 1975 Saigon fell

Describe the Fall of Saigon:

Above: another image of fleeing S.V. civilians boarding helicopter; below: desperate civilians try to climb wall of US embassy

Saigon Falls

Capture from clip on the fall of Saigon

Describe the cost of War• 58,000 Americans

dead • 300,000 wounded• $150 billion dollars• American self-

confidence of WWII gone– US lost its first war

• Two million Vietnamese died – land lay in ruins

Above: still from “Goodnight Saigon”; below: at the Vietnam Veterans’ memorial

The War Ends

Capture from clip about the cool reception returning soldiers got and the disinterest of the public in the end of the war

What does Détente mean?• An easing or relaxing of

tensions

• Period during Nixon’s presidency noted for better relations between the US and USSR/Red China

• Hawks saw it as sign of our weakness and loss of resolve

Above: Nixon with Mao Zedong; below: Nixon with Leonid Brezhnev

How was the world different in the 1970s from the 1950s?

• US and USSR not the only powers

• Five Economic Superpowers had developed

• US, USSR, Japan, China, EEC (European Economic Community)

• USSR and China were enemies!

Composite night-time satellite shot indicates spread of prosperity (electricity for lighting) around the world by the mid-70s

Describe Nixon and Kissinger’s view of foreign policy:

• Believed in Realpolitik– The politics of reality

• US should form alliances based on its national economic interests rather than on ideology, i.e.:– Form alliances even with

communist nations!• N+K wanted balance of power• Several powerful nations would

prevent one from getting too powerful

• Is there any irony to Cold Warrior Nixon’s new policy?

Otto Von Bismarck

Describe the US policy toward China from 1949-1970:

• Refused to recognize communist government

• No diplomatic relationship

• Formed alliance with Taiwan

– Where Chiang Kai-shek’s anticommunist govt. had formed after 1949

• Blocked admittance into UN

• China had aided communists in Korean and Vietnam Wars

Above: map shows the tiny island of Taiwan; below: Chiang’s nationalists march

How was détente between the US and China achieved?

• Nixon expressed desire to visit China to Time magazine reporter (1970)

• US Table Tennis Team (ping pong) visited China (4/71)

• Trade embargo ended days later

• US allowed China admittance into UN (as a permanent member to the Security Council)

• Kissinger went on secret mission to lay groundwork

• Nixon traveled to China (2/72)

• Visited Great Wall & Mao

Above: Nixon and Mao shake on it; below: Nixon toasts Premier (second in command) Chou En-Lai

• Nixon traveled to Russia

• Signed Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty (SALT) with Brezhnev

• SALT curtailed number of ballistic missiles

• Agreed to trade technology and grain

How was détente between the US and the Soviet Union achieved?

Above: Nixon and Brezhnev toast; below: Brezhnev sees an advantage to détente

Describe the election of 1972:• Democrats nominated George

McGovern– Liberal Anti-war platform– Immediate end to war, $30

billion cut in defense spending, pardoning of draft dodgers

• Nixon threatened by third party candidate George Wallace– Appealed to Southern and

blue collar voters– Paralyzed by would-be

assassin and dropped out• Nixon won by landslide

– But his downfall had begunTop: George McGovern on Time cover; below:

Wallace button from before the shooting