History – Vietnam War

Read following links and answer questions
Essays should be 3-4 pages long, double-spaced with normal margins, in a 12 font,

http://www.watergate.info/nixon/silent-majority-speech-1969.shtml
http://www.watergate.info/nixon/73-01-23_vietnam.shtml
and John Kerry at
http://www.richmond.edu/~ebolt/history398/JohnKerryTestimony.html
Write a unified essay answering the following questions:
 What were Nixon’s policy goals in Vietnam?
 What kind of settlement did he get in Vietnam?
 In what ways did his search for “peace with honor” fail?
 What were some of the legacies of the Vietnam war?

 

                                         Answer

Nixon’s policy goals
The American president, Richard Nixon, during the war in Vietnam come up with a
policy that was known as Vietnamization. The primary role of the policy was to end the
involvement of U.S in the Vietnam War. He came up with the plan soon after he took over the
office in January 1969. After he took over the presidential office, the US combat troops had been
fighting for almost 4 years in the Vietnam. By 1965 around 31,000 combat troops had lost their
lives in the struggle to prevent and defend the advancement of Viet Cong and the North
Vietnamese forces (Bolt 67). Due to intense, fierce protests and criticism both inside and outside
the country, the president and his advisers came up with a strategy to disengage U.S combat
troops without appearing so as to abandon the war in South Vietnam against the communists.
After long sessions of discussion and brainstorming, the team came up with a strategy that was
named “Vietnamization.”
The president announced the strategy to the people of U.S in a broadcast speech on
November 3, 1969, and insisted how his plan was different with the “Americanization” strategy
of the former president Lyndon Johnson. Nixon said that the procedure had two distinct
components. The first step was to strengthen the number of South Vietnamese armed force
combat skills, leadership, and equipment. This segment was to increase the effectiveness of their
mission, solve the war, and bring peace in Vietnam by uniting both Northern and the Southern
part 1 . The second component of the Vietnamization strategy was expansion of the participation
program for both the military and the civilians in the South of Vietnam. For America to attain
this goal, they had to do something on the troops in the war. They increased the number of
helicopters that flew to support the operation of the combat troop on the ground. To make this

1 http://www.richmond.edu/~ebolt/history398/JohnKerryTestimony.html

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strategy successful, they recruited the ARVN candidates from the U.S schools of training
helicopters 2 pilot where they were trained for two years.

Vietnam settlement
After lengthy negations of the American government and the Vietnams government, in
the year 1973 they came to a formal agreement. The committee that was conducting
peacemaking discussion was initiated by Dr. Henry Kissinger who represented the U.S and Le
Duc Tho was a special advisor representing the Vietnams. The agreement was to be signed on
7th January 1973 at a conference in Paris France. The deal suggested that the American combat
troops ware to be withdrawn from South Vietnam. The American government had to identify the
government of Vietnam as legitimate. However, the United States government was to continue
providing support to the Vietnamese for rebuilding their country (Campbell and Nixon)234 2 . The
agreement was initiated with a primary aim of ensuring that Vietnam becomes an independent
country with peace. Due to the war that had existed for many years, the nation was economically
affected. Many innocent people had lost their lives including the American troops. The American
government promised to do all that it could to ensure Vietnam stood firm peaceful.
Ways in which search for “peace with honor” failed
“Peace with Honor,” were words that were used by the president of United State, Richard
M. Nixon, in his speech on 23 January 1973. The phrase described peace agreement of Paris in
France. The contract identified a peace making process that would be initiated four days later.
The covenant made stated that within 60 days the combat troops in the south Vietnam would be
withdrawn and North Vietnamese would free the U.S prisoners. However, this plan of sixty days

2 http://www.watergate.info/nixon/73-01-23_vietnam.shtml

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was not met within the agreed time since the last American combat troop left Vietnam in 1975.
The reason for the prolonged stay of the U.S soldiers was to ensure that Vietnam is entirely
stable to stand on its own.
Legacies of the Vietnam War
The battle between the communist régime of North and the South Vietnam remains to be
the worst experience in the country. It was long, costly and resulted to conflict among the two
parts of the country. Approximately 3 million people lost their lives, including over 58000
Americans. Half of the people who died during the war were Vietnam civilians. Besides that, the
people in Vietnam experienced psychological effects and many did not get the social needs such
as education and health services. Bomb explosions damaged a lot of resources in Vietnam 3 3 . The
involvement of United States Army in the Vietnam War caused bitter division among the
Americans, and in 1973 president Nixon ordered for the withdraw of the U.S troops. The war
finally came to an end in 1975, and the country was reunited again as a socialist republic of
Vietnam in 1976.

3 http://www.watergate.info/nixon/silent-majority-speech-1969.shtml

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Bibliography

Bolt and Dr. Ernes. "Statement of John Kerry." University of Richmond. Last modified 1971.
http://www.richmond.edu/~ebolt/history398/JohnKerryTestimony.html.
Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs, and Richard M. Nixon. The Great Silent Majority: Nixon's 1969
Speech on Vietnamization. 2014.

Watergate. "Nixon's 'Peace With Honor' Broadcast On Vietnam." Watergate: The Scandal That
Brought Down Richard Nixon. Last modified 1973.
http://www.watergate.info/nixon/73-01-23_vietnam.shtml.

Watergate. "Nixon's Silent Majority Speech." Watergate: The Scandal That Brought Down
Richard Nixon. Last modified 1969.
http://www.watergate.info/nixon/silent-majority-speech-1969.shtml.