2005 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Consequences: Richard Nixon’s War
During the 1968 presidential campaign, Richard Nixon had pledged to bring the war to a ‘successful conclusion.’1 However ‘success’ might be defined by the end of 1968, for most Americans it meant in one way or another to get US ground forces out of Vietnam. Despite that understanding, President Nixon continued the US military involvement for four more years as he searched for an honorable exit that would preserve his own and the nation’s credibility. Upon taking office, Nixon and his chief national security aide Henry Kissinger knew that the voters expected them to end US military intervention in Vietnam. They interpreted that mandate, however, as requiring them to find a way to maintain US credibility. In their estimation, simply to pull out would have far-ranging domestic and international consequences. Nixon himself had been part of the conservative Republican chorus that had heaped partisan condemnation on Harry Truman for supposedly ‘losing China’ without a fight in 1949. To abandon the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) to an overt takeover by the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) would have a ‘terrible’ political impact and ‘destroy’ his administration in his view.2 Similarly, Nixon and Kissinger believed that America’s friends and enemies abroad would be closely watching how the United States extricated itself from the war. Kissinger maintained resolutely that the ‘peace of the world’ and the stability of ‘international order’ depended on the ability of the United States to end the war with its honor and credibility as a world power intact.3