Cold War Study Guide - Compare/contrast the Vietnam War policies of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

RICHARD NIXON

Vietnamization 

• Nixon announced a policy called “Vietnamization” that would “withdraw 540,000 US troops in South Vietnam over an extended period”. The policy was issued in hopes that “the South Vietnamese - with American money, weapons, training, and advice - could then gradually take over the burden of fighting their own war” (Kennedy 1004).
• Nixon wanted to win the war without further “spilling of American blood” (Kennedy 1004).
• Nixon hoped that by his Vietnamization, the Vietnam war would turn into a civil war between the North and the South.

Cambodia

• North Vietnamese and Viet Cong had been using Cambodia for several years, and Nixon ordered for US forces to ally with the South Vietnamese in effort to “clean out the enemy sanctuaries in officially neutral Cambodia” (Kennedy 1005)
• In 1969, Nixon ordered for bombs to be dropped in North Vietnam in effort to cut off the secret route that Northern Vietnamese were using to smuggle supplies and enforcement for the Viet Cong.
• Nixon tried to cover up the bombing in North Vietnam by “authorizing falsification of the Air Force records” (Gaddis 173).
• Nixon was facing public protest in the US. Anti-war protesters did not respond well to the increasing involvement in Vietnam. Because of the protest, Nixon began to withdraw troops from Vietnam.
• Nixon was also faced with other issues at home (in the US), he focused on creating environmental programs that would benefit the country as a whole.
• Nixon’s views aside from Vietnam were similar to those of Lyndon Johnson’s. Essentially Nixon carried on with the ‘cons’ of the Great Society. He focused mainly on winning the war in Vietnam without killing any more American troops, but also focused on the benefit of the country in areas that Johnson had previously attempted to improving.

3. Assess the successes and failures of the foreign policies of Richard Nixon (1969-1974). 

• Nixon ran for President, saying that the great society (formed by Lyndon Johnson) had many cons, and that it had made the government too big.

- Similar to Lyndon Johnson, Nixon was somewhat secretive with his foreign affairs.

• Nixon places high importance on national security, Gaddis writes that where Nixon went wrong in his presidency was “not in the use of secrecy to conduct foreign policy -diplomacy had always required that- but in failing to distinguish between actions he could have justified if exposed and those he could never have justified. (Gaddis 172)
• After just two months of Nixon’s presidency, in 1969 he called for the bombing of Cambodia. Nixon didn’t not really justify the bombing, but instead he covered up the bombing by having the military records be “falsified”.
• In defense of the 1969 Cambodia bombing, Nixon stated that “[his] administration was only tow months old, and [he] wanted to provoke as little public outcry as possible at the outset (Gaddis 173)
• The bombings of Cambodia could be seen as a failure for Nixon in that he was not honest with the public, which did no good for his reputation and trust with the public.
• The 1970 election in Chile was also a large part of Richard Nixon’s foreign affairs. Nixon utilized the CIA, but covered it up so that the public would not find out about his actions.
• In 1970 Chile elected Salvador Allende (Marxist), and Nixon released a statement (in 1971) saying that the US was not involved in the election at all, when in fact he had intervened.
• Nixon conducted covert operations with the CIA, that would help to promote Allende’s opponent in Chile, to prevent Chile from being controlled by communist rule.
• The CIA operations proved to be a failure when Allende was elected in 1970. But even after Allende was elected, Nixon wanted the CIA to “prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him” (Gaddis 174).
• The mission to prevent Allende’s presidency was a failure on Nixon’s behalf. The CIA was unable to prevent his inauguration, and actually ended up killing the commander in chief of the Chilean army instead.
• Much like in Johnson’s presidency, Nixon was creating somewhat of a credibility gap.
• “The gap between what appeared to be happening and what was actually happening was widening” (Gaddis 174).
• Further creating somewhat of a credibility gap, Nixon formed “the plumbers”. This was a group of retired detectives and former FBI and CIA members. They were ordered to perform illegal burglaries, and conduct phone taps and surveillance operations.
• The group created controversy when some group members were arrested after being inside the headquarters of the Democratic National COmmittee in the Watergate building.
• Nixon was also involved Vietnam, after Lyndon Johnson’s escalation of action in Vietnam.
• In 1973, Nixon made an agreement in Hanoi (Vietnam capitol) that the US would withdraw troops. This would help to settle anti-war protestors in the US, and help to reduce the stress placed on Nixon by the public and the rest of the government to end the US’s involvement with Vietnam.
• This was a success on Nixon’s behalf. But while Nixon gained some trust with the public because of the agreement with Hanoi, he also lost trust when the public became aware of his intentions in Chile (in 1970).
• Another success for Nixon was his involvement with China. In 1969 China was threatened from all sides, facing India, Japan, and the Soviet Union. Nixon met with his Cabinet and agreed that the US would “not let China be  ‘smashed’ in a Sino-Soviet war” (Gaddis 150)
• The US was able to partially ally with China in that they both were going against communism. The Soviets were losing power because of the fear that an “all out war between the world’s most powerful communist states” would break out (Gaddis 149). The soviets were losing their strength and morale as well.

• Nixon also introduced a term called, “Vietnamization”. In carrying out his “Vietnamization”, Nixon “increased the ARVN’s role in the war and gradually withdrew US ground forces” (Course Companion 373)
•  As a part of “Vietnamization”, Nixon focused on getting the US out of Vietnam, while training and supplying Vietnam troops with arms and knowledge that they would need to fight their own war.
• Nixon sent his chief advisor to Vietnam to negotiate a peace treaty that would mend the tensions between North and South Vietnam.
• Nixon’s goals for Vietnam were similar to Lyndon Johnson’s in that they both wanted to end the war in Vietnam, but found it difficult in promising that the US would not have to send over any more troops.

4. Compare and contrast the foreign policies of Richard Nixon (1969–1974) and Jimmy Carter (1977–1981).

Détente

NIXON: Focused on having a “détente” relationship with the Soviet Union and China. A détente relationship was one in which countries would put aside their cold war tensions and focus primarily on trade.

• The Brezhnev doctrine of 1968 “claimed the right to violate the sovereignty of any country in which an effort was under way to replace marxism-Leninism with capitalism” (Gaddis 150). This heightened nuclear war tensions, acting as a retaliation to containment (and the domino theory) on the Soviet Union’s part.
• Despite this acting as somewhat of a retaliation on the Soviet Union’s part, the Soviet Union was weakening. This was because there was a fear of a loss of morale in Marxist states. But it was the weakening of the Soviet Union (through fear) that the US and China were able to establish the policy of détente with the Soviet Union.

CARTER: When elected, Carter focused mainly on reducing the involvement with Vietnam.

• Carter looked to reducing the arms and troops overseas, because the spending had reached about $10 billion per year (Course companion 387)
• Carter sought to win the war in Vietnam, ending the mass spending overseas and anti-war protests at home (in the US). He thought that the way to win the war would be to end the US’ fear of communism. Carter sought to create a relationship with the Soviet Union that would be a relationship of “détente”. But the Soviet Union took use of the Brezhnev Doctrine, which essentially ended all détente.
• Because of the end of détente, Carter issued embargoes on items that were shipped to the USSR. The US turned on the Soviet Union by announcing a boycott on the Moscow Olympics, and increasing their expenses in defense overseas.
• Carter’s hopes of ending the war in Vietnam were essentially made impossible by the ending of détente. The US’ reaction to the ending of détente opposed Carter’s initial goals for the war in Vietnam.

• SALT Agreements
• NIXON:

•   SALT Agreements stands for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, which took place from 69-72.
•  The SALT Agreements were held between Nixon and Brezhnev, aiming to settle the usage of arms in the war. Nixon and Brezhnev were able to make an agreement to limit both the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine launched ballistic missiles.
• The SALT Agreements between Nixon and Brezhnev eventually agreed on a treaty that only allowed for symbolic defense against the missiles, and banned any other use of arms.
• The treaty between Nixon and Brezhnev was signed at the Moscow Summit, being called the “SALT I Accords”.
• The SALT I Accords was a turning point in the relationship between the Soviet Union and the US. They showed that each country was acknowledging the other’s strength and ability (in nuclear warfare)
• The acknowledgement of the nuclear strength of each side acknowledged Mutually Assured Destruction as something that was actually seemingly possible.
• The SALT accords progressed when Senator Henry Jackson added his own amendment to the accords called the “Jackson-Vanik” amendment. This amendment to the accords began the SALT II accords, which developed a second round of negotiations.
• The amendment “secured passage of a resolution requiring that all subsequent arms control agreements provide for numerical equality in all weapons systems covered” (Gaddis 200).
• The second round of negotiations of the SALT II accords was more complicated than the first. This is because the two sides were agreeing to essentially be equal. The US and the Soviet Union had agreed to not duplicate one another’s weapons, but the negotiators had to look to how they would “impose equivalent limits on weapons systems that were not themselves equivalent” (Gaddis 201).

CARTER:

• Jimmy Carter hoped to limit both the fighting in the war, and the usage and development of nuclear weapons in general. In his campaign for presidency he promised that he would seek “deep cuts” in strategic arsenals, rather than just “freezing” them (Gaddis 201).
• The SALT II negotiations finally followed through after some controversy and setbacks, and a treaty was signed in June of 1979 in Vienna. The treaty didn’t fully address the reduction of nuclear weaponry, in fact it benefited mainly the Soviet Union by allowing for improvements to be made in Soviet weaponry.
• However, Carter went back on the treaty by revoking it when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Carter withdrew the treaty in retaliation to the Soviet Union, as an act of protection and opposition.
• Gaddis describes Carter’s withdrawing of the treaty as a “striking shift for a president who, on taking office three year earlier, had hope to bring the Cold War to an end” (Gaddis 211-212)  
• Carter’s initial presidential goals were repeatedly being undone by responding to the Soviet Union’s actions.