Posted on Jan 15, 2018
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President Richard M. Nixon suspends military action in North Vietnam on this day in 1973, giving peace talks between his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, and North Vietnamese leader Le Duc Tho a chance to succeed.
When Nixon inherited the war from President Lyndon Johnson with his election to the presidency in 1969, he embarked on a campaign to end it that involved the gradual withdrawal of troops punctuated by intense bombing attacks on North Vietnam. Since assuming the presidency, Nixon had managed to reduce American troop strength to 95,000 from 540,000 and still maintain a terrifying show of force against the enemy. However, repeated attempts to negotiate a settlement between the U.S. and North Vietnam failed, and with the discovery of another North Vietnamese plan resembling the brutal Tet Offensive, Nixon ordered a massive bombing campaign of Viet Cong bases in the North and South in December 1972.
In a taped conversation in 1969, Nixon revealed his madman theory for ending the Vietnam War to his advisor H.R. Haldeman, saying, I want the North Vietnamese to think I’ve reached the point where I might do anything to stop the warwe’ll just slip the word to them that for God sakes, you know Nixon is obsessed about communistsand he has his hand on the nuclear button’ and Ho Chi Minh himself will be in Paris in two days begging for peace. The final bombing campaign on Christmas 1972 may have convinced the North Vietnamese that Nixon was indeed a madman capable of using nuclear weapons. Scarcely a month later, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger succeeded in negotiating peace terms with Le Duc Tho, finally ending the long and bloody conflict.
When Nixon inherited the war from President Lyndon Johnson with his election to the presidency in 1969, he embarked on a campaign to end it that involved the gradual withdrawal of troops punctuated by intense bombing attacks on North Vietnam. Since assuming the presidency, Nixon had managed to reduce American troop strength to 95,000 from 540,000 and still maintain a terrifying show of force against the enemy. However, repeated attempts to negotiate a settlement between the U.S. and North Vietnam failed, and with the discovery of another North Vietnamese plan resembling the brutal Tet Offensive, Nixon ordered a massive bombing campaign of Viet Cong bases in the North and South in December 1972.
In a taped conversation in 1969, Nixon revealed his madman theory for ending the Vietnam War to his advisor H.R. Haldeman, saying, I want the North Vietnamese to think I’ve reached the point where I might do anything to stop the warwe’ll just slip the word to them that for God sakes, you know Nixon is obsessed about communistsand he has his hand on the nuclear button’ and Ho Chi Minh himself will be in Paris in two days begging for peace. The final bombing campaign on Christmas 1972 may have convinced the North Vietnamese that Nixon was indeed a madman capable of using nuclear weapons. Scarcely a month later, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger succeeded in negotiating peace terms with Le Duc Tho, finally ending the long and bloody conflict.
Nixon suspends military action in North Vietnam - Jan 15, 1973 - HISTORY.com
Posted from history.comPosted in these groups: 
Vietnam War
Office of the President (POTUS)
Vietnam War Office of the President (POTUS)
Posted 7 y ago
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TSgt Joe C.
The tangled webs he weaved........or didn't. Thanks for the tidbit on his impending impeachment a year and a half later PO1 William "Chip" Nagel!
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
TSgt Joe C. - It's Disgusting I'm Old Enough to Remember, Someone Please Shoot Me. LOL!
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I had just arrived in Vietnam in September 1971 and Nixon is promising to get us out of Vietnam if he is reelected. My thought was that he had been in office four years and why hadn't he done anything before.
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Sgt Bob Leonard
In Nov, 1968, I was a senior in high school. At that tender age when I was old enough to be drafted, but not old enough to vote. Nonetheless, or more likely, because of that, I listened closely to everybody's campaign promises.
Candidate Nixon, in 1968, said, "If I don't, in four years or less, 1. End this war; 2. Bring our boys home; and 3. Leave behind a strong and stable South Vietnam Gov't, then I DON'T DESERVE A SECOND TERM!" (Emphasis created in my own head, because I had already taken my pre-induction physical, and already picked my USAF Specialty Code.)
Fast Forward four years. I have my orders for SEA (UTapao, Thailand). I'm sitting in the Day Room of the barracks, watching TV, when a political ad for CREeP comes on. I remember his promise of four years before. I take note of the fact we're still in SEA. Conclusion: by Pres. Nixon's own promise of four years before, he didn't deserve a second Term.
End of discussion.
Candidate Nixon, in 1968, said, "If I don't, in four years or less, 1. End this war; 2. Bring our boys home; and 3. Leave behind a strong and stable South Vietnam Gov't, then I DON'T DESERVE A SECOND TERM!" (Emphasis created in my own head, because I had already taken my pre-induction physical, and already picked my USAF Specialty Code.)
Fast Forward four years. I have my orders for SEA (UTapao, Thailand). I'm sitting in the Day Room of the barracks, watching TV, when a political ad for CREeP comes on. I remember his promise of four years before. I take note of the fact we're still in SEA. Conclusion: by Pres. Nixon's own promise of four years before, he didn't deserve a second Term.
End of discussion.
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