Changes

When President Nixon arrived at the White House after the 1968 elections, he embraced “Vietnamization” as a policy for slowly withdrawing American troops from South Vietnam, hoping that the South Vietnamese would do more themselves in fighting communism.  Nixon also increased bombing of North Vietnam and Vietcong strongholds in Cambodia and Laos.

When President Nixon arrived at the White House after the 1968 elections, he embraced “Vietnamization” as a policy for slowly withdrawing American troops from South Vietnam, hoping that the South Vietnamese would do more themselves in fighting communism.  Nixon also increased bombing of North Vietnam and Vietcong strongholds in Cambodia and Laos.

Nixon was heavily influenced by his advisor Henry Kissinger, a Machiavellian figure skilled at manipulating those around him.  Kissinger’s approach towards Vietnam was to launch bombing attacks and then look like a hero in declaring cease-fires.  He did this repeatedly and received much praise by newspapers for it.  But the communists would simply re-supply their guerilla fighters during the cease-fires, and so the cease-fires actually helped the communists continue the war.  By 1973, the United States gave up and pulled the last American soldiers out.  A million Vietnamese then fled South Vietnam to escape the communists, who took over by 1975.  The United States imposed a trade embargo on the newly unified Vietnam that lasted until 1994.  President Bush visited Vietnam in 2006.

Nixon was heavily influenced by his advisor Henry Kissinger.  Kissinger’s approach towards Vietnam was to launch bombing attacks and then look like a hero in declaring cease-fires.  He did this repeatedly and received much praise by newspapers for it.  But the communists would simply re-supply their guerilla fighters during the cease-fires, and so the cease-fires actually helped the communists continue the war.  By 1973, the United States gave up and pulled the last American soldiers out.  A million Vietnamese then fled South Vietnam to escape the communists, who took over by 1975.  The United States imposed a trade embargo on the newly unified Vietnam that lasted until 1994.  President Bush visited Vietnam in 2006.

Things worsened further in next-door Cambodia after the Americans left Vietnam.  Pol Pot took over Cambodia in 1975, and he abolished private property, money and religion and converted everything back to an agricultural society.  He emptied the cities.  His ruthless policies supposedly resulted in the death of 1-2 million Cambodians in the late 1970s.  The Hollywood movie about his dictatorship, The Killing Fields, exposed his atrocities and perhaps exaggerated them as a way of blaming the United States, which once supported him to counter Vietnam.  Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge government fell in 1979 when Vietnam invaded Cambodia after a series of violent border confrontations, and Pol Pot fled to the northern jungle with his forces.  He died from illness in 1998.  Today there are United Nations peacekeeping forces in Cambodia.

Things worsened further in next-door Cambodia after the Americans left Vietnam.  Pol Pot took over Cambodia in 1975, and he abolished private property, money and religion and converted everything back to an agricultural society.  He emptied the cities.  His ruthless policies supposedly resulted in the death of 1-2 million Cambodians in the late 1970s.  The Hollywood movie about his dictatorship, The Killing Fields, exposed his atrocities and perhaps exaggerated them as a way of blaming the United States, which once supported him to counter Vietnam.  Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge government fell in 1979 when Vietnam invaded Cambodia after a series of violent border confrontations, and Pol Pot fled to the northern jungle with his forces.  He died from illness in 1998.  Today there are United Nations peacekeeping forces in Cambodia.