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Examine President Nixon's threefold plan to unilaterally de-escalate the Vietnam War

Examine President Nixon's threefold plan to unilaterally de-escalate the Vietnam War

While conducting negotiations with North Vietnam, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon began a program of “de-escalation,” or reduction of U.S. combat forces, and of “Vietnamization,” or development of South Vietnam's ability to wage war on its own. From Vietnam Perspective (1985), a documentary by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Transcript

NARRATOR: While continuing to negotiate with the stubborn North Vietnamese, President Nixon put into action a three-part plan to unilaterally de-escalate the war. First he announced a timetable for the gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam. Second, the war would be "Vietnamized"; that is, as American forces withdrew from the fighting, South Vietnamese forces would replace them. And third, to reduce American casualties, the strategy of "search and destroy" would be replaced, and Americans would fight only when threatened or attacked by the enemy.
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