To the other major powers that have been involved even indirectly: Now is the time for mutual restraint so that the peace we have achieved can last. And finally, to all of you who are listening, the American people: Your steadfastness in supporting our insistence on peace with honor has made peace with honor possible. I know that you would not have wanted that peace jeopardized.
With our secret negotiations at the sensitive stage they were in during this recent period, for me to have discussed publicly our efforts to secure peace would not only have violated our understanding with North Vietnam, it would have seriously harmed and possibly destroyed the chances for peace. Therefore, I know that you now can understand why, during these past several weeks, I have not made any public statements about those efforts.
The important thing was not to talk about peace, but to get peace and to get the right kind of peace. This we have done. Now that we have achieved an honorable agreement, let us be proud that America did not settle for a peace that would have betrayed our allies, that would have abandoned our prisoners of war, or that would have ended the war for us but would have continued the war for the 50 million people of Indochina.
And let us be proud of those who sacrificed, who gave their lives so that the people of South Vietnam might live in freedom and so that the world might live in peace. In particular, I would like to say a word to some of the bravest people I have ever met-the wives, the children, the families of our prisoners of war and the missing in action. When others called on us to settle on any terms, you had the courage to stand for the right kind of peace so that those who died and those who suffered would not have died and suffered in vain, and so that, where this generation knew war, the next generation would know peace.
Nothing means more to me at this moment than the fact that your long vigil is coming to an end. Just yesterday, a great American, who once occupied this office, died. In his life President [Lyndon B. But there was nothing he cared about more deeply than achieving a lasting peace in the world. In alone, more than 14, U. Richard Nixon was determined that Vietnam would not ruin his presidency, as had been the case with Lyndon Johnson. The Nixon plan was to "de-Americanize" the war, an approach that became known as Vietnamization.
It involved building up the South Vietnamese armed forces so that they could assume greater combat responsibility while simultaneously withdrawing U. The U. Perhaps most important, Nixon changed the political objective of U. Vietnamization along with negotiation were Nixon's twin pillars for achieving an honorable peace.
During the first weeks of his presidency, Nixon also began to consider options for dealing with Cambodia, including the feasibility and utility of a quarantine to block equipment and supplies coming from that nation into South Vietnam. They were kept secret from the American public, in part because Cambodia was a neutral country, but even more important because Nixon had not been elected to expand the war after just three months in office. Nixon next suggested the remote island of Midway, where Nixon won Thieu's public acquiescence for Vietnamization.
When Nixon proposed that secret or private contacts be started between Washington and Hanoi in an effort to secure a negotiated settlement, Thieu asked that he be kept fully informed on the details of these meetings and that he be consulted on any matters internal to South Vietnam. He received assurances that this would most certainly be the case. By January the United States had conceded on almost every major point, including, at least implicitly, that any cease-fire would be a cease-fire in place, which meant that North Vietnamese troops then in the South would stay there.
They did not intend to stop fighting until they regained the South. Opposition to the war was burgeoning among the American public, especially on university campuses. The university sent in the police to clear the hall with truncheons and arrests. Anti-war rallies were held in in cities from New York to Los Angeles. Under pressure from the White House to hold down casualties, Gen. Creighton Abrams, the top U.
Nixon announced he would begin withdrawing U. Rather than pursuing total victory over the Communists, the United States would gradually leave South Vietnam and hand over the war to the South Vietnamese. Thieu was alarmed by the message. Thieu had little choice but to accept the new policy and hope the Americans would stand by their pledge not to abandon their South Vietnamese allies. Both sides were using the public forum for political theater, and the sessions were little more than a way to restate their longstanding demands before television cameras.
A major obstacle was the presence of the South Vietnamese. As long as the South Vietnamese were at the table, the North was not prepared for serious talks since it considered the southerners American puppets. On Aug. With or without the South Vietnamese, the talks were complicated because the United States and North Vietnam had such vastly different goals. The North Vietnamese, however, wanted the Americans out of Vietnam so they could topple the Saigon government and reunite the country.
By the end of , Nixon found himself facing the same challenge that had crushed Johnson — how to end an unpopular war without a humiliating defeat that would weaken the U. On Nov. Let us also be united against defeat. This will mean that the terms of the agreement must be scrupulously adhered to.
We shall do everything the agreement requires of us, and we shall expect the other parties to do everything it requires of them. We shall also expect other interested nations to help insure that the agreement is carried out and peace is maintained. Now that we have achieved an honorable agreement, let us be proud that America did not settle for a peace that would have betrayed our allies, that would have abandoned our prisoners of war, or that would have ended the war for us but would have continued the war for the 50 million people of Indochina.
And let us be proud of those who sacrificed, who gave their lives so that the people of South Vietnam might live in freedom and so that the world might live in peace. The peace was short-lived, however.
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