During his administration, President Nixon pursued many questionable foreign policies with the Communists. In a very tense time, with conflicts on the verge of global proportions, Nixon was making decisions that tempted these very hostile issues. When he took office in 1969, America was already torn over the war in Vietnam. Possessing much experience and knowledge on the affairs of foreign policy, he used his expertise to his advantage through numerous policies. One of these policies was called “Vietnamization.” This policy promised to withdraw over a half a million US troops from Vietnam. Furthermore, the gradual withdrawal troops would be complemented by the subsidization of the South Vietnamese militarily. By training them and providing arms, they could take over the war effort and no longer need American intervention. This policy was the initiation of the so-called Nixon Doctrine, which would evolve into the foreign policy governing the United States. The central idea behind this proclaimed that America would honor their existing defense commitments, but in the future, Asians and other foreign nations would have to fight their own wars without the support of large bodies of American ground troops. However, Nixon still wanted to win the war through ulterior means. He began to stumble when he proclaimed the “silent majority” was in favor of the war, so he widened it into Cambodia. As he continued to follow the relenting idea of winning the war, domestic disgust with the war and his foreign policy was continuing to mount and mount against him.

            Nixon, feeling the pressure in Vietnam with the Communists believed that the only successful road out was through Beijing and Moscow. With these, the two main Communist powers of the world, engaged in a conflict over their interpretation of Marxism, Nixon believed he could use them to pressure the North Vietnamese into peace. In an unprecedented maneuver, Nixon visited both capitals in an effort to fulfill his plan. As a result, an era of détente came about between America and the two Communist powers. The relaxed tension, a product of Nixon’s visits, ushered several important treaties that attempted to quell the rising tide of weapons of mass destruction. The second installment of the SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) treaty which froze the amount of long-range missiles. However, America circumvented the treaties through the creation of MIRV’s, which were Multiple Independently-targeted Reentry Vehicles. Nonetheless, the era of détente did bring about a sort of de-icing of the Cold War. Nixon proved, through his foreign administrative prowess that he was capable of orchestrating many very successful policies that benefited the nation greatly. Although his desire to win and his failure to acknowledge the domestic outlash, he found a way to prevent major confrontations with the great powers.

            The 70s brought about a “decade of stalemate” economically. Following the boring 50s and the Stormy 60s, the nations fantastic quarter century of great economic growth was coming to an end. After enjoying such a sustained period of growth, the nation was about to hit the wall. After Americans had more than doubled their standard of living during this time, the increase would stop to all but nothing. In fact, the entire decade would not produce as much growth as one of the years of the previous quarter century. Everything seemed to stop; the standard of living would become stagnant to a point where growth didn’t exist. The new baby boom generation would have to come to the realization that they would have a lower standard of living than their parents. The cause of this horrible turn around can be attributed to the introduction of more and more unskilled workers in the workplace. Women and teenagers worked part-time jobs that would not afford them the opportunity to gain skills. Just the opposite of what happened during the great upsurge: the increased educational standards gave them more skills. Also, the fact that the growth couldn’t continue on such a scale didn’t help when the situation reached this point. The war in Vietnam and the struggle with foreign Communist governments also played down the economy and didn’t help. All of these factors led to a decade that would result in a decade of stalemate throughout the nation.

President Nixon issued policies with South Vietnams, China, and the Soviet Union.  Even though all of these acts appeared to be positive, they seemed to have somewhat negative results.

            Most Americans were obviously not happy with the war at of Vietnam.  They protested and had rallies to show this.  When President Nixon was inaugurated on January 20, 1969, he attempted to get Americans to stop fighting and to “stop shouting at one another.”  Nixon first created a policy that would attempt to lessen the anger of the people of the United States.  This policy was called “Vietnamization.”  It would allow 540,000 U.S. troops to be taken out of South Vietnam over a period of time.  With the help of the United States, the South Vietnamese would gradually be able to fight their own war.  The US would give them money, weapons, training and advice to assist them with this great task.  From this policy the Nixon Doctrine evolved.  “It proclaimed that the United States would honor its existing defense commitments but that in the future, Asians and other would have to fight their own wars without the support of large bodies of American ground troops.” (966).  Even though this plan seemed to be a just one, American “doves,” or those who desired peace, did not like this policy.  American doves wanted a complete and fast withdrawal from Vietnam.  People who were against the war planned a national Vietnam moratorium, or standstill, in October of 1969.  Altogether around 150,000 people participated, either positioning themselves in the Boston Common or in front of the White House. 

            President Nixon felt that he only way to get out of the war with Vietnam was to make friends with China and the Soviet Union.  These two communist powers, the greatest at the time, were fighting over which interpretation of Marxism was correct.  Nixon saw this as the perfect opportunity to make their relations with the United States better.  In February of 1972, Nixon traveled to China.  “Between glass-clinking toasts and walks on the fabled Great Wall of China, he paved the way for improved relations between Washington and Beijing.” (968).  After going to China, Nixon traveled to the Soviet Union in May 1972.  The Soviet Union desperately wanted American foodstuffs.  They also became more worried about a rivalry against the United States and China.  Both the willingness of China and the Soviet Union caused there to be an era of détente, or relaxed tensions.

            This period of détente caused several agreements to form.  One was the great grain deal of 1972, which would allow the United States to sell to the Soviet Union at least $750 million worth of wheat, corn, and other cereals for three years.  More important agreements were created to try to stop the competition for nuclear arms.  The first was an anti-ballistic missile, or ABM treaty.  This allowed a maximum of to two clusters of defensive missiles per nation.  Another act was the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, or SALT.  This stopped the numbers of long-range nuclear missiles for five years.  Even though these acts ratified in 1792 was a first step to slow the arms race, the United States and the Soviet Union both went around the acts.  The United States created MIRVs, also called Multiple Independently-targeted Reentry Vehicles.  The Soviets then began to create their own version of MIRVS.  The arms race started up again, with more than sixteen thousand nuclear warheads arranged be the end of the 1980’s.

            Chapter 40 Pt. 2:

             One way the 1970’s could have been characterized as a “decade of stalemate” was because of what happened with the Vietnam War.  The beginning of this stalemate was on April 29, 1970, when President Nixon, without the approval of Congress, ordered American forces to “clean out” the enemy holdings in Cambodia.  However Cambodia was an officially neutral nation.  By June 29, 1970 Nixon felt that they had destroyed many of the forces in Cambodia and withdrew from the nation.  However Cambodia was not enemy-free, and large areas of the country were taken over by Communist officials.  This entire event only caused Americans to become more and more angry.  The peace doves of the United States rallied and created large protests all over the nation.  The Senate tried to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin blank check that was given to Johnson in 1964 in an attempt to restrain Nixon from issuing attacks without approval.  To appease the protesting doves, changes were made on the drafting policies and the voting age was lowered to eighteen.  Later in 1973 it was found that US forces, beginning in 1969, were secretly bombing the North Vietnamese forces in Cambodia.  This caused the American trust for their government to lessen even more.  The lack of support from the people of America caused the federal government to not be able to fix this problem properly.

            In order to end the Vietnamese War, Nixon ordered US air forces to repeatedly bomb North Vietnam.  On January 23, 1973 the North Vietnamese negotiators agreed to a cease-fire arrangement.  This, however, was a shaky peace that was not honored for too long.  In the beginning of 1975, North Vietnamese attacked South Vietnam to gain control of the entire Vietnamese lands.  The new President Ford urged Congress to give American weapons to the people of South Vietnam.  However they denied his plea.  South Vietnam quickly collapsed.  America then had to speedily withdraw their remaining troops.  Also around 140,000 Vietnamese were rescued from the crushing power of the North.  “America’s longest, most frustrating war thus ended, not with a bang but a whimper.  In a technical sense, the Americans had not lost the war; their clients had.  The United States had fought the North Vietnamese to a standstill and had then withdrawn its troops in 1973…” (980). 

            Another problem that occurred during the stalemated seventies was centered in the Arabian region of the world.  The United States gave aid to Israel, who was being attacked by the Syrians and Egyptians in October of 1973.  “America’s policy of backing Israel against oil-rich neighbors exacted a heavy penalty.  Late in October 1973, the Arab nations suddenly clamped an embargo on oil for the United States and for other countries supporting Israel.” (976).  This was especially harmful to the United States, who were used to rather cheap energy for their wide variety of machines.  People were forced to use much less energy throughout their daily lives.  The United States government was not able to solve this problem because of their friendship with Israel and their lack of friendship with other Arabian countries.     

Nixon’s first action as president was to put the foreign-policy division in order. The country’s biggest problem at this point was the war in Vietnam. Nixon announced a policy called “Vietnamization” which would take 540,000 U.S. troops from Vietnam over a period of time, enabling South Vietnam to slowly take over Vietnam with American help. This was the start of the Nixon doctrine which it made clear that from then on America would honor their “defense commitments”, but that the rest of the world would have to fight their own wars in the future. Nixon’s intentions were not to end the war, but to win without losing more American lives. With the complaints at home concerning the war, Nixon tried to gain support. Eventually Nixon turned his attentions to Cambodia to pull attention away from the losses in Vietnam. This decision to go into Cambodia was made without consulting Congress. North Vietnamese and Viet Kong were using Cambodia as a middle ground for troops, weapons, and supplies. Nixon’s strategy was to get Viet Kong out of the neutral territory with the help of the South Vietnamese. This action increased opposition toward the war. Nixon withdrew American troops from Cambodia in June. The strategy failed miserably.

            At the same time the Soviet Union and China, both communist, were disputing their different interpretations of communism. Nixon took advantage of the situation and set them against the one another and recruited both to put pressure on North Vietnam for peace. Nixon was supported by national security advisor Dr. Henry A. Kissinger. His trip to China smoothed over conflicts between the two nations. Next he went to Moscow, where he was greeted by eager Soviets who wanted American foodstuffs, but worried about America’s support for China. The U.S. made an agreement to sell the Soviets $750 million of wheat, corn and other cereals. Kissinger also agreed to the anti-ballistic missile treaty which limited each nation to two clusters of defensive missiles. This policy drastically slowed the arms race.

 Pt. 2: Why can the 70s be characterized as a "decade of stalemate"? What caused the apparent inability of the federal government to cope with new problems?

 The seventies can be very accurately characterized as a “decade of stalemate” because productivity gains vanished; tax dollars went to the Vietnam War instead of education; and severe inflation tripled the cost of living.  Productivity gains may have disappeared because women and teenagers worked at part-time jobs where skills were less likely to develop. They probably had to work because of the cost of living. Some believe that the slump in productivity was caused by the “declining investment in new machinery, the heavy costs of compliance with government-imposed safety and health regulations, and the general shift of the American economy from manufacturing to services, where productivity gains were allegedly more difficult to achieve and measure” (964.)

The military spending was inherently inflationary because it put money into the public’s hands without adding the supply of goods that the money could buy. “When too many dollars chase too few goods, prices rise…” (965.) 

Nixon’s first action was putting the foreign-policy house in order. The country’s biggest problem at this point was the war in Vietnam. Nixon announced the policy called “ Vietnamization” which would take 540,000 U.S. troops from Vietnam over a period of time, enabling South Vietnam to slowly take over Vietnam with American help. This was the start of the Nixon doctrine, which it made clear that from then on America would honor their “defense commitments”, but that the rest of the world would have to fight their own wars in the future. Nixon’s intentions were not to end the war, but to win without losing more American lives. With the complaints at home concerning the war, Nixon tried gain support. Eventually Nixon turned his attentions to Cambodia, as a quick solution.

            This decision to go into Cambodia was made without consulting congress. North Vietnamese and Viet Kong were using Cambodia as a middle ground for troops, weapons, and supplies. Nixon’s strategy was to get Viet Kong out of the neutral territory with the help of the South Vietnamese. This action increased opposition toward the war. Nixon withdrew American troops from Cambodia in June. The strategy failed.

            At the same time the Soviet Union and China, both communist, were disputing over interpretations of communism. Nixon took advantage of the situation and played one against the other and recruiting both to pressuring N. Vietnam into peace. National security advisor Dr. Henry A. Kissinger supported Nixon. His trip to China smoothed over conflicts between the two nations. Next he went to Moscow, where he was greeted by eager soviets who wanted American foodstuffs and were worried about America’s new support of China. The U.S. made an agreement to sell the soviets $750 million of wheat, corn and other cereals. He also agreed to the anti-ballistic missile treaty, prohibiting each limited each nation to two clusters of defensive missiles, and the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks This helped slow down the arms race.

            The 70s can be described as a decade of stalemate, because for a time in history there was actually a movement against establishments. This was the reason for the federal government’s inability to cope with the new problems. The government was still functioning as a capitalist organization. The people were not of the same mind set and generation and mind set as they were before. The government just did not know how to handle the social change.

Some of his most acclaimed achievements during his presidency came in the quest for world stability. During his visits in 1972 to Beijing and Moscow, he reduced the tension with China and the U.S.S.R. His meetings with Russian leader Leonid I. Brezhnev created a treaty to limit the strategic nuclear weapons. In January of 1973, he announced to the people that an accord with North Viet Nam to end American involvement in Indochina was created. In 1974, Henry Kissinger, his secretary of state, negotiated disengagement agreements between Israel and its opponents, which were Egypt and Syria.