President Johnson concluded that the war could not be won militarily and began peace negotiations with North Vietnam. As support for the war declined in the US, Richard Nixon was elected in 1968 promising to end US involvement while avoiding appearing weak. Nixon pursued strategies like Vietnamization, peace negotiations, and increased bombing to withdraw troops and reach a peace agreement, but ultimately South Vietnam fell to Communist control in 1975.

1. ENDING OF THE WAR

2. President Johnson concluded that the war could not be won militarily. He reduced
the bombing campaign against North Vietnam and instructed his officials to begin
negotiating for peace with the communists
In March 1968 a peace conference began in Paris.
America started showing signs of failure as :
1. President Johnson announced that he wouldn’t be seeking re-election.
2. During elections both Democrat and Republican candidates
campaigned to end US involvement in Vietnam.

3. • In November 1968 Richard Nixon was elected president . From 1969
to 1973 he and his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger worked
tirelessly to end us involvement in Vietnam .
• They did not want to appear simply to hand Vietnam to the
communists .they used the following strategies
1. Peace negotiations- From early 1969 ,Kissinger had regular meetings
with the chief Vietnamese peace negotiator ,Le Duc Tho .
2. ‘vietnamisation’ of the war effort- In Vietnam Nixon began the
process of Vietnamisation –building up south Vietnamese forces and
withdrawing US troops .Between April 1971 almost 400,000 US troops
left Vietnam.
3. Bombing –Nixon increased bombing campaigns (operation Rolling
thunder )against North Vietnam to show that he was not weak .

4. RESULTS TO THE USA’S FAILURE
1. The fall of South Vietnam .
2. The reunification of Vietnam as a communist state .
3. Communist takeovers in Laos ,Cambodia ,but not Thailand which
remained a US ally.
4. Nixon announced the end of the Truman Doctrine, Americans lost
confidence in their ability to “contain” Communism and became
hostile to military involvement abroad .
5. About 700,000 veterans suffered psychological effects from fighting
war.