Vietnamization

Although this term and this idea was raised by President John Kennedy in the early 60s of the twentieth century, it was not until Nixon’s victory when it began to be implemented.
Put into practice by the famous analyst Henry Kissinger they sought to strengthen the Vietnamization vRNA and prepared to defend the territory of the South under their control (approximately 94%).

This was intended to create an environment to relieve the government of President Thieu of constant harassment to which he subjected the communist Vietcong and North Vietnam, in this way they would offer a stronger position in negotiations that were initiated to find a way out. In February 1969, Kissinger met secretly with communist leaders in Paris to discuss possible peace terms.

Nixon says change course

Nixon made the Vietnamization of the conflict but was relentless with the bombings and the spread of war. Image of an act of the 1968 presidential campaign. After the Tet Offensive in 1968 the President decided to progressively separate from the conflict, after the Battle of Hamburger Hill.

What did happen was certainly the perception that President Johnson could no longer count on the majority of the citizenry. Despite all this, shipments of troops continued and in 1969 they increased the number of Americans to over 500,000, but by then the President knew that the war had cost him the re-election and was not submitted to the legislature. Johnson left the White House in January 1969 and Richard Nixon was elected president. His policy on Vietnam was:

Gradual withdrawal of troops
Maintain financial support to the government of South Vietnam
Achieving peace with honor
Not extend bombing and military action to any other country.

The second project was serving as progressively. We cannot say the same of the others. This fact, promising one thing within a central issue, does the exact opposite and the re-election win has remained as such.

Nixon tested the resolve to not to be the only U.S president to lose a war. Nixon was implacable with the bombing to force Hanoi to sit at the table. He negotiated all the details to look like honorable peace. It momentarily suspended preparations for the conference to find a way into the four delegations at once while fighting and killing continued.

Following the withdrawal of North negotiations they resumed air strikes to force them to return. When they did it was intended to present this as a victory, but the fact is that Hanoi did not substantially change their demands. Nixon ordered a secret bombing of Laos, which quickly became known and published, making Laos the most bombed country on earth, with more than 2,500,000 bombs dropped. Also they partially invaded the country with poor results and so did accompanying Cambodian Americans.

This ended the conflict. Another problem they faced was the collection of extensive information on the organization and disposition of enemy forces. By 1969 the CIA, which had long been insisting that the war could not be won by conventional means, had prepared its Phoenix Program that began in 1967 to be more selective and cause less carnage with bombs and high explosive shells. But despite the efforts of several officers and officials to the contrary, the Phoenix Program would end up being more of a terrorist state than a source of reliable information.

Meanwhile, the United States Army officers put hundreds of vRNA on courses of instruction for officers, pilots and maintenance personnel for the expensive equipment they had given them (especially airborne).

But the progress is very slow and was hampered by the chronic corruption (the controls were still selected according to the commitments of political leaders and not by their military qualities). The troop withdrawal began in 1970, starting with the infantry. For this mission, General Westmoreland was removed from his duties and returned to the Pentagon.