Causes And Consequences Of Vietnamization

In 1969, Richard Nixon was elected into presidency. One of Nixon’s campaign promises was ‘peace with honour’. Peace with honour was a strategy that involved taking U.S troops out of Vietnam, but did not involve directly giving in to North Vietnam and the Vietcong. Peace with honour started the process of Vietnamization. From 1969 to 1974, negotiations and ceasefires took place, until in March 1975 no further aid was given to Indo-China from the USA. There are many important causes and consequences of Vietnamization; these include Anti-War protests in America, the Tet Offensive in 1968 and the election of Richard Nixon. Consequences include the fall of Vietnam to Communism, the Cambodian civil war and the fall of Laos.

A short-term cause of
American youths were largely involved with this movement, most of the protests and rallies were organized by college students.The anti-war movement began mostly on college campuses, as members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) began organizing “teach-ins” to express their opposition to the war. By November 1967, American troop strength in Vietnam was approaching 500,000 and U.S. casualties had reached 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded. The Vietnam War was costing the U.S. approximately $25 billion per year, and disillusionment was beginning to reach greater sections of the taxpaying public. Prominent artists, intellectuals and members of the hippie movement also began embracing the anti-Vietnam war movement. Some notable people of the movement include Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr, John F. Kennedy, Rod Serling and John Lennon. More casualties were reported in Vietnam every day, even as U.S. commanders demanded more troops. As many as 40,000 young men were called into service each month under the draft system, adding fuel to the fire of the anti-war movement. On October 21, 1967 100,000 protesters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial, in what was one of the most prominent anti-Vietnam war demonstrations that took place; around 30,000 of them continued in a march on the Pentagon later that night. Protesters were faced with a brutal confrontation with the soldiers and U.S. Marshals protecting the building, hundreds of demonstrators were then arrested. In December 1969, the government instituted the first U.S. draft lottery since World War II, causing a vast amount of controversy and causing many young men to flee to Canada to avoid conscription. Tensions were higher than ever, generated by mass demonstrations and incidents such as those at Kent State in May 1970, when National Guard troops shot into a group of protesters protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, killing four