Nixon Influence On Vietnam War

The United States has already been in war with Vietnam for four years when Nixon took office in 1969. Already more than thirty- six thousand Americans have lost their lives only up to 1968 and the United States had a total of 475,200 forces in Vietnam. Nixon was determined to bring America out of this problem; unlike past President Lyndon Johnson. Very early in Nixon’s presidency, he made the decision to order the air force to bomb Cambodian territory in order to destroy enemy sanctuaries, but he kept this secret from the American public and even to congress. Another way Nixon believed was going to get us through this war was going to do this with the plan called Vietnamization. Vietnamization is a program to expand, equip, and train South
President Eisenhower and Kennedy sent military advisors to teach the Vietnamese how to fight, but the South Vietnamese army never became an effective fighting force and U.S. troops were called in to save South Vietnam. Once Nixon came into power, he changed America’s objective to creating an opportunity for South Vietnam to determine its own future. During this time period, the anti- war movement was already gaining many followers. By the end of Nixon's first year in office, he and Kissinger decided that the best way to gain military support was to destroy the bases in Cambodia. At that place was where America thought that the North Vietnamese were launching a majority of their attacks. Then in the spring of 1970, military leaders overthrew the government of Cambodia which was very neutral at the time and replaced it with a pro- American government under General Lon Nol. The General gave America permission to invade his territory. At this time the anti- war movement was spiraling down, but the next day after Nixon's announcement of the incursion into Cambodia the antiwar movement was once again fired; hundreds of thousands came together in Washington to protest the president's policies and approximately 500 students at Kent State University gathered around the Victory Bell on campus and delivered protest
During the protests many stores were vandalized and had their windows broken. In addition to many of the students being imprisoned because of their protesting, also in reaction to the events, Kent mayor, Leroy Satrom asked the Governor of Ohio to have the National Guard be sent onto campus to keep everyone in line. On May 3rd, students woke up to a strong National Guard presence on campus, however that did not stop the protests. On May fourth, 1970, things were different when they were assembling a rally at noon, but not all the students were fully sure on the purpose of this actual event. Many believed it to do against the presence of the National Guard being there to stop these protests, while others believed that it was for the anti-war movement against the war in Vietnam. Around eleven a.m., and hour before the scheduled protest, students began meeting together and so did the National Guardsmen. They assembled their units at the burned down R.O.T.C center, which was burned down due to protesters. This took place two days before the Kent shooting. On May 2nd, 1970, students used the R.O.T.C center as an obvious target and began throwing rocks at the windows, shattering