Richard Nixon's Leadership During The Vietnam War

It’s hard to discuss the Vietnam War without mentioning President Richard Nixon. Like everything else related to Nixon, his role as a leader during the Vietnam War is the subject of debate, speculation, and much interest. For one, President Nixon won the 1968 election thanks to his secret plan to end the war through a strategy known as “Vietnamization” in order to bring “bring peace with honor”. However, Nixon's leadership during this period cannot be discussed without mention of his domestic and foreign policy successes outside of the Vietnam conflict. Through these accomplishments Nixon demonstrated the traits of a capable leader like courage, determination, communication and consistency . Despite his public accomplishments, Nixon showed
At the time of his first term as president, Nixon's approval ratings were higher than those of President Johnson and he won reelection by one of the biggest margins in American history (Gallup). That is to say, despite the protests and ineffectiveness of his tactics, there was public support for the way in which he conducted the war, especially from the “Silent majority”. Although, this can be attributed in part to the secrecy of his actions, as was case of the bombing of Laos and Cambodia and the sabotage of the 1968 peace talks. In addition, he did effectively end the Vietnam War in 1973. For this reason in the literal sense of the word, Nixon was an effective leader, he was able to influence both American people and politicians towards a common goal, the end of the war. However, because of new information found on Nixon's tapes and in notes from his top aids it is clear that Nixon lacked the moral integrity that characterizes an effective leader. This begs the difficult question, should Nixon's leadership be judged for his accomplishment and the way he was viewed in the moment or should he be judged by the means through which he accomplished so