Richard Nixon Quotes
We have only two alternatives: Bug Out [of the Vietnam War] or accelerate, and that we must escalate or the Presidency is lost.
This was only 10 months into Nixon's Presidency. He stepped up the war.
Richard M. Nixon, 1913-1994, 37th President of the United States (Republican, CA), Discussion with Robert Haldeman & Henry Kissinger, 1969
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
See a similar sentiment by Tallyrand
The Vietnam War was certainly not a victory for the U. S. Some saw it as our first defeat. While it was not ended on Johnson’s watch, he must certainly share that responsibility with Nixon and even JFK as these three all were responsible for our Vietnam failure. Johnson, ended up with what he feared most.
Podharetz was citing the Vietnam war. The two American occasions where the plausibility seemed to fade were the Vietnam War and The Irag war. Both Presidents Lyndon Baines Johnson and George W. Bush as Bismarck predicted, had much political trouble over the wars.
Boggs was working on some compromise positions that could be taken by the party at the 1968 Democratic National Convention to provide the anti war wing of the party with something. The President found out and met with Congressman Boggs.
Ironically, Lieberman was using this quotation to campaign against Bush’s son, George W. Bush.
War and international conflict had become very complicated in modern times. Americans and most other people associated victory in war with unconditional surrender. However, since the unconditional surrender is of WWII, no conflict has ended with an unconditional surrender.
The Senator was criticizing President George W. Bush, who made a show of flying onto an aircraft carrier in combat uniform and then announcing the end of the Iraq war with banners flying saying “Mission Accomplished.” His announcement and publicity stunt was very premature as American military casualties continued thereafter.
Up to that time U. S. policy was to provide training and assistance to the South Vietnamese government and military, but not to attack the North. America had backed a corrupt and incompetent South Vietnamese government and Bundy and other policy makers were convinced that the North Vietnam would win, if the fighting and governing were solely left to the South Vietnamese. Johnson, who had resisted this policy for several weeks finally acceded. It was a major escalation of the Vietnam War.
Shortly after, he backed off the notion of having a bloodbath removing protesting students.
The U. S. was evacuating all its forces and agents as the Viet Cong overran Saigon. This ended the Vietnam War. The CIA, had been telling the President and the National Security Staff that the Army reports were exaggerated and we were not faring well in the Vietnam War. Events proved them right. Their earlier track record, especially with President Nixon was very poor in intelligence analysis and prediction. See {634511}, {634509}, and {634503} for Nixon’s view of the CIA.
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, Nixon previously served as the 36th vice president from 1953 to 1961, having risen to national prominence as a representative and senator from California. After five years in the White House that saw the conclusion to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, he became the only president to resign from the office, following the Watergate scandal.
