Sold – President Nixon Proclaims He Seeks “a full generation of peace” in Negotiations to End the Wa

Upon assuming the presidency, Nixon’s plan for Vietnam was to "de-Americanize" the war, an approach that became known as Vietnamization. It involved building up the South Vietnamese armed forces so that they could assume greater combat responsibility while simultaneously withdrawing U.S. combat troops. The U.S. military role would shift from fighting to advising the South Vietnamese and sending in a massive influx of military equipment and weaponry. Perhaps most important, Nixon changed the political objective of U.S. intervention from guaranteeing a free and independent South Vietnam to creating the opportunity for South Vietnam to determine its own political future. Vietnamization along with negotiation were Nixon’s twin pillars for achieving a peace. These negotiations commenced in August 1969.    

In an announcement made on national television on January 25, 1972, President Nixon disclosed that the United States had held 12 secret talks with North Vietnam since August 1969 and that the talks were still ongoing. In the course of the talks, the U.S. side had made an eight-point proposal and the North Vietnamese side had made a nine-point proposal for making peace. The U.S. proposal attracted attention in that it was concessionary to the communist demands concerning the setting of a date for complete withdrawal of U.S. forces and the election of a new South Vietnamese president. Moreover, the U.S. conceded, at least implicitly, that any cease-fire would be a cease-fire in place, which meant that North Vietnamese troops then in the South would stay there. Thus the North Vietnamese had one obvious strategy: stall the peace, pour forces into the South, and strike a deal only when a cease-fire in place virtually amounted to a "victory in place."

As January 1972 turned into February, the talks stalled because Hanoi rejected Nixon’s plan, while both sides waited for the results of Nixon’s upcoming visits to China, which was North Vietnam’s greatest supporter. On 15 July 1971, Nixon had shocked the world by announcing that he would travel across the world to establish a detente with the People’s Republic of China after a quarter century of tension. That visit was scheduled for February 21, 1972, and could change things in Vietnam. Meanwhile, a majority of the House of Representatives wrote Nixon expressing support for the positions he had articulated in his speech.    

Typed Letter Signed on White House letterhead, Washington, February 14, 1972 to Rep. Del Clawson, a Republican Congressman from California. "It was heartening to receive your strong expression of support for my January 25 Indochina peace initiatives, contained in a letter signed by a bi-partisan majority of the House of Representatives. I am confident history will record that support such as yours during these difficult times contributed significantly to our mutually shared goal – a full generation of peace. As I embark on my mission to Peking, I want you to know how much I deeply appreciate your thoughts."