Nixon Flashcards
(121 cards)
What was the situation with Vietnam by 1968?
The war was costing $30bn a year and Americans were dying at a rate of 200 a week.
How did talks between Hanoi and LBJ go? When did they start?
LBJ announced in March that “America is prepared to move immediately toward peace through negotiation” and Hanoi also wanted talks as N.V was exhausted after Tet. The talks began in Paris in May 1968 but the North Vietnamese insisted on Communist influence in the Saigon government which created a standstill
What were Nixon’s aims for Vietnam?
- To achieve “peace with honour” - alowing Thieu to remain in power in an independent South Vietnam. But for the North Vietnamese to accept this it would likely need intervention from the USSR or PRC to persuade N.Vietnam to accept it.
- He also needed to defuse the anti-war protests at home by taking public opinion into account
Define Vietnamisation.
Nixon’s aim to help the South Vietnamese to fight the war and take over from the Americans, this would be a gradual process of handing over the main responsibility to the ARVN
Define Peace With Honour.
Nixon’s aim to achieve peace in an agreement that would allow Thieu’s South Vietnamese government to stay in power in a viable South Vietnamese state
Define the Madman theory.
The aim to convince the Nort Vietnamese that Nixon was so obsessed with Communism that he would do anything - showing that hes got his hand on the nuclear button
Define linkage
Linking the building up of improved Cold War relations with the USSR and China with their assisstance in ending the Vietnam War. Nixon wanted to make it attractive to the Communist powers to assist in achieving peace in Vietnam because it would be linked to positive developments like arms talks
Define realpolitik.
A realistic rather than a moralistic or legalistic approach to foreign policy. It was guided by the view that foreign policy should ne dictated by national interest. Nixon and Kissinger were both known for their hard headed realistic attitudes at the expense of moral considerations
What did Nixon say was “public enemy umber 1”
drug abuse
How did Nixon start a “war on drugs”?
He declared the war in 1971 and 40 years later, the incaceration rate had increased by almost 5 times.
In January 1972, he created the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (ODALE) and in July 1973 ODALE was consolidated into a “super agency” - the DEA - Drug Enforcement Agency
What did Erhlichmann reveal the aim was with the “war on drugs”?
He revealed the real enemy for the Nixon administration were the anti-left and black people. Erhlichmann said “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or blacks….Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did”
How did Nixon try to reduce anti-war protests?
- Withdrawing troops
- Altering criteria for the draft
- Concealing the most damning realities of Vietnam
- Using speeches to question the patriotism of anti-war protests
Did Nixon’s efforts to reduce the anti-war protests work?
No, protests continued as celebrities like John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and Muhammad Ali condemned the war. There were 8.5 million students enrolled in college, giving them the freedom to get involved in activism
When did anti-war protests peak under Nixon and what happened?
1971-, on May 4th, the National Guard shot dead 4 students who were protesting and following that, on the 20th, 130,000 people marched through New York City
Why did Nixon fail to control the protests?
- They did have a strong case for what they were protesting, couldnt just say they were wrong
- Nixon’s strategies like repeatedly declaring the war was almost over and cancelling protestor’s permits failed
What was Henry Kissinger awarded with in 1973?
The Nobel Peace Prize, won it together with is North Vietnamese counterpart Le Duc Tho. The latter refused to accpet the prize, Kissinger accepted it but two members of the Nobel Committee actually left out of protest
What was Kissinger’s attitude to foreign policy?
Extremely pragmatic - not massively focussed on ideologies or morals, instead all about how the US can benefit most from each situation
What was the context to Kissinger using “shuttle diplomacy” in the Middle East?
The USA had supported Israel in the Cold War and the USSR had backed the Arab states. In October 1973, the Yom Kippur war broke out between Israel and an Arab coalition. Both superpowers supplied their respective ally but a ceasefire was agreed with Israel in Egyptian and Syrian land
What actually was “shuttle diplomacy”?
A term coined by the media who followed Kissinger on his various short fligths around Middle East capitals as he sought to deal with the fallout of the 1973 war
Why was it important to the USA to play a lead role in the disengagement of the armies?
- It would possibly lay the groundwork for further steps to peacefully resolve the long conflict
- There was an OPEC oil embargo in the immediate aftermaths of the War and it was affecting the USA sharply
Why couldn’t Nixon himself get involved in the Middle East situation?
The Watergate Scandal had erupted at home and he was not in a position to take direct action himself
What techniques did Kissinger use in his diplomacy efforts in the Middle East?
He made duplicitous promises to both sides in secret meetings, often contradicting one another
Was Kissinger successful in his “shuttle diplomacy”?
Yes, the decisions made met Kissinger’s aims for Israel’s borders, the embargo was called off and both Egypt and Isarel were brought closer to the USA
What was detente?
A relaxation of Cold War tensions
