Cato the Elder said, "I had rather that men should ask why Cato has no statue than to ask why he has one." The same applies to Richard Nixon, who won the presidency 50 years ago.
Gerald Holland
Nixon was a great peace-maker. In the spring of 1969, after Nixon became president in January, we had 550,000 American troops in the combat zone of South Vietnam. Two Democrat presidents had bogged us down in that war with no intention of winning. Nixon immediately began the "Vietnamization" program to make non-communist Vietnam to handle its own national defense and started withdrawing U.S. fighters.
Two months after Nixon's second- term inauguration, the U.S. troop presence was so small that he withdrew all remaining "in country" troops on March 29, 1973, as part of the peace settlement with North Vietnam. The U.S. embassy kept 250 military members for support. Naval and air strength remained offshore to add backbone to South Vietnam's forces. All remaining American POWs were quickly released by North Vietnam.
