Topic 8, Lesson 10: Nixon's Foreign Policy (1969-1972)

Topic 8, Lesson 10: Nixon's Foreign Policy (1969-1972)

Nixon and End of The Vietnam War

• Nixon’s 1968 Election pledge → “peace with honour”

• Anti-war protests

• The Tet Offensive

• the media turned against the war

• the economic cost of the Vietnam War → By 1968, cost was $26.5 billion causing rising inflation

Topic 8, Lesson 10: Nixon's Foreign Policy (1969-1972)

Nixon’s Escalation of the War in Vietnam

• into Cambodia and Laos

• Nixon ordered the secret bombing of Cambodia and Laos to destroy the Ho Chi Minh trail

• lasted from 1969 to 1970

• was kept secret from the US public because Nixon feared their reaction would be negative

• Only discoverd in 1970 when the New York Times exposed it

Topic 8, Lesson 10: Nixon's Foreign Policy (1969-1972)

Nixon’s Madman Theory

• Nixon wanted the Soviets and China to apply pressure to the North Vietnamese to end the war

• Nixon told national security advisor Henry Kissenger to convey the United States might use nuclear weapons against the north if they did not negotiate oan end to the Vietnam War

Topic 8, Lesson 10: Nixon's Foreign Policy (1969-1972)

US-Chinese ‘Ping-Pong’ Diplomacy and Nixon’s Recognition of Communist China

• improvement made between the two countries when the Chinese ping-pong team invited the US team to play in their country in 1971

• friendly display was well publicised as the ping-pong team were among the first group of US citizens permitted to visit China since 1949

• led to the restoration of Sino-US relations

• Suno-Soviet split → worsened relations between China and Soviet Union after China denounced Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968

• Nixon and Kissenger wanted to use China to counter Soviet power and force the USSR to detente

• Ending the Vietnam War

Topic 8, Lesson 10: Nixon's Foreign Policy (1969-1972)

Nixon’s Detente with the Soviet Union

• legacy of the Cuban Missile Crisis

• Arms limitation talks

• The Vietnam War

• US recognition of Communist China

Topic 8, Lesson 10: Nixon's Foreign Policy (1969-1972)

The Helsinki Accords (1975)