0 - The Black Vault

THE BOM CORPORATION
troop strength in South Vietnam,
of 1969.12/
however, peaked at about 543,000 in April
Although President N:xon ,,id stated that he had a timetable in aind
fo- the withdrawal of US forces, it was net announced in total because of
the negative impact such an announcement weuld have had nn US flexibility
in negotiations with Hanoi. Nonetheless, each time a troop withdrawal
decision was announced by the president, it triggered a re-examination of
all milii-ary spaces remaining in-country to assure that a balanced-force
withdr3wal was maintained and that all military spaces were being effectively
and efficiently utilized. Competition for the ever dec'ining military
spaces authorized in-country became the order of the day as the withdrawal
gathered momentum. 13/ Furthermore, once the decision to witndraw
was made arid announced, the US commitment Lo unilateral withdrawal was
manifest and irreversible both in Vietnam and the US, The Department of
Defens3 began to plan its budget on the basis of anticipated troop reductions.
14/ And the appetite for withdrawals was insatiabie; withdrawal
became an 2nd in itself'. 15/
I Withdrawal Goals
r In June 1969 Secretary Laird offered alternative time tables
,anging from eighteen to fo..-i.y-two months and ceilings for the residual
American force -- those troops remaining in-country until Hanoi's forces
w4thoew -- ranging from 260,000 to 306,000. In his memorandum to the
I ,president on June 2. 1969, he *;ffered a 'feasible' time table of forty-two
P:ýnths (stretching the withdrawal to the end of 1971)
and a residual force
of 260,000. He warned that in t1, absence of North Vietnamese reciprocity,
A_ r'ere rapid withdrawal would reclIt in serious setbacks to the pacification
program, a significant dec in allied military capacity, and the
Dossaility of a South Vietnamese collapse.16/ A- it turned out, the
increasing domestic pressures for a speedier withdrawal and terminatio., of
chE mi ,Tary conflict, coupled with reasonably favorablE assessments on
progyess oi
thne Vietnamization effort, led to an acceleration of the initial
schledule -- the US troop level in country was apprnximately 180,000 at
the end c' 1971,
It should be recalled that initial plans provided for a
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