spartans_in_darkness

EQ1.4. (c)
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CU) On 31 December 1968, one of the most
terrifying years in American history - dominated
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by the assassinations of Martin Luther King and
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Robert F. Kennedy, the riotous Democratic
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the crushing of the "Prague Spring," and the Tet
Offensive - finally came to an end with a new
president, Richard M. Nixon, in the White House.
CU) Nixon had been elected prormsing a
"secret plan" to end the war. Whatever the plan
entailed, and speculation was that it included
using Soviet political pressure on Hanoi, it never
amounted to anything. Upon entering office,
Nixon had his new national security advisor,
Henry Kissinger, conduct yet another study of the
war. The result, National Security Study
Memorandum 1, reached the same conclusion as
had Johnson's "Wise Men" - that the war could
not be continued militarily as it had been all these
years."
CU) Realizing his "secret" diplomatic venture
and conventional military approach were deadends,
Nixon opted for a two-pronged approach
that included the "carrot" of peace talks at Paris
while, at the same time, expanding the war in
both overt and covert actions. Thus, he approved
the secret bombing of Cambodia and expanded
the aerial attacks against communist positions in
Laos.
CU) In the spring of 1969, U.S. and PAVN
troops fought in the much-contested A Shau
Valley. During this campaign, popular interest
centered on a particular battle known popularly
as "Hamburger Hill." After a week's worth of
fighting, the U.S. forces secured the position only
to abandon it. The public reaction to the bloody
futility of the fighting led to a quiet change in doctrine
by the commander of forces in Vietnam,
General Creighton Abrams, who had replaced
General Westmoreland shortly after Tet. Large
unit actions were deemphasized in favor of smaller,
more mobile strikes.
(U) General Creighton W. Abrams )r.
CU) General Abrams' approach to operations
meshed well with Nixon's desire to withdraw
American troops. In June 1969, President Nixon
announced the first withdrawal of U.S. troops ­
25,000 men. Byyear's end, about 60,000 GIs had
left Vietnam. Once started, the process would be
hard to stop. Yet, the decreasing American presence
did not mean a concurrent drawdown in
fighting.
CU) Ironically, even as Nixon promised more
troop withdrawals, he was expanding the scope of
the war. In March 1969, he authorized the bombing
of Cambodia, Operation Menu, the knowledge
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