Topic outline
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Nixon was elected President in 1968 mainly because he promised to ‘de-Americanise’ the war. For this, a policy of ‘Vietnamisation’ would be followed. The soldiers of the South Vietnamese army would have to fight.
On 30th April 1970, Nixon announced to the American people that the day before, the 29th, US troops had entered Cambodia. He had ordered them in to attack and destroy Communist sanctuaries and supply dumps. Although the United States had been conducting bombing raids for over a year, Nixon did not see the sending in of ground troops as extending the war nor as an unwarranted invasion of another country. In February 1971, Nixon approved a South Vietnamese invasion of Laos to block the Ho Chi Minh Trail. ARVN forces were supported by US planes.