Nixon visits South Vietnam, July 30, 1969. In his first term as president, Richard Nixon promised the American public that he would reduce U.S. troop levels in Vietnam. He pursued a plan he called "Vietnamization," whereby the U.S. would gradually withdraw from the war, leaving the South Vietnamese army to shoulder the bulk of the fighting. Despite his pledge to bring American G.I.s home, American ground troop levels in Vietnam remained high and the Nixon administration expanded the war into the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia. In 1973, during Nixon's final year in office, the last U.S. combat soldiers left Vietnam, but military advisers and some Marines remained.
An American anti-Vietnam War poster produced in 1971 by artist Edward Sorel. President Nixon is depicted as a Napoleon-like figure. He is flanked by former Vice President and presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey, and United States National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. The maniacal Napoleon-Nixon is placing symbols of bombs on the map. Image reproduced with permission of Edward Sorel.
