JULY – AUGUST 1969
Although the “Nixon Doctrine” proclaimed on Guam on July 25, 1969, emphasized “Vietnamization” and the incremental withdrawal of U.S. troops, President Nixon refused to commit to total disengagement. To do so at this stage would have amounted to defeat for both America and the South Vietnamese. He was determined by the use of air power to keep up the pressure on Hanoi for a cease-fire and for stabilization.
General Creighton Abrams oversaw America’s withdrawal from the war. He drew up a “glide path” of fourteen stages for the return of troops to the United States, beginning July 1 and ending at a projected date in November 1972 when America would be extricated from the Vietnam quagmire.
The first phase ended on August 31, 1969, when the first promised increment of 25,000 men, primarily from the 9th Infantry Division, was withdrawn. Between September 18 and December 15, 1969, another 40,500 men from the 82d Airborne and the U.S. Marines were pulled out. By the end of 1969, nearly 52,000 soldiers would have left Vietnam.
For those left behind, however, the war continued as before—with the exception that they now realized they were on hold, fighting a war in which America had lost interest.