Did Nixon expand the scope of the Vietnam war before it ended?

[JAbuchan08]

or did he draw down troops from the beginning?

[Name removed]

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[no name no slogan]

2. He bombed Cambodia and Laos

Nixon was the one who bombed the Ho Chi Minh trail, thereby destabilizing Cambodia and Laos (who were neutral in the Vietnam conflict, BTW). So yes, he definately expanded the scope of the war.

[NoPasaran]

3. He invaded Cambodia in 1970

Supposedly to destroy the NVA/NLF supply bases there as US troops withdrew. But what actually happened is that the Cambodian general Lon Nol overthrew the Sihanouk government, which had managed to maintain a cautious neutrality up to that point, ratcheting up the war with the Khmer Rouge, ending five years later in Pol Pot and the Cambodian Genocide. Check out a book by William Shawcross, Side Show, for more details.

[chookie]

4. Expanded

Kennedy thought the war could be won tactically and smartly, and at first sent in elite corps (LIKE Green Berets). Ooops. Not only did this not solve matters, but made them worse. What Kennedy would have done had he lived will always remain a tantalyzing question....

Both Johnson and Nixon escalated and expanded the war, because of the cherished notion that overwhelming American might can vanquish any enemy. Nixon in particular was pressured by the right wing to stop coddling the enemy with half measures, and to use American power to utterly annihilate them, regardless of the horror it brought upon innocents. As noted above, he expanded the war to include other neighboring countries -- rather in the manner the NeoCons are claiming that the bad guys in Iraq cross over the borders of Syria and Iran....

Nixon, also, was mentally unstable at different periods of his administration and inexplicably ordered incomprehensible bombing attacks against the advise of his staff when enmired in severe depression... Viet Nam was for both LBJ and Nixon a tragic albatross and a major factor in the downfall of both of these great men.

The sad fact is that the very nature of modern warfare for superpowers is quagmire. The MILITARY learned this lesson, but alas, the civilians did not. or they have $o much to gain per$onally through war that they don't give a shit.

[JAbuchan08]

5. Thank you all.

I was responding to a Ben Stein hit piece on Mark Felt. Actually it read more like a love letter to Nixon. I just wanted quick confirmation of what I thought I knew (and the minds at DU are such a great resource)

http://www.americanprowler.com/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8242

What was funny was I thought Stein was smarter than this. I was, like, wow.... how did this guy become such a darling to the right. He's like a REALLY, REALLY impoverished man's George Will.