![]() Nixon was enraged by the “Spring Offensive.” It threatened his reelection and his budding relationship with the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union, whom he hoped might abandon North Vietnam for the promise of improved American relations. Hoping to gain an edge in these deliberations, North Vietnam sent 122,000 main force units to attack South Vietnam in March. In February 1970, Henry Kissinger began back channel negotiations with North Vietnam. The bastards have never been bombed like they’re going to be bombed this time. ![]() ![]() The North Vietnamese “Spring Offensive” and the American “Christmas Bombing” The public was unaware that Nixon had been secretly bombing Cambodia since mid-March 1969-an escalation of a covert bombing campaign started by Johnson in 1965. This apparent expansion of the war detonated an explosion of antiwar activity that escalated to a national crisis when four students were shot at a protest at Kent State University in Ohio. Nixon televised his decision to initiate the Cambodian campaign. One historical interpretation of Nixon’s strategy is that he hoped to destabilize the enemy in order to provide a “decent interval” in which South Vietnam could fend for itself while American troops pulled out. President Nixon planned to send ground groups to Cambodia to attack Communist sanctuaries and central headquarters. The Vietnamese Communists had long used neutral Cambodia as a place to regroup and store weapons. In a coup strongly encouraged by the United States, a U.S.-friendly government came to power in Cambodia. I’m not going to be the first American President to lose a war. Nixon’s Cambodian campaign fans antiwar flames and deepens divide between Americans ![]()
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