Missing Element in the Debate

It seems clear that despite the extent of opposition to the Vietnam war, President Nixon was surprised by the reaction to his move into Cambodia. So great was the protest pressure that the President felt compelled to promise that all U.S. troops will be out of Cambodia by June 30, which may not allow enough time to get full military value from the move.

The spectacular wave of protests arose despite the apparent reasonableness of destroying the North Vietnamese sanctuaries, which had long threatened Saigon from an ostensibly neutral country. At least the President’s action should seem reasonable to anyone who accepted, however reluctantly, the necessity for Vietnamization and a staged U.S. withdrawal rather than a precipitate retreat; and a large majority of Americans had accepted this, according to the opinion polls.

CE

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Christopher Emmet

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It seems clear that despite the extent of opposition to the Vietnam war, President Nixon was surprised by the reaction to his move into Cambodia. So great was the protest pressure that the President felt compelled to promise that all U.S. troops will be out of Cambodia by June 30, which may not allow enough time to get full military value from the move.

The spectacular wave of protests arose despite the apparent reasonableness of destroying the North Vietnamese sanctuaries, which had long threatened Saigon from an ostensibly neutral country. At least the President’s action should seem reasonable to anyone who accepted, however reluctantly, the necessity for Vietnamization and a staged U.S. withdrawal rather than a precipitate retreat; and a large majority of Americans had accepted this, according to the opinion polls.