Nixon, Vietnamization, and the Fall of Saigon

Richard Nixon took office in January 1969 pledging an honorable end to the conflict and implemented "Vietnamization," progressively transferring combat responsibility to the South Vietnamese army while beginning a gradual, staged withdrawal of American combat troops that same year. National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger led secret parallel negotiations with North Vietnamese representative Le Duc Tho in Paris, while Nixon simultaneously intensified aerial bombing, including covert campaigns against communist sanctuaries in Cambodia. American troop levels in Vietnam fell from more than 500,000 to fewer than 30,000 by 1972.