Word: viets
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Nixon's latest troop "replacement" was first forecast as imminent, then held up, then linked with an obviously futile short halt of B-52 bombings in South Viet Nam. When the announcement finally came, it turned out to involve only a modest 35,000 men to be returned to the U.S. by Dec. 15. That was about 10,000 more than the reluctant Joint Chiefs of Staff had conceded would be acceptable, but far fewer than many war critics think possible. It will bring to 60,000 the number of troops pulled out since the Administration outlined its gradual...
...Edward Kennedy converted a routine dinner speech in Boston into a chance to resume-with even more sting than before-his attack on the Administration's war policy. "We have made only token troop withdrawals on the battlefield, an exercise in politics and improvisation," he charged. He called Viet Nam "difficult to justify, impossible to win-a war not worthy of our lives and efforts, a conflict that has made us ill as a people." There will be no peace, he predicted, so long as the Administration insists on perpetuating the present government in Saigon or that government refuses...
Undoubtedly the majority of Americans still support the President in his search for an honorable way out of the morass in Viet Nam. But they also unmistakably want an early end to the killing. Nixon's dilemma continues to be how to fulfill those two, thus far irreconcilable demands...
...Administration's concern further, Nixon announced that he was suspending draft calls for November and December. He said that the 29,000 already scheduled to be called in October would be spread out over the next three months. Nixon explained that the partial withdrawal of U.S. troops from Viet Nam was the reason for the cutback, and that in December, if all goes well, he would review the programmed January call-up for possible cuts. In overall figures, however, Nixon's announcement means only 5,600 fewer draftees in 1969 than last year...
Nixon's draft reform bill is not new. In 1967, Lyndon Johnson submitted an identical proposal and similar changes have been called for by Senator Edward Kennedy. The Kennedy version, however, contains a triggering device that would end college deferments in time of war. Mindful of Viet Nam, Kennedy defined "war" to exist when a certain percentage of draftees have lost their lives in combat. The Nixon bill does not attempt to define what constitutes...