9.Foreign Policy, domestic American politics and diplomacy were not changed by the mistakes made during the Vietnam War era.

Question 9 , Foreign Policy , domestic American politics and diplomacy were not changed by the mistakes made during the Vietnam War era

False , Richard Nixon gave foreign policy top priority , and he proved surprisingly good at it . In Kissinger , he had a White House specialist who had devoted his life to the study of diplomacy . A refugee from Nazi Germany , Kissinger had become a professor of government at Harvard , the author of several influential books , and an acknowledged authority on international affairs . Nixon and Kissinger approached foreign policy from a similar realistic perspective

. Instead of viewing the Cold War as an ideological struggle for survival with communism , they saw it as a traditional great power rivalry , one to be managed and controlled rather than to be won

Kissinger and Nixon had a grand design . Realizing that the recent events , especially the Vietnam War and the rapid Soviet arms buildup of the 1960 's had eroded America 's position of primacy in the world , they planned a strategic retreat . There were five major centers of power by the 1970 's , the United States , Russia , China , Japan and the NATO countries of Western Europe . Russia had great military strength , but its economy was weak and it had a dangerous rival in China . Kissinger planned to use American trade such as grain and high technology to induce Soviet cooperation , while at the same time improving U .S relations with China . With Russia neutralized , the United States would then focus on its economic rivalry with Japan and the countries of Western Europe . Nixon and Kissinger shrewdly played the China card as their first step toward relieving tensions with the Soviet Union . In the summer of 1971 , the administration revealed that Kissinger had secretly gone to China and had made the arrangements for a state visit by President Nixon

The Salt I agreements were most important as a symbolic first step toward control of the nuclear arms race . They signified that the U .S and Russia were trying to achieve a settlement of their differences by peaceful means . The sale of American grain to Russia , along with proposed trade agreements to share more advanced American computer technology with the Soviets , seemed to promise a genuine relaxation of the dangerous tensions of the Cold War . Vietnam remained the one foreign policy challenge that Nixon could not overcome . He had a three part plan to end the conflict renewed bombing , a hard line in negotiations with Hanoi and the gradual withdrawal of American troops The last tactic , known as Vietnamization , proved the most successful The plan involved training the troops of South Vietnam to take over the American combat role . The number of American soldiers in Vietnam dropped between1968 to 1972 by over 500 ,000 . Domestic opposition to the war declined sharply with the accompanying drop in casualties and reductions in the draft call . To me this proved that this new leadership was not going to make the same mistakes twice and adjusted accordingly

Reference

Safire , W (1975...