On December 8, 1969, President Richard Nixon announces that the Vietnam war is "coming to a conclusion as a result of the plan we have instituted." The plan is what he called "Vietnamization", a policy instituted in June to begin actively training up and better equipping the South Vietnamese army, with withdrawal of U.S. troops corresponding to their improved readiness. Withdrawal of almost the entire 25th Infantry Division came the same day as Nixon's announcement, which would turn out to be premature. On December 8, 1949, Chiang Kai Shek and his Chinese Nationalist Party flee mainland China and settle on the nearby island of Taiwan, ending years of struggle and leaving the mainland in control of Mao Zedong's Communist Party, which establishes the nation as the People's Republic of China. The Nationalists, meanwhile, establish their own government and declare Taiwan to be the Republic of China. The "two Chinas" conundrum would be a thorn in the side of U.S. foreign policy for the next 30 years, as president after president tried to establish diplomatic relations with both sides without offending either. (left: Chiang, right: Mao) On December 8, 1993, President Bill Clinton signs the North American Free Trade Agreement, ending virtually all tariffs and trade restrictions between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The first proposal for NAFTA actually came from Ronald Reagan during his 1979 election campaign, though it never got off the ground during his administration. A hot button issue of the 1992 presidential campaign, opponents of the plan argued that NAFTA would cause many U.S. companies to relocate to Mexico, where workers would accept lower pay and fewer benefits. That was definitely the case in the auto industry: over the next 20 years, American auto factories would reduce payrolls by about 350,000, while Mexican auto factories added 400,000 jobs. Proponents argue that overall GDP increased and inflation slowed as a result of NAFTA, which was replaced by President Trump's U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement in 2018, taking effect this past July. (Clinton and Trump, photographed in 2000)
Interesting how little we learn. Afghanistan has seen the same failure as Vietnamization. The desire to pull out of Afghanistan is one of Trump’s best ideas. Too bad he hasn’t been able to overcome the resistance of the establishment here. We should have never stayed there.
Actually I said that at the time. I’d read an article by Hank Peters that made real sense to me. Also if you know the history of Afghanistan it would be obvious.
Just to be clear we did the right thing going in there kicking Taliban ass and destroying terrorist training camps. We should have told the Taliban that if the gave comfort to terrorists again we’d come back and do it again.....but left.
And who was president while we were in Afghanistan and when the decision was made to significantly drop our troop levels?
As I understand it was W’s but forced on him by the failure to catch/kill OBL at Tora Bora mainly by the democrats.
