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President Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger, whom he had appointed national security advisor, realized that the war was to be brought to an end soon, but nevertheless they insisted on what they called an "honourable peace" (which meant a settlement that secured the independence of South Vietnam in future). The U.S. adopted a plan of phased withdrawal known as "Vietnamization", whereby the ARVN would gradually assume all military responsibilities while being reinforced with American arms ( more than a million M-16 rifles) and equipment. Military schools were expanded in order to augment the ARVN force level and efforts to modernize the promotion system and to improve conditions for South Vietnamese soldiers aimed to check the desertion rate. In 1969, an "Accelerated Pacification Program" was institutionalised to extend government control over the countryside, in the course of which the autonomy of the villages was restored and their security was improved by 500,000 regulars assigned to pacification. By gradually withdrawing U.S. troops from Vietnam, Nixon overrode voices like Abrams' who doubted that the Thieu government and its combat forces could without American assistance detain the "Vietcong" combined with NVA forces and thus a Communist takeover. Simultaneously with Vietnamization, the President who counted on his reputation as a hard-line anti-Communist, intended compelling Hanoi to negotiate on his terms through threats of massive force. Operation "Menu", a series of (secret) bombing raids against North Vietnamese sanctuaries, broadened the war into neutral Cambodia. Eventually during the spring of 1970, after Cambodia's neutralist Prince Sihanouk was overthrown by a pro-American clique headed by Prime minister Lon Nol, U.S. and ARVN troops invaded border sectors of Cambodia. Nixon announced in a television speech that the real target of the Cambodian incursion was the North Vietnamese "Central Office for South Vietnam", although the Defense Department did not know for certain where it was located or whether it even existed. The invasion resulted in a brutal civil war between the Khmer Rouge insurgents (supported by the DRV) and the Cambodian government of Lon Nol, which was recognized and supported on a large scale by the United States. Nixon's expansion of the war sparked a new wave of anti-war demonstrations among the students, and at Kent State University and Jackson State College six students were killed in confrontations with the National Guardsmen and the police, which again produced massive protests in Washington in May of 1970. To appease the increasing critics in America, the President pushed his withdrawal policy, reducing military personnel in Vietnam to 175,000 by the end of 1971. At the same time, he intensified military pressure against North Vietnam by approving of a major ground operation into Laos in February of 1971 (carried out by the ARVN with U.S. air support), the objective of which was to gain time for Vietnamization by destroying enemy supply lines. Meanwhile, the trial against Lieutenant William Calley, in which he was sentenced to life imprisonment by a military court, and the publication of the so-called "Pentagon Papers" (a secret government study of U.S. involvement in southeast Asia covering the period from World War II to 1968) caused a continuation of protests and demonstrations, that were, among others, sustained by the newly formed "Vietnam Veterans Against the War".
The peace talks between Kissinger and North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho in Paris remained inconclusive. North Vietnam insisted on demands for a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam, the abandonment of Thieu and a provisional coalition government to his exclusion. The American administration, however, refused to disassociate itself from Thieu, who was re-elected in September of 1971, and moreover the U.S. demanded the release of the American prisoners of war. After having fought for their goals for more than ten years, neither side was willing to make the necessary concessions, and both still felt that they were able to force the enemy by military means to give in.
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