In early February ’71, with pressure building at home to complete the withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam, Nixon puts his Vietnamization program to a crucial and very public test. With the world watching, the South Vietnamese army launches an invasion into Laos, where they will engage a formidable North Vietnamese force. US air power will support the South, but for the first time they will be on their own on the ground. The test is a debacle: facing superior military forces, the South Vietnamese sustain heavy casualties and are quickly compelled to withdraw. Nixon and Kissinger spin the defeat as best they can, but privately, it is a moment of reckoning: after six years of war, South Vietnam shows little sign of being able to sustain the war without continuing US help. Through the spring, opposition to the war grows and spreads beyond the traditional leftist and student base. In April, Senator William Fulbright’s powerful Foreign Relations Committee hears testimony from a young vet by the name of John Kerry, representing a new force – Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Clearly, the tide is turning. Faced with a grim reality, Nixon and Kissinger recognize they must find a way to prop up South Vietnam at least long enough to avoid having it collapse before the ’72 election, now only a year away.
S3 Ep 7 - Tangled Web
S3 Ep 6 - Off the Rails
S3 Ep 4 - Searchlight on the Lawn
S3 Ep 3 - Sideshow
S3 Ep 2 - Madame Chennault
S3 Ep 1 - October Surprise
Trailer - Welcome to Nixon at War
S2 Ep 7 - Post Script
S2 Ep 6 - The Engineer
S2 Ep 5 - Give Us the Ballot
S2 Ep 4 - Medicine Man
S2 Ep 3 - The Bully Pulpit
S2 Ep 2 - Mr. Poverty
S2 Ep 1 - The Great Unveiling
Trailer - Welcome to LBJ and the Great Society
Epilog: “I Shall Not Seek…”
S1 Ep 6 LBJ's War - The Shock of Tet
S1 Ep 5 LBJ's War - The Preacher and the President
S1 Ep 4 LBJ's War - Parting the Curtains
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