History of the United States (1964–1980)
The growing Watergate scandal was a major disaster for Nixon, eroding his political support in public opinion and in Washington. However he did manage to secure large-scale funding for South Vietnam, much of which was wasted. The United States withdrew its troops from Vietnam before the Paris Peace Accords in 1973. However, Watergate resulted in significant Democrat gains in the 1974 midterm elections and when the new 94th Congress convened the following January, it immediately voted to terminate all aid to South Vietnam in addition to passing a bill forbidding all further US military intervention in Southeast Asia. President Ford was against this, but as Congress had a veto-proof majority, he was forced to accept. South Vietnam rapidly collapsed as the North invaded it in force, and Saigon fell to the NVA on April 30, 1975. Later nearly one million Vietnamese managed to flee to the U.S. as refugees. The impact on the U.S. was muted, with few political recriminations, but it did leave a "Vietnam Syndrome" that cautioned against further military interventions anywhere else. Nixon (and his next two successors Ford and Carter) had dropped the containment policy and were not willing to intervene anywhere.
National Security Action Memorandum 273
The withdrawal of almost 1,000 U.S. military personnel from South Vietnam took place, albeit described by the Pentagon Papers as an "accounting exercise." The number of soldiers in South Vietnam was 16,752 in October and on December 31, 1963, was 15,894.
Presidents Kennedy and Johnson had made decisions on the Vietnam War based on optimistic reports from the American Embassy and MACV in Saigon and from frequent assessment missions by U.S. policy makers. (The dissenters included some lower-level employees in the Department of State, CIA, the U.S. military, and U.S. journalists in South Vietnam.) The ink was barely dry on NSAM 273 when those optimistic assessments turned pessimistic. With dissention increasing among U.S. policy makers (Ambassador Lodge vs General Harkins in Saigon; Presidential advisor General Maxwell D. Taylor vs other military leaders in Washington) and reports of Viet Cong successes, Johnson sent Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Taylor back to Vietnam for another assessment. McNamara's report of December 20, 1963, was far more pessimistic that his previous assessments. He said, "The situation is very disturbing. Current trends, unless reversed in the next 2–3 months, will lead to neutralization at best and most likely to a Communist-controlled state." McNamara also criticized the ineffectiveness of the new South Vietnamese government, formed after the assassination of President Diem.