No, Nixon didn’t discuss Vietnam during the presidential debates, but that isn’t what I said. I said he was on record, that he had a position, that he shared is position, and everyone knew it.
I’ve heard Henry Kissinger say Nixon never thought Vietnam was a winnable scenario, even when he was VP. When Nixon took office in 1969, he still didn’t think it was winnable. What Nixon would have done in 1969, if he could have, would have been to just pull out, because he viewed the Vietnam war as a roadblock to his higher goal: detente with the Russians and Chinese. But, that would have been political suicide. His “peace with honor” was never really successful, but his goal was to somehow get out, not win the war (because he never thought it could be won).
Nixon would not have sent troops into Vietnam had he won the 1960 election. Of that I’m certain. If you’d do a little more digging into the Nixon of the 1950s and 1960s, you’d be certain of it also.
Qemoy and Matsu are near Taiwan. They don’t really have a place in a discussion on Vietnam.