[laconic]

Richard Nixon didn't PUT 525,000 troops in Vietnam; they were there when he took office from a self-described "tough guy" (LBJ who was once quoted, "these are all MY helicopters, boy", apparently ignoring the fact that the taxpayers foot the bill, not corrupt lifetime politicians) who panicked over the failure of his and McNamara's strategy in March 1968 and ran out of the White House back to Texas with his tail tucked between his legs.

[Austin Willard Wright]

I never said he "put" them there only that he passed up a deal in 1969 (on the same or even better terms than the one in 1973) which would have allowed us to withdraw then without losing additional thousands as we did between 1969 and 1973. This has been pointed out by Christopher Hitchens. If you think, Hitchens is wrong, I am all ears. If true, however, it certainly ranks as a terrible foreign policy failure.

BTW, I don't disagree that much of Nixon's other foreign policy decisions were good.