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.
I stand corrected; my apologies.