The Role Of Abrams In The Vietnam War
His task in Vietnam was among the most complex and challenging ever faced by an American military leader. As MACV commander, Abrams was responsible for implementing the Vietnamization program, which had originated in the Johnson administration and which was announced with much public fanfare in 1969 by President Richard M. Nixon. Abrams viewed the Cambodian incursion of 1970 as a means of keeping Vietcong and NVA pressure off the gradual American withdrawal and turnover military responsibility to the South Vietnamese mandated by Vietnamization. Although Abrams privately doubted the ability of the South Vietnamese army to replace U.S. troops effectively, he was still successful in carrying out the American troop withdrawal called for by Vietnamization.