1969 – At a news conference on December 8, 1969, Pres. Richard Nixon announced that the war in Vietnam would soon be resolved. Just two month earlier, Nixon had announced at a conference in Midway that the United States would be following a new program he termed “Vietnamization.” Vietnamization has echoes of Pres. George Bush’s “stand-up, stand-down” strategy for Iraq in which the United States forces would redeploy as Iraqi forces became trained and ready to take their places. Nixon proved to be wrong, of course. In April 1970, he expanded the war by ordering US and South Vietnamese troops to attack communist sanctuaries in Cambodia. The resulting outcry across the United States led to a number of antiwar demonstrations-it was at one of these demonstrations that the National Guard shot four protesters at Kent State. The fighting in Vietnam continued until April 1975 when Saigon fell to the communists. [This Date]