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President Nixon was a hard core (tough) man. He had lost his first election bid for the presidency in 1960 to John F. Kennedy, mainly because, on the world's first televised presidential debate, in black & white TV of course, in those days, people (voters) commented on his "shadow, from lack of shaving." Appearance counts alot with human beings. Among other reasons, he lost the presidential election. Always fighting to get what he wanted, he finally gains the White House nearly ten years later. Fighting and losing, but NEVER giving up, became his trademark. But it also HARDENED him! The famous WWII US Air Force General, GEN Curtis LeMay had just recently retired from the Air Force in 1965. But kept in touch with presidents, as most GENERALS & ADMIRALS do. GEN Lemay, in discussing North Vietnam, stated, "...bomb them back into the STONE AGE!" Lemay & Nixon were both cut from the same cloth. That statement meant the "B-52's" (Stratofortress). Nixon would pull the US out of Vietnam alright. Just as he promised during his election campaign. But in the process, he was going to try to bring the north to their knees. Nixon ordered ground invasions into Cambodia & Laos (1970-1971), something no other president dared to do. He then ordered his favorite weapon, the B-52, to pound North Vietnam, including the harbors and the capital (with orders not to bomb the presidential buildings) in two air campaigns; Linebacker & Linebacker II (Nixon was a football fan), the latter air campaign was to be a "maximum effort" aerial bombing, and was dubbed the "Christmas bombing" by the press, as it happened near Christmas time. Again, no other president dared use B-52's to bomb those areas. When US ground forces began to re-deploy home, the B-52's where used everytime the NVA used conventional ground forces (tanks) to invade the south; up until 1973. When Nixon's B-52's left South Vietnam for good, in 1973, the north regrouped, and came down again in '75 with tanks & artillery...and won the war.

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