Word: drawdown
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Dates: during 1970-1970
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...After a 21-hour meeting of the National Security Council, President Nixon rejected Defense Secretary Melvin Laird's proposal for a 10% reduction in the 300,000-man U.S. force in Europe. The President's reasoning: the drawdown would unhinge Western European confidence in the U.S., debilitate NATO and undercut West Germany's attempts to normalize relations with the East bloc by rendering Western Europe too weak militarily to strike equitable bargains with the Communists...
...Nixon is also under counterpressure from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the U.S. commander in South Viet Nam, General Creighton Abrams. The President originally planned to announce a reduction of 50,000 over the next four months, then a drawdown of 100,000 within the following four months. The Joint Chiefs, fearful of Communist moves across the Viet Nam borders, pleaded first that no announcement of any kind be made for 100 days, or if that were not possible, for at least another 60 days. Nixon heard the chiefs out at a luncheon meeting in the Pentagon. Then, only...