Although Richard Nixon implied during his presidential campaign that he had a secret plan to end the war in Vietnam, his approach was less planned than spasmodic. Ultimately adopting what he called Vietnamization, Nixon presided over America's withdrawal from Vietnam, but only after an additional four years of war. Richard Nixon had long supported the war, but recognized that an increasingly divided public would not tolerate the conflict indefinitely. Concerned that the United States should maintain its credibility when making foreign policy commitments, the president wanted to end the war on his own terms, which he called "peace with honor." In Vietnam, peace with honor meant US withdrawal without the taint of defeat and preservation of an independent noncommunist South Vietnam. Having accepted the improbability of a military victory, Nixon's negotiations with the Vietnamese focused on establishing conditions for American withdrawal. The South Vietnamese would have to work out any military solution themselves.