ABSTRACT
The negotiations became deadlocked and the Christmas Bombing took place in order to force Hanoi to accept Washington’s new, revised peace terms and to illustrate Richard Nixon’s resolve to the rest of the world. While there were many attempts to arrange a dialogue between the North Vietnamese government and the Johnson administration, until 1968 none progressed to the point where serious negotiations actually began. Consequently, while each side remained wedded to achieving its fundamental goals in Vietnam, there was little prospect of constructive negotiation because at the heart of the conflict was an unnegotiable ideological struggle. When Nixon became president of the United States on 20 January 1969, hopes were high that a speedy solution could be found to the Vietnam War. In light of the new realities of power, Nixon and Henry Kissinger believed that the US had to streamline its policies.
