University of Virginia Library

'Nixon Doctrine'

The "Nixon Doctrine"
must fruitfully be viewed as an
attempt to limit direct
American commitments in
areas of high political stability.
Vietnam in the perspective of
the Nixon administration must
not become the occasion for
the dismantling of American
positions generally throughout
the third world, still less
Western Europe. The thrust of
the Nixon Doctrine is,
however, probably in the
direction of greater reliance on
those instruments of
political-military assistance and
economic aid which will lessen
negative economic and social
effects within the United
States and minimize the
political impact internationally
of reversals and setbacks.

In effect, there will be an
effort to limit domestic costs
and to decouple dominoes.
More fundamentally, there will
be an attempt to incorporate
more adequately in policy the
fact of divisions within the
Communist world itself.