Video: 'President Nixon in Vietnam 1969'

(Wednesday, July 30, 1969, 12:00 noon Saigon Standard Time; during the Vietnam War, part of the Indochina Wars and the Cold War) — U.S. President Richard Nixon arrived at Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon today for a previously unannounced 5½-hour stopover in the war-torn nation.

Nixon met in Saigon with South Vietnam’s President Nguyen Van Thieu to discuss further U.S. troop withdrawals. He also met with senior U.S. military commanders to review possible changes in military tactics, emphasizing his continuing Vietnamization policies, which he wanted the press to label “The Nixon Doctrine.”

Video: 'Vietnam: A Television History - Peace is at Hand [9/11]' (July 30, 1969, at 7:52-9:55)

In visiting American troops of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division at Di Am, 12 miles north of Saigon, Nixon asked nearly every soldier he shook hands with about his favorite football or baseball team.

Video: 'Yesteryear 1969 Part 2' (July 30, 1969, at 5:09-5:24)

Nixon was the first “American president to the South Vietnamese capital.” Previously U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson had visited the secure U.S. base at Cam Ranh Bay, 180 miles from Saigon, in 1966 and 1967.