Video: 'President Richard Nixon Address to the Nation on a New Initiative for Peace, October 7, 1970'

(Wednesday, October 7, 1970, 9:00-9:15 p.m. EDT; during the Vietnam War, part of the Indochina Wars and the Cold War) — U.S. President Richard Nixon asked Hanoi and the Vietcong tonight to join the allies in a standstill cease-fire throughout Indochina. He also called for an Indochina peace conference to negotiate an end to the fighting in Laos and Cambodia as well as South Vietnam.

Addressing a nationwide television audience from his oval office in the White House, Nixon conceded that an internationally supervised cease fire “in place” might be difficult to arrange and even harder to sustain.

Video: 'Vietnam: A Television History - Peace is at Hand [9/11]' (Oct. 7, 1970, at 19:32)

He said, however, “An unconventional war may require an unconventional truce; our side is ready to stand still and cease firing.”

He said that successful negotiations leading to such a cease-fire might well be a prelude to a large political and military settlement of the conflict and would at the very least bring “an end to the killing.”