1973 in the Vietnam War agreement whether or not Thieu agreed. South Vietnamese President Thieu notified the U.S. government that he would sign the Paris Peace Accords on behalf of South Vietnam. Knowing that the peace agreement called for a cease fire in place, Thieu ordered his armed forces to regain as much territory as possible prior to the ceasefire agreement. South Vietnamese forces established forward posts in communist-controlled areas to bolster their claim to the surrounding land. This was the beginning of what was called the "land grab." Former U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson, whose presidency was marred by the Vietnam War, died. President
Soviet Middle Eastern foreign policy during the Cold War Israelis and ending the nuclear-arms race. Nixon also became a key player in Middle East peace talks, ignoring Dwight D. Eisenhower's non-interventionism and hoping that his reputation for ending the Vietnam War, brokering the first nuclear-arms treaty and opening China to American trade would overshadow the Watergate scandal. The Arab-Israeli peace process was complex during the Soviet era. Although the Soviets were reluctant to join the American-backed peace movement (since they wanted a divided West), the cost of the arms race was beginning to bankrupt the Soviet Union. Strained relations among the parties stalled the initial negotiations, exacerbated by American-North