<P> Westmoreland became Chief of Staff of the Army in March 1968, just as all resistance was finally subdued . The move was technically a promotion . However, his position had become untenable because of the offensive and because his request for 200,000 additional troops had been leaked to the media . Westmoreland was succeeded by his deputy Creighton Abrams, a commander less inclined to public media pronouncements . </P> <P> On 10 May 1968, despite low expectations, peace talks began between the United States and North Vietnam in Paris . Negotiations stagnated for five months, until Johnson gave orders to halt the bombing of North Vietnam . </P> <P> As historian Robert Dallek writes, "Lyndon Johnson's escalation of the war in Vietnam divided Americans into warring camps...cost 30,000 American lives by the time he left office, (and) destroyed Johnson's presidency ..." His refusal to send more U.S. troops to Vietnam was seen as Johnson's admission that the war was lost . In effect, Johnson found that the Vietnam War was no easier to prosecute than the Korean war, learning from experience that China was likely to intervene directly if Hanoi's survival was threatened . Likewise, the Soviet Union would respond by providing more supplies and equipment to raise the cost for U.S. involvement, weakening their defenses in Europe and in the worse case trigger a nuclear confrontation . It can be seen that the refusal was a tacit admission that the war could not be won by escalation, at least not at a cost acceptable to the American people . As Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara noted, "the dangerous illusion of victory by the United States was therefore dead ." </P> <P> Vietnam was a major political issue during the United States presidential election in 1968 . The election was won by Republican party candidate Richard Nixon . </P>

Who was the president at the end of the vietnam war