Im jim byron president ceo of the Richard Nixon foundation. 50 years ago tomorrow, after four years of delegate on and off again negotiations and military actions by the Nixon Administration, secretary of state William Rogers signed the paris peace accords for the United States. What was not on and off again and was in fact very consistent, was the approach that president nixon took in leading his administrations attempts to leverage great power rivalries and competition for americas benefit. The overriding objective of which was to end the war in vietnam. To discuss nixons grand strategy for ending the war in vietnam, im pleased to welcome pier assal, the Dwight E Stanford chair in American Foreign relations at San Diego State university. Neil ferguson milbank family senior fellow at the hoover institution. Rana mitter professor of the history and politics of modern China University of oxford. My colleague mark up grove, president and ceo of the lbj foundation in austin, texas, will m