 Shortly after his election as U.S. President in 1968, Richard M. Nixon began the long process of negotiating an end to the conflict in Southeast Asia.At the same time, the number of American forces in SEA was gradually reduced in favor of what came to be known as Vietnamization of that conflict.Under the Nixon Doctrine, the U.S. continued to provide diplomatic, financial, and logistical support to Southeast Asian non-communist governments, but to lessen correspondingly the active roles of its own armed forces in those nations.