the new phyllis lashley report talked about the "fraud of detente.", president ford was starting to back down from his staunch support of this policy. under nixon, the administration had undertaken the policy of vietnamization, which had combined an intense secret bombing campaign and a gradual withdrawal of troops from vietnam. the problem for ford was that the strategy didn't work. and the aftermath was going to be a political problem for the president. the south was falling to communism after this long and devastating war. the fall of south vietnam to communism in 1975 and the unification of vietnam was a huge blow to the ford white house, right as it was fighting this battle with conservatives over detente. although president ford blamed the democratic congress, presidential advisors were shrewd enough to know that much of the public would blame him. in the days before the final evacuation, people saw military and civilians being evacuated from south vietnam. one sergeant in the u.s. marine corps, valdez, recalled, we began seeing the south vietna