5. Richard Nixon secretly sabotaged the 1968 peace talks via Henry Kissinger and Anna Chennault to ensure his election victory. This political interference delayed peace by four years, resulting in 28,000 more American deaths. Once in office, Nixon faced the 1969 Battle of Hamburger Hill, a "meaningless" engagement where paratroopers suffered heavy casualties to take a ridge immediately abandoned. The public outcry over these fruitless "search and destroy" tactics crippled Nixon’s "secret plan" for increased coercion, as American public opinion would no longer tolerate high casualty rates for fleeting tactical gains. (5)