But for most Americans the overriding fact was that by late summer, Nixon had brought all US combat troops home, which was no doubt why a Gallup poll found that only 25% of people considered the war to be of major importance. It was Senator McGovern and his antiwar colleagues in both houses of Congress who had forced Nixon to ultimately end American ground combat in Vietnam. Though almost none of the dozens of initiatives they drafted to end the war had passed, they had put so much pressure on the White House that his administration had been compelled to keep withdrawing troops.
