After Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968, he had to deal with serious international situations: the Cold War, the threat of nuclear war, tensions between the two largest communist countries, (USSR and China) and the war in Vietnam. The US was fighting the Vietnam War against communist forces in N. Vietnam. Guided by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Nixon launched several foreign policy efforts. First, he improved relations with communist China. The Soviet Union then met with the US on arms control treaties. Meanwhile, Nixon slowly withdrew American soldiers from Vietnam and turned the fighting over to S. Vietnam in a process called Vietnamization. Nixon then launched a bombing campaign on North Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. In the Paris Peace Accords, war was ended between the US and N. Vietnam, but the latter would soon conquer South Vietnam, While Nixon might have stated he wished for détente, (reduction of tensions), in truth he used extremely violent means to do so. In reaction to Nixon's expansion of the Vietnam War, Congress passed the War Powers Act of 1973, in which Congress reclaimed some ability to determine when the US went to war.