In June 1969, President Nixon met President Thieu at Midway Island for the purpose of coordinating US-South Vietnam War policies. It was announced that 25,000, of the more than 540,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam would be withdraw by August, and such would be the first American troops withdrawal from South Vietnam since its buildup in 1969. Shortly afterwards, in July 1969, the U.S. President enunciated the so-called Nixon Doctrine, in which U.S. would continue to give Asian allies the material assistance they might need for their own defense, but the Asians themselves would have to supply the manpower needed to defeat external or internal Communist aggression. U.S. troops, vowed Nixon, would never again be sent to fight an Asian war.