The Vietnam War: The Paris Peace Talks

The Vietnam War was a long and bloody war between a communist government against South Vietnam along with its ally, the U.S. After long years of fighting and many deaths, the war ended on April 30, 1975 after President Nixon and the communist government negotiated secretly about a compromise. The paris peace accord solved a long-lasting issue, that was the vietnam war. The Paris Peace Accords was a major turning point in the Vietnam War because it ended the Vietnam War, brought peace to the U.S. and Vietnam, and the North Vietnamese agreed to release all U.S. and other prisoners of war.

“In August of 1964, in response to the American and GVN espionage along its coast, the DRV launched a local and controlled attack against C. Turner Joy and the U.S.S. Maddox , two American ships on call in the Gulf of Tonkin” (Brigham 2). This resulted in the United States government giving Lyndon Johnson the ability to make war under the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. President Johnson then gave orders to perform air raids on Northern Vietnam pushing the United States further into the war. Compared to 1962 when only 9,000 soldiers supported the South Vietnamese, by June 1965 82,000 soldiers occupied the country. The number only continued to rise exponentially, and by 1966 370,000 soldiers had been sent in to prop their South Vietnam allies. President Richard Nixon withdrew American soldiers from Vietnam and as part of the “vietnamization” of the war. Over and 60,000 American soldiers had been lost in a war to preserve the status quo, not to win.

In 1960s, the US was faced with another crisis of communist expansion in the war between North and South Vietnam. The Kennedy Administration decided to further pursue their containment strategy out of fear being seen by the international community as weak towards communism. During the Johnson Administration, an attack against American vessels that happened in the Gulf of Tonkin led to President Johnson being granted the ability to conduct broad military operations without congressional approval. The American public began to largely oppose American intervention in Vietnam because the optimistic statements made by the government ran contradictory to the reports of the violent fighting by American news outlets. During the Nixon administration, the US switched to a policy, later known as Vietnamization, where the main goal was to strengthen the South Vietnamese forces and provide them with better armaments so they can better defend themselves. Vietnamization proved to be ineffective as the South Vietnamese forces were unable to hold their own against the North without US air support as proven during Operation Lam Son 719 and the Easter Offensive. The signing of the Paris Peace Accords officially ended US involvement in the Vietnam War. The US followed containment policies during beginning of the war due to the underlying fear of the spread of communism and since the policies were inherited from previous

The French then left Vietnam agreeing to most of their demands. This conference was held at Geneva and a treaty was signed called the Geneva peace agreement. As a result of this a portion line was set up dividing the south and north of Vietnam. This line was also demilitarised. America did not sign this; they saw this as giving into communism and hated it completely.

Nixon agreed with the troop withdrawal from the Vietnam War. Nixon hoped his vietnamization policy, which involved gradually withdrawing American troops would permit the south vietnamese to take more responsibility for their own war against a communism and permit the U.S. to leave the battlefield. After, the U.S withdrew the American combat troops and declared the Vietnamization process complete, South Vietnam fell to Communism.

The Vietnam War was perhaps one of the most controversial and disputed wars in American history. Initially sparked by a communist uprising in northern Vietnam, the war quickly became a scramble for the containment of communism by America and other anti-communist nations. After the communists in North Vietnam defeated the French and relinquished their control over the country, a now independent Vietnam split into two opposing sides, with South Vietnam fighting alongside numerous anti-communist nations in a struggle to prevent the spread of communism. During what seemed to be the final stages of the war, efforts were made to restore peace and temporarily appease North and South Vietnam until some more solid decisions could be made about the fate of the country. These efforts included the Geneva Accords, which were later thwarted, and the signing of the Paris Peace Accords.

The US has been known to diverge from its once-isolationist state, engaging in international affairs like World War I and several other events alike. It’s therefore no surprise that the US intervened in the Vietnam War during the 1960’s. At the time, President Lyndon B. Johnson put forth new ideas, plans and tactics to help and protect the South Vietnamese and surrounding countries from communist influence. However, the United States’ initial goals and plans didn’t always go the way they had expected. Indeed, Johnson’s Vietnam policies failed because of his unreasonable military strategies and his inefficient political actions.

In Nixon’s effort to end the war, his first policy was to send a message to Hanoi that he meant business. His policy consisted of escalated strategic bombings near the border of Cambodia in hopes to get the North Vietnamese to fear that the United States was capable of doing anything to achieve victory. Even Johnson was skeptical of expanding the war into Cambodia but Nixon’s first policy in full effect. Unfortunately, America was blinded by the corruptness of Nixon’s “peaceful presidency” since

In the 1960s and 1970s, the most controversial war the United States had ever been involved in during its rich two-hundred year history would engulf the country, ultimately leading to the collapse of a president, and the division of a nation. The Vietnam War was a military struggle fought in Vietnam and neighboring countries from 1959-1975 involving the North Vietnamese and NLF (National Liberation Front) versus the United States and the South Vietnamese ("The Vietnam..."). In 1969, newly elected President Richard M. Nixon, aiming to achieve "peace with honor" in Vietnam, began to put his "Vietnamization" policy into place -- removing the number of American military personnel in the country and transferring combat roles to the South

The peace movement had the vision of leaving the war and no more fighting, no more destruction, no more death. One would think that victory and peace should be able to reside together, but that was never really possible in the Vietnam War. It was just so negatively perceived that victory and peace become two separate distinctions. Victory meant fighting and war while peace meant no fighting and no war. In a way, only one side could win and the other couldn’t in the United States. It wasn’t just a war between the US and North Vietnam, but also liberalism vs. conservatism. Vietnam War deepened the divide in party politics throughout the US. With that, there could never be a true “victory” and/or true “peace”.

As Nixon witnessed the death toll in Vietnam, he began a process known as Vietnamization. When running for president he told the people he had a secret plan to end the war with Vietnam. After taking office in January 1969, the Vietnam War had been in progress for four years, 31,000 Americans had been killed since action, and the training of South Vietnamese was in the process of being scheduled (Breen, T. H.). Over 540,000 Americans were in Vietnam with no plans of reduction and no progress had been made at the negotiations in Paris, as the United States did not have an exact peace proposal. Nixon and his advisors created a strategy known as Vietnamization, which was a plan to slowly withdraw American combat forces and help prepare South Vietnam

President Richard M. Nixon took responsibility for the Vietnam War as he entered the office in January 20, 1969. He also knew that ending the Vietnam War was essential his success in the presidency. He thought that the American people could give him only one year to end the U.S involvement into the the War, and he also thought that he would succeed during that time. He Believed that his experience in foreign relation's stoutness and his hard work to bring all the military and pressures to North Vietnam. He had Gained Thieu’s adherence to an agreement through letter and envoys, all of the were promising the US military in a event from the North Vietnamese violation also its accords. Both sides understood that this mentt that the recommitment

According to a detailed and informative book on the Vietnam War by Herring (2002), “from [the summer on 1972] and on, [both the North Vietnamese and Americans] began inching towards a comprise”. Americans politicians had displayed their willingness to compose a comprise, and had even let North Vietnamese soldiers stay in South Vietnam after a cease-fire. The Provisional Revolution Government, composed of the Saigon regime and by the National Liberation Front and the neutralists, arranged a settlement after cease-fire went into effect. Headed by Henry Kissinger and Nguy?n Th?, the two worked quickly to create an agreement. However, Kissinger made the mistakes of deceiving both Vietnamese countries by taking different political

The Paris Peace Accords were negotiated between the United States and North Vietnam on January 1973. It was intended to establish peace in Vietnam and end the Vietnam War. The United States would end any direct U.S. military involvement, and it temporarily stopped the fighting between North and South Vietnam. The settlement included a cease-fire throughout Vietnam. In addition, the United States agreed to the withdrawal of all U.S. troops and advisors and the permanent deactivation all of the U.S. bases within 60 days. In return, the North Vietnamese agreed to release all U.S. and foreign prisoners of war.

In 1958, Communist-led guerrillas, eventually known as the Viet Cong, began to battle the government of the South Vietnamese. The United States then sent 2,000 military advisors t support South Vietnam’s government. This number grew to 16,3000 by 1963. The military force slowly deteriorated. By 1963 the fertile Mekong Delta was lost to the overpowering Viet Cong. The war rose in 1965, when President Johnson issued commencing air strikes on North Vietnam and ground forces, which had risen to 536,000 by 1968. The Tet Offensive by North Vietnam turned many Americans against the waging war. President Nixon, following Johnson, promoted Vietnamization, the withdrawing of American troops and handing over the great responsibility of the war to South Vietnam. Protesting of the war dramatically increased, especially after Nixon’s attempt to slow North Vietnam forces and supplies into the South by sending American forces to destroy supply bases in Cambodia in 1970, which violated Cambodian neutrality. This provoked antiwar protests on many of the United Stats’ college campuses. In 1968 through 1973 attempts were made to end the ongoing conflict through diplomacy. Then in January 1973, an agreement was reached. U.S. forces withdrew from Vietnam and the U.S. POWs were released. In April 1975, South Vietnam surrendered to the North and Vietnam was once again united. The Vietnam War ended, but it took the lives of 58,000