| Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet Nam | |
|---|---|
 Vietnam Peace Agreement | |
| Signed | January 27, 1973 (1973-01-27) |
| Location | Paris, France |
| Negotiators | |
| Signatories | Seebelow |
| Parties | |
| Full text | |
 Paris Peace Accords atWikisource | |
TheParis Peace Accords (Vietnamese:Hiệp định Paris về Việt Nam), officially theAgreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet Nam (Hiệp định về chấm dứt chiến tranh, lập lại hòa bình ở Việt Nam), was apeace agreement signed on 27 January 1973 to establish peace inVietnam and end theVietnam War. It included a main treaty and accompanying annexes. It was scheduled to take effect at 8:00 AM Saigon time the following day. The agreement was signed by theDemocratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), theRepublic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), theProvisional Revolutionary Government (PRG), and theUnited States. The PRG represented theViet Cong (VC, NLF), a South Vietnamese opposition movementde facto controlled by the North.[1] US ground forces had begun to withdraw from Vietnam in 1969, and had suffered from deteriorating morale during the withdrawal. By the beginning of 1972 those that remained had very little involvement in combat. The last American infantry battalions withdrew in August 1972.[2] Most air and naval forces, and most advisers, also were gone from South Vietnam by that time, though air and naval forces not based in South Vietnam were still playing a large role in the war. The Paris Agreement removed the remaining US forces, and direct US military intervention ended. Fighting between the three remaining powers did not stop on 28 January, even for an hour.[3] The agreement was not formally designated a treaty, and President Nixon did not ask theUS Senate to ratify it.[4][5]
The negotiations that led to the accord began in 1968, after various lengthy delays. As a result of the accord, theInternational Control Commission (ICC) was replaced by theInternational Commission of Control and Supervision (ICCS), which consisted ofCanada,Poland,Hungary, andIndonesia, to monitor the agreement.[6] The main negotiators of the agreement wereUS National Security AdvisorHenry Kissinger and theNorth Vietnamese Politburo memberLê Đức Thọ. Both men were awarded the1973 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts, but Lê Đức Thọ refused to accept it. The agreement contained two notable provisions that represented concessions to both North and South Vietnam:North Vietnamese troops (PAVN) were allowed to remain in the South, and the Republic of Vietnam governement in Saigon led by PresidentThiệu was allowed to continue to exist rather than be replaced by acoalition government.[7]
The agreement's provisions were immediately and frequently broken by both North and South Vietnamese forces with no official response from the United States. Open fighting broke out in March 1973, and North Vietnamese offensives enlarged their territory by the end of the year. Two years later, amassive North Vietnamese offensive conquered South Vietnam onApril 30, and the two countries, which had beenseparated since 1954, united once more in 1976, as theSocialist Republic of Vietnam.[1]
Part of the negotiations took place in the former residence of the French painterFernand Léger; it was bequeathed to theFrench Communist Party (PCF). The street of the house was named after GeneralPhilippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, who had commandedFrench forces in Indochina from 1945 until July 1946.[8]
The agreement generally called for:[9]
In July 1954, theFirst Indochina War ended with the victory ofcommunist insurgency over theFrench Union's coalition, Vietnam wasdivided at the 17th parallel with the pro-FrenchState of Vietnam (predecessor of theRepublic of Vietnam) holding the South and the communists taking power in the North under the name of theDemocratic Republic of Vietnam. This division was a political defeat for the communists. However, the communists hoped to unify Vietnam under acommunist model through a general election. South Vietnam opposed this and enacted aconstitution that considered itself the sole representative of Vietnam in 1956.War between North and South Vietnam broke out in the context of the globalCold War, and theUnited States supported thepro-Western South as an ally. Although the United States and its allies won a major victory in the 1968Tet Offensive, the campaign sparked a strong rise of the Americananti-war movement.[10]
Following the strong showing of anti-war candidateEugene McCarthy in theNew Hampshire primary, in March 1968 US PresidentLyndon B. Johnson halted bombing operations over the northern portion of North Vietnam (Operation Rolling Thunder), in order to encourageHanoi (the perceivedlocus of the insurgency) to begin negotiations. Although some sources state that the bombing halt decision announced on March 31, 1968, was related to events occurring within the White House and the Presidents counsel of Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford and others rather than the events in New Hampshire.[11] Shortly thereafter, Hanoi agreed to discuss a complete halt of the bombing, and a date was set for representatives of both parties to meet in Paris. The sides first met on May 10, with the delegations headed byXuân Thuỷ, who would remain the official leader of the North Vietnamese delegation throughout the process, and USambassador-at-largeW. Averell Harriman.
For five months, the negotiations stalled as North Vietnam demanded that all bombing of North Vietnam be stopped, while the US side demanded that North Vietnam agree to a reciprocal de-escalation in South Vietnam; it was not until October 31 that Johnson agreed to end the air strikes and serious negotiations could begin.
One of the largest hurdles to effective negotiation was the fact that North Vietnam and itsNational Liberation Front (NLF, VC, Viet Cong) in the South, refused to recognize the South Vietnamese government inSaigon; with equal persistence, the South Vietnamese government refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the NLF. Harriman resolved this dispute by developing a system by which North Vietnam and U.S. would be the named parties; NLF officials could join the North Vietnam team without being recognized by South Vietnam, while Saigon's representatives joined their US allies.
A similar debate concerned the shape of the table to be used at the conference. The North favored a circular table, in which all parties, including NLF representatives, would appear to be "equal"' in importance. The South Vietnamese argued that only a rectangular table was acceptable, for only a rectangle could show two distinct sides to the conflict. Eventually a compromise was reached, in which representatives of the northern and southern governments would sit at a circular table, with members representing all other parties sitting at individual square tables around them.[12]
Bryce Harlow, a former White House staff member in theEisenhower administration, claimed to have "a double agent working in the White House....I kept Nixon informed." Harlow andHenry Kissinger (who was friendly with both campaigns and guaranteed a job in either aHumphrey or Nixon administration in the upcoming election) separately predicted Johnson's "bombing halt." Democratic senatorGeorge Smathers informed President Johnson that "the word is out that we are making an effort to throw the election to Humphrey. Nixon has been told of it."[13]
According to presidential historianRobert Dallek, Kissinger's advice "rested not on special knowledge of decision making at the White House but on an astute analyst's insight into what was happening."CIA intelligence analystWilliam Bundy stated that Kissinger obtained "no useful inside information" from his trip to Paris, and "almost any experienced Hanoi watcher might have come to the same conclusion." While Kissinger may have "hinted that his advice was based on contacts with the Paris delegation," this sort of "self-promotion...is at worst a minor and not uncommon practice, quite different from getting and reporting real secrets."[13]
Nixon asked prominent Chinese-American politicianAnna Chennault to be his "channel to Mr.Thieu"; Chennault agreed and periodically reported toJohn Mitchell that Thieu had no intention of attending a peace conference. On November 2, Chennault informed the South Vietnamese ambassador: "I have just heard from my boss in Albuquerque who says his boss [Nixon] is going to win. And you tell your boss [Thieu] to hold on a while longer."[14] Johnson found out through the NSA and was enraged saying that Nixon had "blood on his hands" and thatSenate Minority LeaderEverett Dirksen agreed with Johnson that such action was "treason."[15][16][17] Defense SecretaryClark Clifford considered the moves an illegal violation of theLogan Act.[18]
In response, Johnson ordered the wire-tapping of members of the Nixon campaign.[19][20] Dallek wrote that Nixon's efforts "probably made no difference" because Thieu was unwilling to attend the talks and there was little chance of an agreement being reached before the election; however, his use of information provided by Harlow and Kissinger was morally questionable, and vice president Humphrey's decision not to make Nixon's actions public was "an uncommon act of political decency."[21]
After winning the1968 presidential election, Richard Nixon became president of the US in January 1969. He then replaced US ambassador Harriman withHenry Cabot Lodge Jr., who was later replaced byDavid Bruce. Also that year, the NLF set up aProvisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) to gain government status at the talks. However, the primary negotiations that led to the agreement did not occur at the Peace Conference at all but were carried out during secret negotiations between Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ, which began on August 4, 1969.
North Vietnam insisted for three years that the agreement could not be concluded unless the United States agreed to remove South Vietnamese President Thiệu from power and replace him with someone more acceptable to Hanoi. Nixon and Kissinger were unwilling to sign an agreement to overthrow a government the NLF had failed to overthrow by force of arms, though the extent of North Vietnamese demands is contested. HistorianMarilyn B. Young, contends that the contents of Hanoi's proposal were systematically distorted from their original plea topermit Thiệu's replacement, to what Kissinger propagated as a demand for his overthrow.[22]
On May 8, 1972, Nixon made a major concession to North Vietnam by announcing that the US would accept acease-fire in place as a precondition for its military withdrawal. In other words, the US would withdraw its forces from South Vietnam without North Vietnam doing the same. The concession broke a deadlock and resulted in progress in the talks over the next few months.[23]
The final major breakthrough came on October 8, 1972. Prior to this, North Vietnam had been disappointed by the results of itsNguyen Hue Offensive (known in the West as theEaster Offensive), which had resulted in the United States countering with "Operation Linebacker", a significant air bombing campaign that blunted the North's drive in the South as well as inflicting damage in the North. TheSouth Vietnamese army with massive USfire support eventually successfully pushed back the PAVN. Also, the North Vietnamese feared increased isolation if Nixon's efforts atdétente significantly improved US relations with the chiefcommunist powers, theSoviet Union and thePeople's Republic of China, who were backing the North Vietnamese military effort. During this year, Nixonvisited China to improve US-China relations amid theSino-Soviet split. In a meeting with Kissinger, Thọ significantly modified his bargaining line, allowing that the Saigon government could remain in power and that negotiations between the two South Vietnamese parties could develop a final settlement. Within 10 days the secret talks drew up a final draft. Kissinger held a press conference in Washington during which he announced that "peace is at hand."
When Thiệu, who had not even been informed of the secret negotiations, was presented with the draft of the new agreement, he was furious with Kissinger and Nixon (who were perfectly aware of South Vietnam's negotiating position) and refused to accept it without significant changes. He then made several public radio addresses, claiming that the proposed agreement was worse than it actually was. Hanoi was flabbergasted, believing that it had been duped into apropaganda ploy by Kissinger. On October 26, Radio Hanoi broadcast key details of the draft agreement.
However, as US casualties had mounted throughout the conflict since 1965, American domestic support for the war had deteriorated, and by late 1972 there was major pressure on the Nixon administration to withdraw from the war. Consequently, the US brought great diplomatic pressure upon their South Vietnamese ally to sign the agreement even if the concessions Thiệu wanted could not be achieved. Nixon pledged to provide continued substantial aid to South Vietnam and given his recent landslide victory in the presidential election, it seemed possible that he would be able to follow through on that pledge. To demonstrate his seriousness to Thiệu, Nixon ordered the heavyOperation Linebacker II bombings of North Vietnam in December 1972. Nixon also attempted to bolster South Vietnam's military forces by ordering that large quantities of US military material and equipment be given to South Vietnam from May to December 1972 underOperations Enhance and Enhance Plus.[24] These operations were also designed to keep North Vietnam at the negotiating table and to prevent them from abandoning negotiations and seeking total victory. When the North Vietnamese government agreed to resume "technical" discussions with the United States, Nixon ordered a halt to bombings north of the 20th parallel on December 30. With the US committed to disengagement (and after threats from Nixon that South Vietnam would be abandoned if he did not agree),[25] Thiệu had little choice but to accede.
On January 15, 1973, Nixon announced a suspension of offensive actions against North Vietnam. Kissinger and Thọ met again on January 23 and signed off on an agreement that was basically identical to the draft of three months earlier. The agreement was signed by the leaders of the official delegations on January 27, 1973, at theHotel Majestic in Paris.
| South Vietnamese armed forces | |
|---|---|
| Ground combat regulars | 210,000 |
| Regional and Popular Force militias | 510,000 |
| Service troops | 200,000 |
| Total | 920,000 |
| Communist armed forces | |
| North Vietnamese ground troops in South Vietnam | 123,000 |
| Viet Cong ground troops | 25,000 |
| Service troops | 71,000 |
| Total | 219,000 |
The Paris Peace Accords effectively removed the US from the conflict in Vietnam,[27] however the PAVN was allowed to stay in the South. The United States had no formal bilateral military treaty with Saigon. Prisoners from both sides were exchanged, with American ones primarily released duringOperation Homecoming. Around 31,961 North Vietnamese/VC prisoners (26,880 military, 5,081 civilians) were released in return for 5,942 South Vietnamese prisoners.[28]
The Paris Peace Accords opened up further negotiations between the United States and North Vietnam as well as between the South Vietnamese parties, however the story did not go smoothly in South Vietnam. The agreement's provisions were routinely flouted by both the North Vietnamese and the South Vietnamese governments, eliciting no response from the United States, and ultimately resulting in the communists enlarging the area under their control by the end of 1973. The Paris Peace Accords in January 1973 failed to end the fighting in South Vietnam, as North Vietnam immediately violated the cease-fire and attempted to make territorial gains, resulting in large battles. The communists also continued to send weapons and soldiers into the South. Sporadic clashes continued to occur between North and South Vietnam in South Vietnam and Cambodia. North Vietnamese military forces gradually built up their military infrastructure in the areas they controlled, and two years later were in a position to launch the successful offensive that ended South Vietnam's status as an independent country. Fighting began almost immediately after the agreement was signed, due to a series of mutual retaliations, and by March 1973 full-fledged war had resumed.[29][30]
In late 1973, the communists issuedResolution 21, which called for "strategic raids" against South Vietnam to gain territory and to gauge the reaction of Thiệu and the American government.[31] This started between March and November 1974,[32] when the communists attacked Quang Duc Province and Biên Hòa.[33] The US failed to respond to the communist violations and the ARVN lost a lot of supplies in the fighting.[34] Anti-communist Thiệu also expressed his stance on the ceasefire by publicly proclaiming the "Four Nos":[34] no negotiations with the communists; no communist political activities south of theDemilitarized Zone (DMZ); nocoalition government; and no surrender of territory to the North Vietnamese or PRG.[35] Thiệu believed the American promise to reintroduce air power against the communists if they made any serious violations of the agreement,[35] and he and his government also assumed that US aid would continue to be forthcoming at previous levels.[36] After two clashes that left 55 South Vietnamese soldiers dead, President Thiệu announced on 4 January 1974 that the war had restarted and that the Paris Peace Accord was no longer in effect. There were over 25,000 South Vietnamese casualties during the ceasefire period.[37]
Nixon had secretly promised Thiệu that he would useairpower to support the South Vietnamese government should it be necessary. During his confirmation hearings in June 1973,Secretary of DefenseJames Schlesinger was sharply criticized by some senators after he stated that he would recommend resumption of US bombing in North Vietnam if North Vietnam launched a major offensive against South Vietnam, but by August 15, 1973, 95% of American troops and their allies had left Vietnam (both North and South) as well asCambodia andLaos under theCase-Church Amendment. The amendment, which was approved by theUS Congress in June 1973, prohibited further US military activity in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia unless the president secured Congressional approval in advance. However, during this time, Nixon was being driven from office due to theWatergate scandal, which led to his resignation in 1974. In 1973–74, US funding was slashed to $965 million, a reduction of more than 50%.[36][38] While South Vietnam still fought effectively in 1973–74, sharp cuts in US aid crippled Saigon's economy and military, reducing the morale of the soldiers. The aid cuts meant that an artillery piece could only fire four rounds a day,[39] and each soldier had only 85 bullets per month.[39] Due to lack of fuel and spare parts, air force transport operations shrank by up to 70%.[39][40] The global1973 oil crisis also devastated the South Vietnamesefree market economy.
After the communists launched amajor invasion of Phước Long in mid-December 1974, the US army did not directly help South Vietnam and the province was finally captured on 6 January 1975, this created confidence among the communists that the United States would not intervene militarily and they planned to take over the South in 1976. When the North Vietnamese begantheir final offensive early in 1975, theUS Congress refused to appropriate increased military assistance for South Vietnam, citing strong opposition to the war by Americans and the loss of American equipment to the North by retreating Southern forces. After thedefeat at Buon Me Thuot in March 1975, Thiệu ordered his army to abandon the Central Highlands, but the retreat turned into disaster and chaos. Realizing the opportunity was ripe, North Vietnam decided to accelerate the deadline for taking over the South by force from 1976 to 1975. The communists demanded that Thiệu resign as a precondition for peace. Thiệu subsequently resigned on April 21, accusing the US of betrayal in a TV and radio address:
At the time of the peace agreement the United States agreed to only replace equipment on a one-by-one basis. But the United States did not keep its word. Is an American's word reliable these days? The United States did not keep its promise to help us fight for freedom and it was in the same fight that the United States lost 50,000 of its young men.[41]
According to the provisions of the 1967 Constitution, Vice PresidentTrần Văn Hương replaced Thiệu. Both the United States and South Vietnam hoped for the establishment of a coalition government with the PRG in South Vietnam to save peace and prevent the South from falling into the hands of communism.[dubious –discuss] However because of their great military advantage, the communists rejected Saigon's offer to form a coalition government. The Vietnam War ended when South Vietnamese PresidentDương Văn Minh, a left-wing neutralist taking power on April 28 by congressional designation,surrendered to the PAVN on the radio two day later. The North Vietnamese-controlled PRG became the new governement of South Vietnam. Schlesinger had announced early in the morning of April 29 the beginning ofOperation Frequent Wind, which entailed the evacuation of the last US diplomatic, military and civilian personnel from Saigon via helicopter, which was completed in the early morning hours of April 30. Not only did North Vietnam conquer South Vietnam, but the communists were also victorious in Cambodia when theKhmer Rougecaptured Phnom Penh on April 17, as were the communistPathet Lao in Laos successful in taking power peacefully in Laos on December 2. Like Saigon, US civilian and military personnel wereevacuated from Phnom Penh, US diplomatic presence in Vientiane was significantly downgraded, and the number of remaining US personnel was severely reduced. After the fall of the Republic of Vietnam, the United States imposed a trade embargo on all of Vietnam until 1994. US$3.3 billion in reconstruction aid for North Vietnam, which U.S. president Richard Nixon had secretly promised in the form of a letter offering a specific figures after the Paris Peace Accords, was refused by the US on the grounds that North Vietnam violated the agreement.[42]
After taking over South Vietnam, North Vietnam advocated rapid unification. North Vietnam and the PRG applied to join theUnited Nations as separate states in July 1975 but were vetoed by the United States both times in September on the grounds that the Soviet Union and China vetoedSouth Korea's application for membership in August. The communists legitimized their rule over all of Vietnam by holding a consultative conference in November and holding joint parliamentary elections in April 1976 to establish theSocialist Republic on July 2. The United States refused to recognize the new stateuntil 1995, four years after thecollapse of the Soviet Union and most other communist countries. In 1997, Vietnam agreed to formally drop its request that the U.S. honors its 1973 aid commitment and instead to pay off the debts of former South Vietnam, then amounting to $140 million, in order to be allowed to trade with the U.S.[43][44][45][46]
According to Finnish historianJussi Hanhimäki, due totriangular diplomacy (US–China–USSR) which isolated it, South Vietnam was "pressurized into accepting an agreement that virtually ensured its collapse."[47] During negotiations, Kissinger stated that the United States would not intervene militarily 18 months after an agreement, but that it might intervene before that. In Vietnam War historiography, this has been termed the "decent interval."[48]
Nguyen Duy Trinh, Minister for Foreign Affairs for theDemocratic Republic of Vietnam
Nguyễn Thị Bình, Minister for Foreign Affairs for theProvisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam
William P. Rogers,United States Secretary of State
Trần Văn Lắm, Minister for Foreign Affairs for theRepublic of VietnamHenry Cabot Lodge Jr., formerUnited States Ambassador to South Vietnam, head of the US delegationHenry Kissinger, special advisor of thePresident of the United StatesWilliam J. PorterXuân Thủy, head of delegation of the Democratic Republic of VietnamLê Đức Thọ, special advisor of the government of Democratic Republic of Vietnam
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