The Paris Peace Agreement, is officially titled Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam , is a peace treaty signed on 27 January 1973 to build peace in Vietnam and end the Vietnam War. The agreement includes the governments of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), and the United States, as well as the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) representing the indigenous South Vietnamese people. This ended the US military battle directly, and temporarily halted the battle between North and South Vietnam. However, the treaty was not ratified by the United States Senate.
The negotiations leading to the agreement began in 1968, after various lengthy delays. As a result of the agreement, the International Control Commission (ICC) was replaced by the International Commission on Control and Supervision (ICCS) to fulfill the agreement. The main negotiator of the agreement is United States National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger and member of the North Vietnamese politburo, LÃÆ'ª ?? c Th ?; both men were awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts, though LÃÆ'ª ?? c? refused to accept it.
Video Paris Peace Accords
Terms of approval
The document begins with the statement that "the United States and all other countries respect Vietnam's independence, sovereignty, unity and integrity as recognized by the 1954 Geneva Agreement on Vietnam". The inclusion of this provision is a victory for the communists - Saigon and Vietcong - towards a political settlement that will allow the people of South Vietnam to "decide for themselves the political future of South Vietnam through a truly free and democratic elections under international supervision."
- Vietnam's reunification should be "taken step by step peacefully".
- If South Vietnam requires any military device to defend itself against North Vietnamese aggression, the United States agrees to provide substitute relief to South Vietnam in a piecemeal, one-to-one turn.
Maps Paris Peace Accords
Peace negotiations Paris
Initial Deadlock
Following the success of anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy in primary New Hampshire, in March 1968 US President Lyndon B. Johnson halted bombing operations over northern North Vietnam (Operation Rolling Thunder), to encourage Hanoi (perceived locus of the insurgency) to start negotiations. Shortly thereafter, Hanoi agreed to discuss the total cessation of the bombing, and the date set for representation from both sides to meet in Paris, France. The two sides met first on May 10, with a delegation headed by XuÃÆ'Â ¢ n Thu?, Who will remain the official leader of the North Vietnamese delegation during the process, and the US ambassador to Averell Harriman.
For five months, negotiations halted as North Vietnam demanded that all North Vietnamese bombings be stopped, while the US side demanded that North Vietnam agree on a mutual escalation in South Vietnam; New on October 31, Johnson agreed to end the air strike and serious negotiations could begin.
One of the biggest hurdles for effective negotiation is the fact that North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, the National Front for the Liberation of Southern Vietnam (NLF, or Viet Cong), refuse to recognize the South Vietnamese government; with the same persistence, the government in Saigon refused to recognize the legitimacy of the NLF. Harriman resolved this dispute by developing a system by which North Vietnam and the US would be the parties named; NLF officers can join the North Vietnamese team without being recognized by South Vietnam, while representatives of Saigon join their US allies.
A similar debate relates to the table form to be used at the conference. The North loves a round table, where all parties, including NLF representatives, will look just as important. South Vietnam argues that only acceptable rectangular tables, because only rectangles can show two different sides of the conflict. Finally a compromise was reached, in which representatives of the northern and southern governments would sit at a round table, with members representing all the other parties sitting at a rectangular table around them.
Claims of negotiation sabotage by Nixon campaign
Bryce Harlow, a former White House staff member in the Eisenhower administration, claimed to have "a double agent working in the White House.... I keep telling Nixon." Harlow and Henry Kissinger (who were friendly with both campaigns and guaranteed good work in the administration of Humphrey or Nixon in upcoming elections) separately predicted Johnson's "bombing". Democratic Senator George Smathers told President Johnson that "there is news that we are trying to impose the election to Humphrey." Nixon has been told about it.
According to presidential historian Robert Dallek, Kissinger's suggestion "does not rely on specific knowledge of decision-making in the White House but on the astute analyst's insight into what's happening." CIA intelligence analyst William Bundy stated that Kissinger obtained "no useful inside information" from his trip to Paris, and "almost all experienced Hanoi observers may have come to the same conclusion". While Kissinger may have "hinted that his advice is based on contact with the Paris delegation," sort of "self-promotion... the worst is minor and not uncommon practice, quite different from getting and reporting the real secret."
Nixon called on leading Asian-American politician Anna Chennault to be "her channel to Mr. Thieu"; Chennault agrees and periodically reports to John Mitchell that Thieu has no intention of attending a peace conference. On November 2, Chennault informed the South Vietnamese ambassador: "I just heard from my boss in Albuquerque saying that his boss [Nixon] will win, and you tell your boss [Thieu] to be around in a moment." In response, President Johnson ordered Nixon's wire-tapping members. Dallek writes that Nixon's efforts "may be no different" because Thieu does not want to attend negotiations and there is little chance of reaching a deal before the election; However, the use of information provided by Harlow and Kissinger is morally questionable, and Hubert Humphrey's vice president's decision not to make public Nixon's actions "an unusual act of political decency."
Nixon Government
After winning the 1968 presidential election, Richard Nixon became president of the United States in January 1969. He later replaced the US ambassador Harriman with Henry Cabot LodgeÃ, Jr., who was later replaced by David Bruce. Also in that year, the NLF established a Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) to gain government status in the negotiations. However, the main negotiations that led to the treaty did not take place at the Peace Conference at all, but were carried out during the secret negotiations between Kissinger and LÃÆ'ª ?? c? Th?, Which began on August 4, 1969.
North Vietnam insisted for three years that the treaty could not be concluded unless the United States agreed to remove South Vietnamese President Nguy? N V? N Thi? U from power and replace him with someone more acceptable in Hanoi. Nixon and Kissinger do not want to sign an agreement to overthrow the government, the NLF fails to overthrow with weapons power, despite the demands of the North Vietnamese contested. Historian Marilyn B. Young, whose expertise in American foreign relations, contends that the contents of Hanoi's proposal are systematically distorted from their original request to allow Thi's replacement? U, for what Kissinger enlarged as a request for his overthrow.
Breakthrough and approval
On May 8, 1972, President Nixon made a major concession to North Vietnam by announcing that the US would accept a ceasefire in place as a precondition for his military withdrawal. In other words, the US will withdraw its troops from South Vietnam without the North Vietnamese doing the same. The concessions broke the deadlock and made progress in talks over the next few months.
The last major breakthrough came on October 8, 1972. Before this, North Vietnam had been let down by the results of the Nguyen Hue attack (known in the West as the Easter Attack), which had resulted in the United States retaliating with the "Linebacker Operation," a campaign significant air bombardment that dulled North Korea's drive in the South and inflicted damage in the North. Also, they fear it will be further alienated if Nixon's efforts at dà © Å © tente significantly improve US relations with major communist powers, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, which support North Vietnam's military efforts. In a meeting with Kissinger, Th? significantly changing the bargaining line, allowing the Saigon government to remain in power and negotiations between the two sides of South Vietnam can develop a final settlement. Within 10 days, the secret talks drew up the final draft. Kissinger held a press conference in Washington where he announced that "peace is imminent."
When Thi? U, who had not even been informed of secret negotiations, presented with a new draft agreement, he was furious with Kissinger and Nixon (who were well aware of the South Vietnamese negotiating position) and refused to accept it without significant change. He then made several public radio addresses, claiming that the proposed agreement was worse than it really was. Hanoi was flabbergasted, believing that it had been tricked into a propaganda tactic by Kissinger. On 26 October, Radio Hanoi broadcast key details of the draft agreement.
However, when US casualties have risen during the conflict since 1965, American domestic support for the war has worsened, and by the fall of 1972 there was considerable pressure on the Nixon government to withdraw from the war. As a result, the US brought a great diplomatic pressure on their southern Vietnamese allies to sign a peace treaty even if the concessions I wanted were unattainable. Nixon promised to provide sustained great assistance to South Vietnam, and given his recent victory in the presidential election, it seems likely that he will be able to follow up on that promise. To show seriousness to Thi? U, Nixon ordered the big bombing of Operation Linebacker II in North Vietnam in December 1972. Nixon also sought to strengthen the South Vietnamese military forces by ordering that large amounts of US military materials and equipment were provided to South Vietnam from May to December 1972 under Operation Improving and Increase Plus. These operations are also designed to keep North Vietnamese at the negotiating table and prevent them from leaving negotiations and seeking total victory. When the North Vietnamese government agreed to continue a "technical" discussion with the United States, Nixon ordered a halt to the northern parallel bombing on December 30. With the US committed to secession (and after a threat from Nixon that South Vietnam would be abandoned if he disagreed), Thi? u have little choice but to approve.
On January 15, 1973, President Nixon announced a suspension of offensive action against North Vietnam. Kissinger and Th? meet again on January 23 and sign an agreement that is essentially identical to the previous three-month draft. The agreement was signed by the leaders of the official delegation on January 27, 1973, at the Majestic Hotel in Paris, France.
Aftermath
The Paris Peace Agreement effectively removes the US from the conflict in Vietnam. However, the terms of the agreement were routinely derided by North Vietnamese and Saigon governments, received no response from the United States, and eventually led to communists enlarging territories under their control by the end of 1973. North Vietnamese military forces gradually built up their military infrastructure in the area they controlled and two years later was in a position to launch a successful attack that ended the status of South Vietnam as an independent state.
Nixon quietly promised Thi? U that he would use air power to support the Saigon government if needed. During a confirmation hearing in June 1973, Defense Minister James Schlesinger was sharply criticized by several senators after he declared that he would recommend the resumption of US bombing in North Vietnam if North Vietnam launched a major offensive against South Vietnam but on August 15, 1973, 95 % American troops and their allies have left Vietnam (both North and South) and Cambodia and Laos under the Church-Case Amendment. The amendment, approved by the US Congress in June 1973, outlawed further US military activity in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia unless the president gains prior congressional approval. However, during this time, Nixon was being expelled from the office due to the Watergate scandal, which resulted in his resignation in 1974. When North Vietnam started their final assault in early 1975, the US Congress refused to provide additional military assistance to South Vietnam, citing strong opposition against the war by Americans and the loss of American equipment to the North with the retreat of Southern forces. You then resign, accusing the US of treason on TV and radio addresses:
At the time of the peace agreement, the United States agreed to replace the equipment one by one. But the United States does not keep its promise. Is the word America reliable today? The United States did not keep its promise to help us fight for independence and in the same fight, the United States lost 50,000 young people.
Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese troops backed by the Viet Cong unit on April 30, 1975. Schlesinger had announced early on the morning of April 29 the Operation Frequent Wind, which involved the evacuation of the last US diplomatic, military and civilian personnel from Saigon by helicopter, which finished on early morning 30 April. Not only North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam, but communists also won in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, just as Pathet Lao in Laos captured Vientiane on December 2. Like Saigon, US military and civilian personnel were evacuated from Phnom Penh, the US diplomatic presence in Vientiane was significantly lowered, and the number of US personnel remaining reduced significantly.
Signer
- Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., former US Ambassador to South Vietnam, leads the US delegation
- William P. Rogers, United States Secretary of State
- Tr? n V? n L? m, Foreign Minister for the Republic of Vietnam
- Nguy? n Th? BÃÆ'¬nh, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam
- Nguyen Duy Trinh, Foreign Minister for the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Other important figures in the negotiation
- Henry Kissinger
- LÃÆ'ª ?? c Th?
- ThÃÆ'ch Nh? t H? nh
See also
- Peace treaty
- Peace of Westphalia
- International law
References
Further reading
- Herrington, Stuart A. (1983). "Peace with Honor" American Report on Vietnam "Presidio Press. Part II, "Life Under The Paris Agreement" p. 16-40.
- Herschensohn, Bruce (2010). American Amnesia: How US Congress Forces South Vietnam and Cambodia Attackers . New York: Beaufort Books. ISBN: 978-0-8253-0632-7.
External links
- Nixon and Vietnam Timeline
- NVA invasion schedule in South Vietnam
- "LBJ Tapes Containing Nixon With Treason". ABC News. December 5, 2008, (video).
- "The Trials of Henry Kissinger" documentary by Eugene Jarecki (video, 1h19). The sequence on the Nixon campaign sabotage from Paris Peace Accords: from 15 minutes 20 seconds - ends 20 minutes 10 seconds.
- Short film Vietnam War (1971) available for free download on Internet Archive
- "Les Accords de Paris, quarante ans plus tard, un film de Rina Sherman" documentary by Rina Sherman (HD, 71 minutes).
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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