"Peace with honor"

At the end of March, 1968, President Johnson accounced that the U.S. would stop bombing north of the 20th parallel and seek to open negotiations. Talks between the U.S. and the DRV opened formally on May 13. The first sticking point was the demand that all air strikes on North Vietnam end; Johnson hesitated, but finally announced the halt for October 31, 1968. The talks were delayed further until January of 1969 while the DRV refused to recognize the Saigon government and the Saigon government refused to recognize the National Liberation Front.

After Richard Nixon became U.S. President in 1969, the talks continued along a fruitless path. However in August, 1969, Nixon's National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, began secret negotiations with the DRV which would eventually lead to an agreement. For more than three years the DRV insisted, both officially and in the secret talks, that the only way to end the war was for the U.S. to dissolve the Saigon government, disband its army, and install a new coalition that would negotiate for a truce. At various times the U.S. returned to bombing in the north in an attempt to force the DRV to continue negotiations. In the aftermath of the 1972 Easter Offensive, the DRV position began to soften. In October, 1972, the DRV and the U.S. reached an agreement, only to have the RVN President, Thieu, object. In December of 1972 Nixon ordered the heaviest bombing of the war to intimidate North Vietnam and to reassure South Vietnam. By January, 1973, an agreement among all parties was reached and Richard Nixon informed the American public that we had achieved "peace with honor."

The so-called "Paris Accords" provided for a ceasefire under international supervision. North Vietnam retained control over large areas of the south, left its troops in place there, and continued to receive Soviet and Chinese aid. The U.S. gained a "decent interval" to withdraw its troops and obtain the release of prisoners of war. South Vietnam received promises from the DRV not to invade and U.S. promises of reintervention if the agreement broke down. Within sixty days the last U.S. troops departed and military aid to South Vietnam was cut off entirely. Henry Kissinger accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his part in the negotiations.

Although the agreement ended U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, it achieved virtually none of its other objectives. No political settlement was reached. No elections were held. The fighting didn't stop, except for the United States. After two years North Vietnam broke the Paris Accords with a masive conventional invasion that eventually ended the war in 1975. By then the U.S. Congress had voted to prohibit American military intervention, as called for in the Paris Accords to stop such a campaign. To quote the U.S. State Department summary, "By that time, the Paris Accords seemed memorable only as the vehicle on which the United States rode out of Southeast Asia."

Readings:

1. Kolko, pp. 470-558
2. Langguth, pp. 633-668
3. Web Site: Tilford, "Who Won the Vietnam War and Why It Matters"
4. Web Site: U.S. Dept. of State, "Ending the Vietnam War"
5. Web Site: Nixon, "Peace With Honor"

Military Operations:

1. Operation Linebacker
2. 1975 Ho Chi Minh Offensive

Questions for consideration and further discussion:

1. Why did the U.S. Government look to negotiation rather than to a further escalation to resolve the Vietnam War?
2. Did Johnson's on again/off again bombing halts and Nixon's use of B-52s against the North to continue negotiations say anything about what the U.S. might have been able to achieve with technology?
3. What elements in the negotiations had RVN President Thieu worried? Why?
4. Do you think Kissinger deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in the secret negotiations?
5. In the end, was this truly a "peace with honor"?