Henry kissinger negotiations
The Henry Kissinger Negotiations, also known as the Paris Peace Accords, were created in 1973 by Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho in an attempt to end the Vietnam war and establish peace in Vietnam. The accords created as a result of the negotiations including a ceasefire beginning on 27 January 1973, the evacuation of U.S. troops with the withdrawal complete within 60 days. In addition, captured prisoners of war would be allowed to leave Vietnam. Thirdly, there would be negotiations between North and South Vietnam so that South Vietnam would be able to hold democratic elections. Lastly, reunification of Vietnam was to occur step by step with peaceful means. The Paris Peace Accords, as a direct result of the negotiations, however, did little to practically stop the conflict. The North Vietnamese forces slowly pushed on through and were eventually in position to take Saigon. However, while President Nixon had secretly promised air support in the event of a major attack on Saigon launched by the Vietcong forces, but due to the Watergate scandal, he was forced out of office and the Democratic party that took over refused to appropriate the funds needed to provide this support. This event, however, greatly impacted the Vietnam war as one of the first partially successful attempts to end the conflict to pull American troops out of Vietnam.
the Fall of saigon
The South Vietnamese position collapsed in 1975 collapsed so rapidly that it greatly surprised not only the Americans and the South Vietnamese observers, but likely the North Vietnamese allies as well. With armor and artillery support, the North Vietnamese began their march towards Saigon, (later to be renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the communist leader Ho Chi Minh), all the while capturing major South Vietnamese cities along the way. In addition, South Vietnamese refugees fleeing their cities heavily damaged any prospects of the South Vietnam forces making a turnaround. Due to the rapid advances of the North Vietnam forces in early April led to concern that Sagion, which was a peaceful city throughout the war and had encountered not much suffering in general, would soon come under attack. In fact, as early as the end of March, there were evacuation plans in place and families started to be evacuated. The Ford administration launched “Operation Babylift” which evacuated roughly 2000 orphans from the country. Simultaneously, the Ford administration began evacuation of Americans in Saigon, and on April 27, Saigon was hit by three NVA rockets, and fell to the communists. This event is important because Saigon was one of the last cities to be captured by the Vietcong forces as well as one of the greatest instigators of the evacuation of Vietnam by the American forces.
the socialist republic of vietnam claimed
On July 2, 1976, North and South Vietnam were merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Shortly after the communists took over, between 1 and 2.5 million South Vietnamese refugees were sent to communist re-education camps, with an estimated overall death toll in these camps of 165,000 people. In the transition that occurred, the government of Vietnam took all business and made it government controlled, and farmers were forced to work in co-ops. Lastly, trade between states was prohibited, and so Vietnam entered a famine. Nevertheless, the government couldn’t suppress things like the black market, where food, banned literature, and consumer goods could be purchased for the right price. These terrible living conditions caused a mass exodus of Vietnamese attempting to escape over two main routes: boats (which usually were caught by the Vietnamese Coast Guard or massacred by pirates), but some others fled overland through Cambodia. This is an important event because this was the forming of a single Vietnam, and the effects that followed.