Paris Peace Accords
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The Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973 by the governments of North Vietnam (DRV), South Vietnam, and the United States, as well as the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) that represented South Vietnamese revolutionaries. The intent was to establish peace in Vietnam and an end to the Vietnam War. The accords ended direct U.S. military involvement and temporarily ended the war. The negotiations that led to the accord began in 1968 and were subject to various lengthy delays. The main negotiators of the agreement were United States National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and Vietnamese representative Le Duc Tho; the two men were awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts, although Le Duc refused to accept it.
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[edit] Provisions of the accords
The document begins with a statement that "the United States and all other countries respect the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of Vietnam as recognized by the 1954 Geneva Agreements on Vietnam." The inclusion of this provision was a victory for the Communist side of the negotiations, and allowed that the war was not foreign aggression against South Vietnam. The main military and political provisions of the agreement were:
- Beginning on January 27 at midnight, Greenwich Mean Time -- in Saigon time, 8 AM on January 28 -- there would be an in-place ceasefire. Vietnamese forces were to hold their locations. They were permitted to resupply military material to the extent necessary to replace items consumed in the course of the truce.
- Following the ceasefire, U.S. troops (along with other foreign soldiers) would begin to withdraw, with withdrawal to be complete within sixty days. Simultaneously, U.S. prisoners of war would be released and allowed to return home. The parties to the agreement agreed to assist in repatriating the remains of the dead.
- There would be negotiations between the two South Vietnamese parties -- the Republic of Vietnam and the PRG -- towards a settlement that would allow the people of South Vietnam to decide their future in free elections.
- Reunification of Vietnam, "carried out step by step through peaceful means."
[edit] The Paris Peace Talks
[edit] Early deadlocks
Shaken by the success of anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire primary, in March 1968 U.S. President Lyndon Johnson stopped bombing the northern portion of North Vietnam, in order to encourage Hanoi to begin negotiations. Shortly thereafter Hanoi agreed to discuss a complete halt of the bombing, and a date was set to meet in Paris. The sides first met on May 10, with the delegations headed by Xuan Thuy, who would remain the official leader of the North Vietnamese delegation throughout the process, and U.S. ambassador-at-large Averell Harriman. For five months the negotiations stalled as the DRV demanded that all bombing of North Vietnam be stopped, while the U.S. 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. Fearing that this breakthrough in the talks would propel his Democratic opponent to victory, Republican nominee in the 1968 U.S. Presidential election Richard Nixon intervened to persuade South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu to stay away from the talks, promising him a better deal for South Vietnam under a Nixon presidency.
One of the largest hurdles to effective negotiation was the fact that the DRV and its ally in South Vietnam, the National Liberation Front (NLF) or Vietcong, refused to recognize the government of South Vietnam; with equal persistence, the government in Saigon refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the NLF. Harriman resolved this dispute by developing a system by which the DRV and U.S. would be the named parties; NLF officials could join the DRV team without being recognized by South Vietnam, while Saigon's representatives joined their U.S. allies. A similar debate concerned the table to be used at the Paris Peace Conference. The North favored a circular table, in which all parties, including NLF (Viet Cong) representatives, would appear to be 'equal' in importance. The South argued that only a rectangular table was acceptable, for only a rectangle could show two distinct sides to the conflict, the North and South. Eventually a compromise was reached, in which representatives of the North and South government would sit at a circular table, with members representing all other parties sitting on individual square tables around them.
In 1969, Richard Nixon succeeded to the U.S. presidency and replaced Harriman with Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., who was later replaced by David Bruce. Also that year, the NLF set up a 'Provisional 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 in secret negotiations between Kissinger and Tho, which began on August 4, 1969.
The DRV insisted for three years that the agreement could not be concluded unless the U.S. agreed to remove South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu from power and replace him with someone more acceptable to Hanoi. Nixon and Kissinger were unwilling to overthrow through an agreement a government the NLF had failed to overthrow by force of arms.
[edit] Breakthrough and agreement
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The major break came on October 8, 1972. North Vietnam had been disappointed by the results of the Easter Offensive, and feared increased isolation if Nixon's efforts at détente significantly improved US relations with the chief Communist powers, the Soviet Union and China, who were backing the DRV's war effort. In a meeting with Kissinger, Tho significantly modified his bargaining line, allowing that the Saigon regime could stay in place and that negotiations between the two South Vietnamese parties could develop a final settlement during a ceasefire. Within ten days the secret talks drew up a final draft. On October 26 Radio Hanoi made public key details of the draft agreement; Kissinger responded with a press conference in which he announced that "peace is at hand."
South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu at first rejected the agreement because it permitted North Vietnamese troops to remain in Vietnam during the ceasefire. He also objected to the stipulated makeup of the council that would supervise the negotiatied settlement between the South Vietnamese parties. The peace talks temporarily stalled due to Thieu's position as the US team attempted to get some concessions for him.
However, as American casualties mounted through the conflict, American domestic support for the war deteriorated and by 1973 there was major pressure on the Nixon administration to withdraw. Consequently, the US brought great diplomatic pressure upon their South Vietnamese ally to sign the peace treaty even if the concessions Thieu wanted could not be achieved. Nixon pledged continued substantial aid to South Vietnam, and given Nixon's recent landslide victory in the presidential election it seemed possible that he would be able to follow through on that pledge. (In the event, most of the promised aid did not materialize; Nixon's power rapidly collapsed due to the Watergate scandal.) To demonstrate his seriousness to Thieu, Nixon ordered the heavy Operation Linebacker II bombings of North Vietnam at the end of 1972. These were also designed to keep North Vietnam at the table and prevent it from abandoning negotiations and seeking total victory. With the U.S. committed to disengagement, Thieu had little choice but to accede.
On January 15, 1973, Nixon announced a suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam. Kissinger and Tho met again on January 23, 1973 and signed off on a treaty 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 at the Majestic Hotel in Paris.
[edit] Aftermath
Soon after the agreements were signed, the USSR and Communist China resumed and escalated their support for North Vietnam, in violation of the treaty. Affected by the Watergate scandal, Nixon couldn’t convince the Congress to support South Vietnam. South Vietnam collapsed in 1975.
[edit] Signers
- Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. led the US delegation.
- William P. Rogers, United States Secretary of State
- Tran Van Lam, Minister for Foreign Affairs for The Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam)
- Nguyen Duy Trinh, Minister for Foreign Affairs for The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam)
- Nguyen Thi Binh, Minister for Foreign Affairs for The Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam
[edit] Other key figures in the negotiations
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Text of the Paris Peace Accords
- Nixon and Vietnam Timeline
- Timeline of NVA invasion of South Vietnam
[edit] Further reading
- Herrington, Stuart A. "Peace with Honor? An American Reports on Vietnam" Presidio Press (1983). Part II, "Life Under The Paris Agreement" pp. 16–40.
