Wednesday May 8

Nixon and Vietnam

  • Nixon called for the "Vietnamese-ation" of the war
    • means we did to pull out of Vietnam and allow the Vietnamese people to fight for themselves now
  • "Peace with honor" - we want peace to insure and we want honor when we leave
  • Gradually pulled US troops out and train the ARVN to take our place in fighting the north
  • He expanded the war into Laos and Cambodia leading to college protests (Kent St)
  • expanded to these two countries because there was a trail that was the North/Vietcong supply line in the jungle so he wanted to bomb it and take out their supply line; this didn't work, the Vietcong would just go around the areas that were bombed
  • January 15,1973 Nixon announced the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam
  • 13 days later, on January 27, The Paris Peace Accords were signed which officially ended US involvement in the Vietnam conflict
  •   1. Fighting stopped
  •  2. US would pull out of Vietnam
  •  3. North and South Vietnam would recognize each others independence
  • The Peace agreement didn't last
  • In March, 1975,the North invaded the South
  • the south wasn't strong enough and fell through quickly
  • Saigon, South's capital fell on April 30, 1975
  • The U.S. did not live up to its promise to come to their aid if the North attacked
  • North united both north and south Vietnam on July 2, 1976 to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
  • Saigon was re-named Ho Chi Ming City in honor of former president of the North
  • Vietnam is still communist today
  • US: lost 58,202
  • ARVN: 223,748
  • NVA/VC: 1,100,000

War Powers Act- 1973

  • stripped war power from the president
  • congress has to approve to send out troops for longer than 60 days
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