1. The End of Vietnam War

2. Failure of Policy US fought a “limited war” in which they used policies that were meant to limit the damage and casualties for the enemy US had several policies that were used during the Vietnam War that simply did not work  Search and destroy did not destroy the enemy  massive bombing (mainly of NV) did not force NV to surrender

3. Getting the US Out When Nixon became president he decided to try to somewhat get the US out of Vietnam  he used “secret” negotiations with the NV to talk about peace deals (these did not work well)  he was looking for an agreement where both sides could save face (Peace with Honor for the US) but NV was not willing to give in the any US demands  Vietnamization – train and support Vietnamese troops to fight and slowly withdraw US troops as SV takes over the fighting

4. Expansion of the War While the US was trying to get out or scale back effort in Vietnam it had to deal with NV using Laos and Cambodia  Ho Chi Minh Trail was important for the NV and they were also using Laos and Cambodia to launch attacks against US troops in SV US began secretly attacking NV locations within Laos and Cambodia to destroy this threat to US troops  this caused a new wave of anger and anti-war protests against US government by its people

5. Public Pressure Efforts to end the war or scale back the US effort were not helping with the public  there were more anti-war movements building up  Vietnam Veterans were returning and some were telling about the problems in Vietnam American politicians were beginning to feel real pressure to get the US out of Vietnam even if it means “losing” for the US

6. Negotiation and Bombing As negotiations would heat up NV would ask for more than US was willing to give and SV would stall because they did not want US to leave When talks would break down US would start bombing NV to get them back to the negotiating table Dec. 1972 US launches Christmas Bombings  12 days of heaviest bombing of the war to get NV back to negotiations

7. Peace Deal Jan 27, 1973 a peace deal is signed in Paris  US will pull troops out of Vietnam within 60 days  NV and SV will not fight each other  peaceful unification of Vietnam over time

8. Vietnamese Reaction Top NV military commander was stunned that US would surrender at this time 'What we still don't understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi. You had us on the ropes. If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender! It was the same at the battles of TET. You defeated us! We knew it, and we thought you knew it. But we were elated to notice your media was definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields. We were ready to surrender. You had won!'

9. Returning Veterans Vietnam Veterans were not treated very well when the returned  after WWII there were parades and many returning vets returned to thanks and admiration Vietnam Vets did not have parades and were not welcomed back as heroes Some Vietnam Vets were treated rudely by fellow Americans and some were harassed  some vets were told not to mention their service to avoid the harassment or mistreatment

10. NV Wins After US pulled out troops it still supported SV with money and supplies  SV believed US would intervene if NV invaded Late 1974 US Congress announced US would no longer support SV  NV realized it could invade SV NV invades SV and US refused to step in NV quickly overruns SV Late April 1975 SV falls Vietnam becomes Communist