1. The End of the War: 1968-1975 Seeking Peace with Honor
The Vietnam War:
The End of the War:
Seeking Peace with Honor

2. The Paris Peace Talks and the Election of 1968.
Begun May 5, 1968.
No results.
Nixon campaign message claimed he had a secret plan to end the war.
LBJ - not seeking re-election
Democratic race included:
VP Hubert H. Humphrey
Sen. Robert F. Kennedy
Sen. Eugene McCarthy

3. Republican Richard Nixon won in 1968 - a political comeback.
Robert Kennedy assassinated in June.
McCarthy - outspoken anti-war candidate.
Democratic National Convention - Chicago riot
Nixon defeated Humphrey.
Promised to end the war and sought “peace with honor”.

4. “Vietnamization” and Peace with Honor
Plan of removing American troops and replacing them with South Vietnamese soldiers.
US continued heavy bombing of Vietnam
US troop strength dropped from 500,000 in 1969 to 24,000 by 1972

5. Widening the war into Cambodia… to end it.
Nixon ordered secret bombing of Viet Cong sanctuaries insided Cambodia (1970)
US and South Vietnamese troops also invaded Cambodia
Nixon hoped to win concessions at the bargaining table.
Operation Linebacker
B-52s to bomb Cambodia

6. Kent State (Akron, Ohio) 1970
News of Cambodian invasion set off a new round of campus anti-war protests (May 1970)
Jackson State (MS), 2 killed, 11 wounded
Kent State - Ohio National Guard confronted hundreds of protesters -- 4 students killed, 9 wounded
Hundreds of campuses shut down early due to unrest.

7. Nixon calls for law and order
Nixon appealed to the great “silent majority” of Americans.
“If a vocal minority, however fervent its cause, prevails over reason and the will of the majoirty, this nation has no future as a free society.”

8. “Hard Hat” riots in New York City in support of Nixon
Over 100,000 construction workers marched.
Angry at the student anti-war protestors

9. “Peace is at Hand”
Paris Peace talks stalled since Renewed periodically.
National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger claimed peace was at hand - just before 1972 election.
December 1972, new round of bombing - “Christmas bombings” (Nixon - a “mad bomber”)
Bombed Hanoi, North Vietnam

10. Paris Peace Accords
The United States would withdraw all its forces from South Vietnam within 60 days.
All prisoners of war would be released.
All parties to the agreement would end military activities in Laos and Cambodia.
The 17th parallel would continue to divide North and South Vietnam until the country could be reunited.

11. South Vietnam falls North continued its assault on the South
Saigon (capital of South) fell to communists in April, 1975
US evacuates 1,000 remaining Americans and 6,000 Vietnamese to aircraft carriers
Vietnam united under communist rule

12. Saigon - 1975: the final days

13. Southeast Asia after the war.
“Dominoes” of Laos and Cambodia fell to communism - no other SE Asian countries
Cambodian Khmer Rouge government seized control under Pol Pot.
Vietnam - 100,000s of South Vietnamese civilians, soldiers, civil servants, professionals forced into ‘re-education’ camps.
1.5 million Vietnamese fled the country (100,000s of Cambodians and Laotians also) to the United States.

14. Scenes of post-1975 SE Asia

15. Legacy of the War 58,000 Americans dead 300,000 wounded 2,500 POWs
$150 billion
More bomb tonnage than in all Axis countries of WWII - combined
Millions of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed
end of US embargo
formal US recognition of Vietnam

16. The Vietnam Memorial - The Wall…