THE CHECKERED HISTORY OF THE PARIS PEACE ACCORDS
By Jason Sibert
It’s been 47 years since the Paris Peace Accords started the process of ending the war in Vietnam, a very controversial war in our country.
The Treaty was signed on January 27, 1973 to establish peace in the region. The treaty occurred in the Richard Nixon Administration. Some historians feel the administration acted on this front due to political realities. The Vietnam War cut President Lyndon Johnson’s administration short. Opposition to the war powered the presidential campaigns of Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy, who challenged Johnson for the 1968 Democratic nomination, and also George McGovern, who won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. The treaty included North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the United States. The idea of the Paris Peace Accords can be credited to political opposition to the war in the U.S.
The treaty removed all U.S. forces. The Paris Peace Accords were never approved by the U.S. Senate. Negotiations started way back in 1968. The agreement did represent a drawdown of forces on the part of the U.S. However, it had its problems, as the agreement’s provisions were violated by both North and South Vietnam and fighting continued. In addition, North Vietnam accused the U.S. of conducting bombing operations in North Vietnam. In 1975, a North Vietnamese offensive destroyed the independence of the south, united the country, and the Vietnam War was over.
The agreement featured much that was worthy. It included the withdrawal of all U.S. and allied forces within sixty days, the return of prisoners of war within 60 days, the clearing of mines from North Vietnamese ports by the U.S, a cease-fire in place in South Vietnam followed by precise delineations of Communist and government zones of control, the establishment of a “National Council of National Reconciliation and Concord” composed of a Communist, government, and neutralist side to implement democratic liberties and organize free elections in South Vietnam, the establishment of “Joint Military Commissions” composed of the four parties and an “International Commission of Control and Supervision” composed of Canada, Hungary, Indonesia, and Poland to implement the cease-fire, the withdrawal of foreign troops from Laos and Cambodia, a ban on the introduction of war material in South Vietnam unless on a replacement basis, a ban on introducing further military personnel into South Vietnam, and U.S. financial contributions to “healing the wounds of war” throughout Indochina.
In hindsight, the agreement has a checkered record. It did remove U.S. troops from Vietnam and ended the loss of life on the American front. However, the war continued because North and South Vietnam did not want to conclude the war. Fighting began almost immediately after the agreement was signed, due to a series of mutual retaliations, and by March 1973, full-fledged war had resumed.
If the idea behind the agreement had held, then North Vietnam might have remained Communist and South Vietnam would have been non-Communist. Vietnam is still Communist today, although its development has followed the path of China than the hardline Communism that existed in much of the world at that time.
National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese politburo member Le Duc Tho were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for the Paris Peace Accords. Kissinger, later secretary of state, was one of many Americans to win the prize, but his winning was controversial. For the first time in the history of the Nobel Peace Prize, two members left the Nobel Committee in protest. Tho rejected the prize.
Jason Sibert is the executive director of the Peace Economy Project
