The USA and Southeast Asia (17) Flashcards
Paris Peace Agreement 1973
• Thieu remained determined to keep the US military in the country
• Progress made in September 1972 when the North agreed to a coalition but the NLF had to be present – South Vietnamese excluded from these talks
• The following agreements were made:
o Ceasefire in January 1973
o Each sides forces would keep the territory they controlled at the time of the cease fire
o Within 60 days the USA would withdraw and POWs would be exchanged
o A commission would be set up to consider the introduction of free elections in post-war South Vietnam
o Free election would consider the possibility of eventual re-unification
o In December 1972, Nixon ordered the heaviest bombing of the conflict on Hanoi to send the North a message and to reassure Theiu who was outraged by the agreement
• Led to an international condemnation of the US and Nixon’s approval rating fell to just 32%
Northern Victory
- On 27 January 1973, the Paris Peace Agreement was finally ratified but the USA had to put significant pressure on Thieu to sign on behalf of the South
- US military forces were out of Vietnam by the end of March 1973
- After the US left, the North intensified its guerrilla warfare of which the corrupt and demoralised ARVN could not handle
- The USA promised to provide military and economic aid to South Vietnam that included over $1 billion in armaments, giving South Vietnam the world’s fourth largest air force
- The Watergate Scandal in January 1973 led Nixon to be distracted
- Nixon was forced to resign in August 1974
- The North intensified their conventional assaults when they realised that the USA would do nothing
- A North Vietnamese Assault in December 1974 saw continued victories against the ARVN
- The US congress refused to send any aid to the South
- 21st April 1975 Theiu resigned and left the country
- On April 30th 1975 South Vietnam surrendered to the North
US support in Cambodia
Lon Nol overthrew the Prince in 1970
Khmer Rouge and N. Vietnam fought US troops
Nixon withdrew troops due to backlash
Provided air-support - 430,000 tons on Cambodia
Country only had population of 7.5 million but had an army of 175,000 - still no match for Khmer Rouge
US military advisers - 119 to Phnom Penh in 1971
Lon Nol feared being overthrown - stopped cooperation between army, navy and air force and did not take US advice
Badly led, poorly paid army then began to lose incentive to fight
Khmer Rouge takeover
After January 1973 Paris Peace conference and the end of bombing, the Cambodians thought that without N. Vietnam fighter the 40,000 strong Khmer Rouge could be easily destroyed
Actually intensified their fighting and used a pincer movement to surround the Capital, Phnom Penh
Attacked the capital in January 1975
April 1975 US forces evacuated
Within a week Phnom Penh was lost
Khmer Rouge Cambodia
Wanted to destroy the Cambodian society and start a new agricultural country
Ruthless ideological clensing
Cambodian cities emptied and the inhabitants forced to work in the countryside as a peasant
1 million killed during the revolution
700,000 Cambodians killed in the war
Half the population become refugees
Khmer Rouge launched attacks across the Cambodia-Vietnam border
25th December 1978, the Vietnamese with Soviet military aid invaded Cambodia
Phnom Penh captured in January 1979
Pro-Vietnam Cambodian, Heng Samrin was installed
Costs of the Vietnam War to the USA
Division along social class - university students could be exempt from the draft
58,000 + deaths - 4th highest of all US wars
2.7 million Americans served in Vietnam - 9% of the population
Veterans were ostracised by the peace movement
Mental and physical impacts on the soldiers
Debate on the clemency of draft dodgers - were over 100,000 of them
Ford created a Clemency Board to manage an earned amnesty process - further divided the US
Inauguration of Jimmy Carter in January 1977 - gave amnesty of all draft dodgers
Estimated cost of $167 billion - diverted funding from Johnsons ‘Great Society’
SEATO was disbanded in 1976 as IndoChina had fallen to communism
Cost of the Vietnam War on Vietnam
Numbers of casualties - 1.3 million to 9 million killed
1975 - Ford opposed Vietnams entry to the UN - isolated them
Ford implemented a trade embargo which remained until 1994 and the USA withheld formal recognition until 1995
During the war, 643,000 tons of bombs on the North and 700,000 tons on South Vietnam - massive destruction of Prime Agricultural land
Chemicals poisoned over 6 million acres of South Vietnamese land
In the North/South border region - the Montagnard people lost 1/5 of their population and 85% had to be resettled
Nixon’s promises of reparations never materialised due to the War Powers Act of 1973
Southerners had to go through ‘re-education camps’.
In March 1978 Hanoi hastily imposed a communist-style economic system on the South.
Collectivisation left many without a livelihood
1.5 million people fled the country
