On January 27, 1973, President Nixon signed the Paris Peace According ending the Vietnam War. At that time the North Vietnamese had agreed to cease fire. The Viet Cong also agreed, but by that time they were so weak they were barely recognizable. The Viet Cong had been virtually wiped out as a result of the 1968 Tet Offensive. The following article from Clemson is one of the more accurate accounts of the meaing of the Tet Offensive:
http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/facultypages/edmoise/viet8.html
Note: When the population did not rise up to support them, and the ARVN did not collapse, a large proportion of these men were killed. This weakened the NLF organization in the countryside very drastically, and it never completely recovered.
Nixon promised U.S. Air Power support to our ally, South Vietnam, in exchange for their agreement to sign the treaty. If you want to ready more on the treaty, the attached link is to the history.com link:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/paris-peace-accords-signed
If this agreement had been honored, the United States would have been the victor. Both sides agreed to withdraw from Laos and Cambodia and the DMZ at the 17th Parallel remained the provisional dividing line. There was a vague agreement to re-unify Vietnam, but the North promised to not use military force to achieve that goal. This is similar to the agreement to unify Taiwan and China.
The main provisions are outlined in the following:
https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~ebolt/history398/Notes_Paris_Peace.htm
There was a new according signed in June of 1973, strengthening the agreement. Following is the link to that agreement:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/kissinger-and-le-duc-tho-sign-new-peace-agreement
At this point, the Democratic congress intervened and made sure our involvement in Vietnam ended and that no peace agreement could be successful.
On July 1, 1973 Congress voted to end all bombing in Cambodia after August 15, 1973
By December 31, 1973 our military contingent in Vietnam was down to 50 people
On August 9, 1974 Richard Nixon resigned as President of the United States
On August 20, 1974 U.S. aid to Vietnam was cut from $1 billion to $700 million
On December 13, 1974 North Vietnam attacked the Phuc Luong province. The U.S. failed to respond.
On January 14, 1975 Secretary of Defense Schlesinger warned congress that the U.S. was failing to keep its promise to support South Vietnam.
On January 25, 1975, President Ford sends a special message to congress warning them of the desperate need to support Vietnam and accurately predicting the consequences. Following is a transcript of that message:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=5216#axzz1bpYcDJ6b
It was ignored.
Saigon fell on April 30, 1975.
The United States Military did not lose the Vietnam War. There is zero evidence that North Vietnam thought a military victory was remotely possible. It was lost by the Democratic Congress. They not only refused to allow Gerald Ford to use our military force to enforce the peace treaty, they cut off all military aid to South Vietnam. After a Democrat Congress and a Democratic President decided to fight the war in Vietnam, after a Republican President found a way to end it with honor, Democrats in congress threw it all away with little or no regard for the fate of our allies or the sacrifice of our troops. The only thing worse than losing a war; is to win it and then throw it all away as if it never mattered.
Now we have a Democratic President who is prepared to throw away any chance at victory in Iraq. Don’t be surprised if there are loud calls from Democrats to cut for cutting off all military aid to Iraq. I expect Iran to challenge us in Iraq almost immediately after the last troops leave. I expect Obama to ignore that challenge. Unfortunately, I also expect similar results to what happened in Vietnam.
Today the main stream media tends to blame the entire Vietnam War on Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, although it was Johnson, not Nixon who started that war. And it was the Democratic Congress, not Gerald Ford, who lost it. We can expect, after Iraq disintegrates, that the main stream media will blame it all on George Bush. Barack Obama will be barely mentioned. I also predict that 36 years later the main stream media will continue to lie about what happened.
Today the media contantly reminds us that the lesson of Vietnam is that we were caught in a quagmire in a war we could not win. The real truth is that military superiority may win on the battlefield but that doesn’t mean a lot if congress is dominated by a bunch of spineless liberals who don’t seem to notice or care.
TDM