USA and SE Asia

Paris peace talks; Northern victory; continuing problems in Cambodia; costs of war

Paris Peace Agreement, 1973

**S Vietnam excluded from negotiations, between Kissinger and Le Duc Tho**

* **ceasefire would begin in Jan 1973 in Vietnam (not Laos or Cambodia)**
* each side would keep areas they controlled and PoWs would be exchanged
* within 60 days USA would withdraw forces
* free elections would consider reunification
* Nixon secretly promised aid to Hanoi for reconstruction

When did peace talks start and when were the actually announced?

started July 1972 and announced in Jan 1973

Operation Linebacker II, Dec 1972

Nixon ordered bombing of Hanoi and other important northern cities following his landslide victory in Nov 1972, in what was the heaviest bombing campaign of the entire Vietnam War

left 1000 Vietnamese and 93 Americans dead

**= occurred between peace agreements in Oct 1972 and its announcement Jan 1973 suggesting Nixon did not truly want peace, caused international condemnation and approval ratings fell to 32%**

When has US completely pulled troops out of Vietnam?

**March 1973**

ARVN had 4x the military tech than the North

Fall of Saigon, 30 Apr 1975

March 1975: N Vietnamese forces invaded the South

29 Apr 1975: Operation Frequent Wind

* largest helicopter evacuation with almost all American civilians and military personnel and thousands associated with the southern regime

Costs of Vietnam War

USA

* 58 000 deaths
* 300 000 wounded
* $170b

Vietnam

* 1m VC deaths
* 400 000 S Vietnamese killed
* birth defects, cancers, disfigurement due to chemical warfare

Who is Pol Pot and what is his significance?

seized power with his Khmer Rouge after collapse of Lon Nol’s govt (pro-American general) from **Apr 1975 to Dec 1978**

* led to Cambodian genocide killing 25% of the population

Cambodian-Vietnamese war, May 1975-Jan 1979

* May 1975: Cambodia began attacking Vietnam
* 30 Apr 1977: Pol Pot attacks Vietnam again, Vietnam launched retaliatory strike at the end of 1977 in attempt to force them to negotiate
* Jan 1978: Vietnamese military withdrew but Khmer Rouge refused to negotiate
* **25 Dec 1978: Vietnam launched full scale invasion and succeeded in toppling Khmer Rouge govt and stopping genocide within 2 weeks**