The End of the War - Chapter 31:v -

The Vietnam War created deep divisions within the Democratic Party.

In March 1968 President Johnson announced that he would not seek his party’s nomination.

After America suspended its bombing campaign, the North Vietnamese agreed in April 1968 to meet in Paris in order to negotiate an end to the war.

Vice-president Hubert Humphrey ultimately secured the Democrat- nomination for president.

During the 1968 presidential election, Republican Richard Nixon pledged to withdraw the United States from Southeast Asia.

Nixon won the presidency in 1968 with a plurality and an electoral landslide.

As president, Nixon ultimately succeeded in disengaging America from Vietnam, but only after expanding the War in neighboring countries.

This brief intensification of the war resulted in more violent protests against the war at home.

Nixon’s strategy for ending American involvement in Southeast Asia was known as Vietnamization.

As ARVN troops were trained and deployed, American forces were withdrawn from South Vietnam.

In April 1970, Nixon ordered troops to invade neighboring Cambodia.

Nixon wanted to clear Cambodia of camps used by the Viet Cong to mount attacks into South Vietnam.

Nixon hoped that invading Cambodia might strengthen America’s bargaining position at the Paris Peace talks.

“We take this action not for the purpose of expanding the war into Cambodia but for the purpose of ending the war in Vietnam and winning the just peace we all desire. We have made and will continue to make every possible effort to end this war through mediation at the conference table rather than through more fighting on the battlefield.”

Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia reignited the protest movement on college campuses.

[Source: America – Pathways to the Present, page 892]

When the peace talks in Paris failed to resolve the conflict in Southeast Asia, President Nixon ordered a more-intensive bombing campaign of North Vietnam.

In January 1973, the United States, South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the Viet Cong signed a formal agreement in Paris ending the war in Southeast Asia. The conditions were as follows:

1. The withdrawal of all American forces from South Vietnam within 60 days.

2. The release of all POWs.

3. All parties to end military activities in Laos and Cambodia.

4. The 17 th Parallel would continue to divide North and South Vietnam until the country could be reunited.

America ended its aid to South Vietnam shortly after the Paris Peace Accords were ratified by Congress.

Without America’s material support, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) was unable to stop the Communist offensive during the spring of 1975.

The United States evacuated nearly 6,000 Vietnamese when Saigon fell in late-April 1975.

Did we really learn the lessons of Vietnam?

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[Image source: America’s prestige regarding support for human rights was seriously bruised.

Many people felt the war was really waged for corporate interests as a form of cultural imperialism.

Whether we wish to admit it or not, there are consequences to consider...