VISUAL DISCOVERY Getting Out of Vietnam

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VISUAL DISCOVERYGetting Out of Vietnam
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Nixons Peace with Honor

• War was not winnable, so troops should be
  withdrawn, but without damaging U.S. reputation
• Strategy
• Diplomacy no more bombing if North Vietnamese
  troops leave and South Vietnam remains
  independent
• Vietnamization South Vietnam would gradually
  take over conduct of the war
• Destroy communist bases in neighboring Cambodia
  and Laos by secret bombing raids and ground
  troops
• Results American troops were gradually reduced,
  but the enormously costly war continued

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Increased Protest at Home

• My Lai Massacre suspecting the village was a
  Viet Cong stronghold, U.S. soldiers kill 500
  Vietnamese women, children, and old men
• Antiwar demonstrations increased on city streets
  and college campuses dividing the nations
• Kent State University shootings the National
  Guard opened fire during a protest killing 4
  students
• Pentagon Papers the NY Times published govt
  reports proving that the govt deceived the
  public about the war

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American Involvement Ends

• In 1972, with only 6,000 American troops
  remaining in South Vietnam, North Vietnam
  invaded failed when the U.S. unleashed bombers
• Paris Peace Accords of 1972
• Signed by the U.S., South Vietnam, North Vietnam,
  and the Viet Cong
• Established a cease fire, kept the dividing line
  at the 17th parallel, full withdrawal of U.S.
  troops, and release of all U.S. prisoners of war
• Aftermath
• South Vietnam fell to communist North Vietnam in
  1975
• U.S. embassy in South Vietnam closed and
  evacuated
• South Vietnamese sent to reeducation camps
  hard labor
• Over one million Vietnamese refugees