The+End+of+Vietnam

The End of Vietnam Notes
 * Richard Nixon elected in 1968- promised "peace with honor" in Vietnam
 * Vietnamization- Nixon's policy for winding down the war
 * troops withdrawn
 * training and equipment given to South Vietnamese
 * troops were declining
 * booming raids increased
 * hurt supply lines of North Vietnam
 * bombing expanded to other countries- Laos and Cambodia
 * US ground forces invaded Cambodia in spring 1970
 * to stop supply lines
 * May 4, 1970- Kent State University
 * Nixon loses support from the public and Congress
 * Gulf of Tonkin Resolution repealed

The Pentagon Papers
 * The NY Times was printing things about Nixon
 * saying he was doing one thing after saying another
 * Nixon says that he has executive authority
 * Supreme Court ruled in favor of the NY Times

Peace Talks- 1972
 * Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho
 * "peace is at hand"

January 27, 1973 POW CAMPS 1975
 * agreement reached on ending the war
 * restoring peace in Vietnam
 * US gets a promise that all of our POWs would be returned
 * no medical treatment
 * lots of beatings
 * awful places
 * lots of torture
 * water torture
 * no conversations with other prisoners
 * tap codes with a five by five grid
 * POWs were pleasantly greeted
 * North Vietnam military attacks, Saigon falls
 * Vietnma is reunited under communism
 * therefore, the United States lost the war because communism was not stopped

LEGACY
 * Southeast Asia
 * 1.5 million Vietnamese deaths
 * countless Vietnamese civilians wounded, homeless
 * agrarian society in shambles
 * SE Asia left highly unstable
 * Cambodia fell to communism after terror- Pol Pot
 * wanted a communist farmers revolution
 * killing fields
 * America
 * 58,000 Americans killed
 * 365,000 wounded
 * $150 billion in direct costs
 * US attempts to come to grips with a "loss"- blow to self-esteem
 * changes in US polivy
 * government abolishes draft
 * War Powers Act- powers of president quelled
 * Disillusionment
 * veterans extended a cold hand
 * if the war was bad, so were the people
 * some veterans suffered from stress- PTSD
 * many citizens at bitter towards the government
 * entire generation of Americans was affected
 * Vietnam Memorial in DC- helped the nation come back together