Treaty of Paris (1973)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The agreement was signed on January 27, 1973

The Paris Treaty of January 27, 1973, officially called the Agreement to End the War and Restore Peace in Vietnam , regulated the United States' withdrawal from the Vietnam War . It was signed by North Vietnam , the United States and South Vietnam . Lê Đức Thọ and the US special envoy and later Foreign Minister Henry Kissinger acted as negotiators, who were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for this .

prehistory

Consequences of the partition of Vietnam

As a result of the Geneva Indochina Conference and the resulting Geneva Indochina Agreement of 20./21. In July 1954, a line of demarcation divided Vietnam into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north and the Republic of Vietnam in the south. This caused the two parts to develop in completely different directions. In the north the communists took over rule under the " Party of the Working People of Vietnam " and introduced a socialist order. In the south, the politician Ngo Dinh Diem had come to power before the agreement was signed and was supported by the United States. Diem's ​​greatest goal was to crush communist influence on his established dictatorship. However, both states initially had to struggle with the consequences of the previous eight-year war between the Viet Minh and the former colonial power France . In the north there was only a very gradual upward trend, thanks to aid deliveries from abroad and support from the inhabitants, which should nevertheless suggest the superiority of the communist north over the south. In the south, on the other hand, there were serious conflicts, widespread poverty and unemployment among local farmers. The chances of a reunification of the two parts of the country almost completely disappeared by 1960. Had the North pushed even to general, free elections that have been considered during the Geneva Convention, the South rejected the country this plan off to a very probable election of the President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh to avoid . As a result, conflicts between the north and the south increased. Strategic goals of the north were the expansion of communism as well as the liberation of the south and the associated reunification. Ngo Dinh Diem, on the other hand, was planning a "train north". The president was assassinated on November 1, 1963, which led to an even more precarious situation and accompanying, far-reaching coups in the south. In addition, the guerrilla organization "National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam" (FNL) brought ever larger parts of the country under its control and led an armed resistance against the government of Ngo Dinh Diem and the USA as a supporter of the south. In this situation, the US decided to intervene military within the country.

US interventions

In 1964, American combat troops first took positions in the south of Vietnam and began bombing northern parts of the country. In fact, the Diệm government had left its warfare to the United States. In the nine years that followed, the country suffered heavy losses overall; Attacks from helicopters and airplanes and chemical attack agents that still have an impact today killed around 3.5 million people. At the height of the conflict in 1968, around one million local soldiers and over 500,000 US soldiers were deployed on the side of South Vietnam. Nevertheless, during the course of the war it became increasingly apparent that neither the North, supported by the socialist countries, nor the South under US warfare could defeat their respective opponents. With the Tet Offensive , negotiations between both parts of the country were finally initiated for the first time. One had become aware of the senseless destruction of life and material, even if the disputes were still clearly apparent in the following five years.

Content of the contract

The Paris Treaty, signed by both parts of Vietnam and the USA on January 27, 1973, provided for the end of the US military operation in Vietnam . It was the "Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam". This stopped all acts of war in Vietnam, and it was hoped that, without further intervention by the United States and other countries, the road to peace could be found in South Vietnam in the interests of national unity. On March 29, 1973, the last US soldier finally left South Vietnam, shortly before 591 American prisoners of war had been released.

Follow-up time

With the signing of the agreement in Paris, the war, which received great international attention and which developed primarily as a Cold War conflict between the USA and the socialist countries, was resolved. However, the conflicts within the country could not be resolved with the agreement; By the end of 1974 alone, over 76,000 South Vietnamese soldiers lost their lives in the war. It became clear after a short time that the US withdrawal from South Vietnam had considerable negative consequences for the country. In addition to the military situation, the country's economic situation also deteriorated, as it now had to forego billions in US payments. The unemployment rate rose rapidly and sharply; many people fled their homeland. In 1975 the north against the south launched a spring offensive despite the treaty ; that year Saigon fell in the Ho Chi Minh Campaign ; South Vietnam was completely occupied by North Vietnam and annexed shortly afterwards.

literature

  • Dale Anderson: The Tet Offensive. Turning Point of the Vietnam War , Lewes 2006.
  • Van Nguyen Duong: The Tragedy of Vietnam War. A South Vietnamese Officer's Analysis , North Carolina 2008.
  • Marc Frey : Decolonization in Southeast Asia. The United States and the Dissolution of the European Colonial Empires , Munich 2006.
  • Marc Frey: History of the Vietnam War. The Tragedy in Asia and the End of the American Dream , 8th edition, Munich 2006.
  • Karl Markus Kreis: Great Britain and Vietnam. The British mediation at the Geneva Indochina Conference 1954 , Hamburg 1973.
  • Stanley Ira Kutler (ed.): Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History . New York Charles Scribner's Sons, 711 pp, ISBN 978-0132769327 , 2 volumes (1995 + 1998, engl.)
  • Rolf Steininger : The Vietnam War , Frankfurt am Main 2004.
  • Bernd Stöver : The Cold War ?. Edition, Munich 2006.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rolf Steininger, The Vietnam War, Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 108.
  2. ^ Kreis, Karl Markus, Great Britain and Vietnam The British mediation at the Geneva Indochina Conference 1954, Hamburg 1973, p. 213 ff.
  3. ^ Mark Frey, Decolonization in Southeast Asia. The United States and the Dissolution of the European Colonial Empires, Munich 2006, p. 206.
  4. ^ Mark Frey, History of the Vietnam War. The tragedy in Asia and the end of the American dream, 8th edition, Munich 2006, p. 44 f.
  5. ^ Mark Frey, History of the Vietnam War. The Tragedy in Asia and the End of the American Dream, 8th edition, Munich 2006, p. 41.
  6. ^ Van Nguyen Duong, The Tragedy of Vietnam War. A South Vietnamese Officer's Analysis, North Carolina 2008, pp. 80 ff.
  7. ↑ Bernd Stöver, Der Kalte Krieg, 8th edition, Munich 2006, p. 67.
  8. ^ Rolf Steininger, The Vietnam War, 4th edition, Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 27.
  9. ^ Rolf Steininger, The Vietnam War, 4th edition, Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 29 f.
  10. ^ Dale Anderson, The Tet Offensive. Turning Point of the Vietnam War, Lewes 2006, p. 76.
  11. ^ Rolf Steininger, The Vietnam War, Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 108.
  12. ↑ a b c Rolf Steininger, The Vietnam War, Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 57.