Getting Out of Vietnam

Richard Nixon wins 1968 presidential election

• “Silent Majority”• “law and order”• “peace with honor”

Republican Richard Nixon

• “Peace with Honor”• “Vietnamization”• Secret Cambodia

bombings to force negotiations– Paris Peace Talks

Realpolitik:•We can’t win.•We can’t quit

Henry Kissinger

Paris Peace Talks

Talks drag on….

• “Vietnamization” mostly fails.• Invasion of Cambodia causes NVN to boycott

talks.• Invasions/bombing in Cambodia and Laos

does not influence NVN to negotiate AND infuriates anti-war activists at home.

Nixon continues to draw down troops; 175,000 in 1971

Protests at home…

• Vietnam Moratorium Day– 2 million protesters– 250,000 in Washington DC

1968My Lai Massacre - William Calley

• 350 villagers killed• Calley is court-marshalled– life in prison/paroled after 3.5

Publicized Nov. 1969

Kent State Shootings - 1970

• Response to invasion of Cambodia– ROTC building burned– National Guard called to stop violence

• 4 students killed• 10 wounded

Jackson State- 2 killed

Controversy – a deeply divided people

• “law and order”• Anti-anti-war

• “peace and love”• Anti-war

Pentagon Papers-1971

• Top-secret Department of Defense files– “leaked” by Daniel

Ellsberg to the NY Times

• Supreme Court frees NY Times to publish– Government could not

prove a need for prior restraint

Congress responds to anti-war sentiment

• 1970 -repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

• 1971-law prohibiting soldiers from fighting outside the borders of South Vietnam

• 1973-War Powers Act– Strict limits on the president’s power

to wage undeclared war (no Congressional approval)

Peace Accords Jan. of 73

• South Vietnamese government can stay in power

• North army can stay in South• Vietcong can join the political process• ceasefire• last US troops leave 3/73

Fall of Saigon 1975