जब वियतनाम से लौटे US सैनिक, दो दशक तक चले युद्ध का ऐसे हुआ था अंत – vietnam war us troop withdrawal 1973 paris peace accords history explained tstsd
On March 29, 1973, all American soldiers returned from Vietnam. On this day the last American soldiers left South Vietnam. At the same time, Hanoi had also released many American prisoners of war imprisoned in North Vietnam.
After the peace agreement regarding the eight-year long Vietnam War, it took two months for the American army to leave from there. The last batch of US Army left Vietnam on 29 March. However, approximately 7,000 civilian employees of the US Department of Defense remained in Saigon to assist South Vietnam in its fierce and continuing war with Communist North Vietnam.
In 1961, after two decades of indirect military aid, US President John F. Kennedy sent the first large contingent of American military personnel to support South Vietnam’s ineffective autocratic government against North Vietnam’s communist regime. Three years later, with the collapse of the South Vietnamese government, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered limited bombing of North Vietnam, and Congress authorized the use of American troops.
By 1965, the North Vietnamese offensive left President Johnson with two options: increase American involvement or withdraw. Johnson chose the first option and the number of troops soon increased to more than 300,000, beginning the largest bombing campaign in history by the US Air Force.
Protest against Vietnam War had started in America
Over the next few years, the long duration of the war, the high number of American casualties, and the exposure of American involvement in war crimes such as the My Lai massacre turned many in the United States against the Vietnam War. The Communist Tet Offensive in 1968 shattered American hopes for a quick end to the conflict and further strengthened American opposition to the war. In response, Johnson announced in March 1968 that he would not seek re-election, citing his role in the dangerous national division over Vietnam. He also gave permission to start peace talks.
More than 5 lakh soldiers were present in Vietnam in 1969
In the spring of 1969, as protests against the war intensified in the United States, the number of American troops in war-torn Vietnam reached approximately 550,000. New US President Richard Nixon began the withdrawal of US troops and the Vietnamization of the war effort that same year, but he intensified the bombing.
Large-scale US troop withdrawals continued in the early 1970s, as President Nixon expanded air and ground operations into Cambodia and Laos in an effort to block enemy supply routes along Vietnam’s borders. This expansion of the war, which yielded few positive results, sparked new waves of protests in the United States and elsewhere.
US military intervention ends with peace deal in January
Finally, in January 1973, the United States, representatives of North and South Vietnam, and the Vietcong signed a peace accord in Paris, ending direct US military involvement in the Vietnam War. Its major provisions included a ceasefire throughout Vietnam, the withdrawal of American forces, the release of prisoners of war, and the unification of North and South Vietnam through peaceful means.
The South Vietnamese government remained in place until new elections were held, and North Vietnamese forces in the south were neither allowed to advance nor were asked to reinforce them. But in reality, this agreement was just a show-off step taken by the US government.
Even before the last American troops left on March 29, the communists violated the ceasefire and full-scale war resumed by early 1974. In late 1974, South Vietnamese officials reported that 80,000 of their soldiers and civilians had been killed in fighting that year, making it the deadliest year of the Vietnam War.
Also read: When China started war against Vietnam, had to run away backwards
On April 30, 1975, as Saigon fell to Communist forces, some of the last Americans remaining in South Vietnam were airlifted out of the country. Accepting South Vietnam’s surrender later the same day, North Vietnamese Colonel Bui Tin said, “You have nothing to fear; there are no winners or losers among the Vietnamese. Only the Americans have been defeated.” The Vietnam War was the longest and most unpopular foreign war in American history, costing 58,000 American lives. Nearly two million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were killed.
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