• Episode 11: Paris Peace Accords

    Peace is declared but not achieved

    Excited soldiers on a plane lifting their hands in the air

  • Today [we] have concluded an agreement to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam. - President Richard Nixon, 1973

    After Nixon’s “Christmas Bombing,” North Vietnam returned to the negotiating table. On January 27, 1973, the Paris Peace Accords officially ended the war in Vietnam. The final agreement was only superficially different from the draft reached in October 1972. South Vietnamese President Thieu reluctantly signed after Nixon secretly promised “swift and severe retaliatory action” if North Vietnam violated it.

    Nixon and Kissinger declared they had achieved “peace with honor” and hoped it would last long enough to give Saigon a fighting chance.

    In fact the war was far from over. Fighting between Saigon and Hanoi continued and even increased in parts of South Vietnam. North Vietnam began preparations to overtake the South. President Nixon, embroiled in the Watergate scandal, did not have the political capital to provide the backup he had repeatedly promised his ally.

     

  • The CIA sometimes produced models for POW rescue missions. These miniatures helped operational planners to understand the target, in this case, the Hoa Lo prison camp known as the “Hanoi Hilton.”

    Color photograph of small model room with interrogation table, green doors, and man standing in corner

    CIA model of “Hanoi Hilton,” undated. National Archives, Records of the Central Intelligence Agency

    View in the National Archives Catalog

  • American servicemen, former prisoners of war, cheer as their aircraft takes off for home from an airfield near Hanoi. In all, 591 POWs were released after the Paris Peace Agreement was signed.

    Black and white photograph of soldiers on a plane celebrating with smiles and raised fists

    American P.O.W.s leave Hanoi, February 12, 1973. National Archives, Records of the United States Marine Corps

    View in the National Archives Catalog

  • Captain Robert White was the prisoner of a “Viet Cong” who was hiding in a swamp in the Mekong Delta at the end of the war. American officials were surprised when he was turned over a few days after the “last” surviving American POWs were released.

    Receipt with handwritten English and Vietnamese text in red, green, and black ink

    Receipt for American prisoner of war Robert White, April 1, 1973. Records of the U.S. Forces in Southeast Asia

    View in the National Archives Catalog

  • Key Dates

    • January 27, 1973: Signing of Paris Peace Agreement
    • January 28, 1973: Cease-fire
    • February 12, 1973: Operation Homecoming brings home 591 American prisoners of war
    • March 29, 1973: Last American troops leave Vietnam
    • August 16, 1973: The U.S. bombing of Cambodia ends, the last U.S. combat activity in Southeast Asia
    • November 7, 1973: War Powers Resolution passes in attempt to require congressional consent to commit U.S. to war
    • August 9, 1974: Nixon resigns as President of the United States
    • December 13, 1974: North Vietnam wins decisive Battle of Phuoc Long and concludes American involvement has ended
  • Excited soldiers on a plane lifting their hands in the air
    • Color photograph of small model room with interrogation table, green doors, and man standing in corner
    Black and white photograph of soldiers on a plane celebrating with smiles and raised fists
    Receipt with handwritten English and Vietnamese text in red, green, and black ink
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