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The Fall of Saigon

            
            
             North Vietnam's capture of Saigon ended of the Vietnam War. The war began to slowly come to an end following U.S. and North Vietnamese officials in Paris 1972. A document titled "An Agreement Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam" ended U.S. direct involvement and escalated the war. Peace was barely part of the agreement. From 1972 to 1975 the Saigon regime grew progressively weaker. The U.S. abandoned the country in manpower and capital. ( Dawson) South Vietnam was not without it's resources for defense. These resources were poorly managed and underdeveloped. ARVN failed to perform to the United States" expectations. The political and military hierarchy continued to be inept and corrupt. The U.S. was able to reduce its own casualties and was unwilling to continue unchecked support. The loss of U.S ability and willingness to defend South Vietnam turned into a rout by the Communist forces. When South Vietnam failed to defend itself the war was truly over. ( McCoy).
             ARGUEMENT.
             In 1972 the U.S.'s Henry Kissinger and Hanoi's Le Duc Tho met decide the fate of South Vietnam. There was not a representative present from the Saigon government. Political pressure from the White House forced South Vietnamese President Thieu to sign the agreement. A cease-fire was declared in all parts of Vietnam. ( Bowman) Troop movement was prohibited for both sides. This meant that all 140,000 North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam would be allowed to stay. The agreement allowed for a respectable exit for the U.S. All U.S. ground troops were removed from Vietnam. North Vietnam released all American prisoners of war. The peace agreement was supposed to create a sovereign state in South Vietnam. The U.S. vowed to avenge any North Vietnamese dissention form the plan. The Paris Peace Conference of 1972 left South Vietnam in an awkward defensive position. North Vietnam did not intend to honor the agreement. The South's fate was sealed.


Essays Related to The Fall of Saigon

1. Little Saigon and Paris by Night- Creating a Sense of Identity

... /her new home. Little Saigon and Paris by Night: Creating a Sense of Identity The story of the Vietnamese immigrant experience is one of pain and loss. The fall of South Vietnam was such a haunting experience to Vietnamese refugees who had to flee their fallen homeland. They lost both their nation and identity. After the fall of Saigon in April 1975, the South Vietnamese began evacuating with nothing but the hope of returning to their home when ... the political situation permitted. In fact ... ...

  • Word Count: 2794
  • Approx Pages: 11
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. American Cinema And The Vietnam War

... taken to Vietnam twice, and the reference points we are given are the My Lai massacre of 1968 ("The villages of My Lai were well known to Alpha company" If I Die In A Combat Zone, Tim O"Brien) and the fall of Saigon in 1975 ("This seems to be the last chapter in the history of American involvement in Vietnam. It's also been the largest single movement of people in the history of America itself." ABC-TV Evening ... News Report). This seven-year period, which incorporates the height of American involvement, is depicted as a matter of months, a year at tops. Within the film absolutely no l...

  • Word Count: 3466
  • Approx Pages: 14
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. Kennedy and the Cuban Crisis vs Johnson and Vietnam

... his optimism. In 1968 when the North Vietnamese officially initiated the Tet Offensive it showed the Americans that the war was not completely over and that the North was not ready to fall down. In January, the North launched attacks against main cities and positions in the South. American and South Vietnamese positions, including Saigon were attacked by the North Vietnamese army, but the North was defeated. The Tet offensive was a major ... his own administration and his own country. Many of Johnson's advisers were not supporting the war and felt that the US needed to forget and get ou...

  • Word Count: 6991
  • Approx Pages: 28
  • Grade Level: High School

4. The Plot of The Book of Ruth

... Interventionism. A political interference or military involvement by one country in the affairs of another against a government policy based on the belief that national interests are best served by avoiding economic and political alliances with other countries. Superficially the story of a love, friendship and betrayal involving in a 1950's Saigon. The narrator of The Quiet American is no more than the old, cynical British journalist and opium addicted Thomas Fowler. He ... Economics Aid worker Alden Pyle at a café and when he meets Phuong he is beginning to fall in love and this is sca...

  • Word Count: 3654
  • Approx Pages: 15
  • Grade Level: High School

5. The Tet Offensive 1968

... that the Vietcong and the NVA would strike during the holiday. The Tet is a very important and religious holiday in the Chinese and Vietnamese cultures which is another reason why the Vietnamese's victory was psychological. Some smaller battles started to break out in Vietnam before the actual Tet-Offensive did. In the fall of 1967, Vietcong and the NVA units suffered heavy losses during several bouts with the U.S. and the Army of the Republic of South ... and district capital in the Mekong Delta The U.S. Embassy in Saigon was attacked in the early morning hours of January 31, 1968. Nin...

  • Word Count: 2466
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Australia and the Vietnam War

... but in 1950 when the Viet Minh received aid and assistance from the People's Republic of China and became more overtly communist, they commenced to send military aid and material to the French. US advisory presence commenced with their aid but their role was jealously restricted by the French. Then, shortly after the fall of Bien Dien Phu, there arrived the Saigon Military Mission (SMM), headed ... by Colonel (later Maj-Gen) Edward G Lansdale, a US Air Force Officer seconded to the CIA, who specialised in covert and unconventional ... warfare. He stayed on as an adviser to Diem till 19...

  • Word Count: 4606
  • Approx Pages: 18
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. The Lotus Eaters - Addicted to Exposure

... American deaths. North Vietnam won with the fall of Saigon on April 30th, 1975. Tatjana Soli's haunting, well-written novel, "The Lotus Eaters," begins with the war that is about to cease towards the fall of Saigon in 1975. The streets were abandoned, garbage laying all over the ground, "the city teetered in a dream state" (Soli, pg.1). Flashing back twelve years to the beginning of the conflict, South Vietnam and the United-States attempt to put an ... end to the spread of communists against North Vietnam and their allies ... ...

  • Word Count: 1353
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Charley Owns The Night

... sharp, cynical dialog, it is all too easy to read too much into "QA". There are all kinds of opportunities to behold allegorical references in Alden Pyle (the namesake),Vigot(the French detective), Fowler(the cynical Brit journalist) and especially Phoung, the young Saigon woman. Poor Phoung!! She and that sister will outlive us all. Armed with 20/20 historical hindsight, how ... buddy, Jim Lydlle, the chaplain's assistant. Of the 2 opinions above, I prefer the latter. "QA" is not prophecy. It takes an American or a Frenchman to capture the essence of Indochina, just as I believe only ...

  • Word Count: 363
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Comparing imagery in the two poems

... as cattle." You can visualize the mourning of loved ones without the ones they lost and objects of a funeral that should have been. "The pallor of girls" brows shall be their pall" and "their flowers the tenderness of silent minds." Unlike the previous poem, "The Fall of Saigon" by David Wojahn relates an experience of war. It juxtaposes the order and chaos of the experience. On one side you have the orderly sounds of the song "It's Only Rock and ... Roll, but I Like It" by the Rolling Stones and the "guttural stammer of chopper blades." On the other side you have the chaos of crowds, a...

  • Word Count: 337
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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