How did the US get out of Vietnam? In this episode, we are diving into how 'peace' was agreed in Paris, and what it really meant for Vietnam.Don is joined by Pierre Asselin, professor at San Diego State University and author of, among others, ‘A Bitter Peace: Washington, Hanoi, and the Making of the Paris Agreement’ and ‘Hanoi’s Road to the Vietnam War, 1954-1965’.Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Tim Arstall. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.
Full Episode
January 27th, 1973, the Hotel Majestic, Avenue Cléber, Paris' 16th arrondissement. a palace, one of Paris' most luxurious grand hotels, government office for the Ministry of Defense, the head office of UNESCO. This many-storied building has lived many lives. Today, it gains another string for its bow.
Inside, delegates from the United States, South Vietnam, the Viet Cong, and North Vietnam formally sign an agreement ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam. Tomorrow, on the 28th of January, at 8 a.m., there will finally be a ceasefire. The U.S. will get to work withdrawing their troops and dismantling their bases, and the North Vietnamese will release their prisoners of war. Peace at last.
The End
Hello, listeners. Glad you're with us. I'm Don Wildman, and this is American History Hit. It's 2025, the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, when North Vietnamese forces took the capital of the South, effectively ending America's involvement in that country's civil war.
The events of the war have been examined so many times in scholarship and media, yet one aspect of this period often escapes notice. Our exit plan for withdrawal. I'm not talking about Hueys on the embassy roof. All that's in a previous episode of ours. Today, we explore the more official pursuit to achieve Nixon's peace with honor. What deal did we mean to strike? What were the objectives?
And why weren't the North Vietnamese, in the end, persuaded? This critical chapter we discuss today with a former guest of our show, Professor Pierre Asselin, who occupies the Dwight E. Stanford Chair in American Foreign Relations in the Department of History at San Diego State University. Nice to be with you again, Pierre. Thanks for coming on. My pleasure, Don. Good to be back.
Let's put this all in context. When Nixon first runs for election in 1968, he promises an, quote, honorable end to the war in Vietnam. What then evolves into peace with honor, a campaign slogan in 1972. And right there is the dilemma. It will take eight years. for the failure of our efforts in Vietnam to finally resolve themselves. And in the end, it comes under Nixon's successor.
What were the major factors that logjammed this process?
So Nixon had a very clear understanding of the situation in Vietnam. I think for all of his flaws, we really need to give Nixon credit for understanding what was happening in Vietnam and what that meant for the larger international global Cold War context.
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