The Paris Peace Accords negotiated by Nixon and Kissinger did not even remotely equal a Surrender by the United States."
Yes, the Paris Peace Accords were, de facto, a US surrender document in that, the only firm commitment by any party was the US promise to withdraw and abandon South Vietnam to its fate.
I do agree, it did not seem like a surrender document at the time, because US military & other aid to South Vietnam was still then today's equivalent of $50 billion per year.
With that aid, and US air power support, South Vietnamese were able to fight off North Vietnamese invasions in 1968 (Tet) and especially in 1972 (Easter Offensive).
But by 1973, Democrats in Congress began reducing US aid and in 1975 cut it off entirely.
The result was, South Vietnamese were unable to withstand the North's final onslaught of their 1975 Spring Offensive, and Saigon fell, ignominiously.
Williams: "The Accords recognized South Vietnam’s border and were the result of Nixon pounding the North Vietnamese into submission by finally bombing hanoi’s Harbor."
The North Vietnamese "submitted" to nothing, and made no important concessions that could be, or were, enforced.
In fact, it's now believed that the only thing Nixon & Kissinger truly expected from the Paris Peace Accords was "a decent interval" of perhaps two years before the North resumed its offensives against South Vietnam.
And, as it happened, two years is just the "decent interval" they achieved between the 1973 Paris Peace Accords and the Fall of Saigon in 1975.
Williams: "After Nixon was chased from office North Vietnam launched a massive tank attack in violation of the Paris Peace Accords and the Democrats in Congress refused President Ford’s request to even give the South Vietnamese any military equipment.
But why let reality stand in the way of your lectures."
I certainly agree that the fault lies with Democrats in Congress, who refused further aid in 1975, thus guaranteeing South Vietnam's collapse.
I think: had the US aid continued at or near 1972 levels, South Vietnam could have used their "decent interval" of two years to prepare their forces to yet again defeat the North's invasions.
But as it happened, US aid was reduced, then cut-off, thus making the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, in effect, a US surrender document.
The lesson for Ukraine is that they must not be dependent on US aid to prevent the kind of collapse the South Vietnamese suffered in 1975, or indeed, that the Afghans suffered in 2021.
Saigon 1975, Kabul Afghanistan 2021:
