Editing Vietnam War (section)

==Vietnamization (1969–1972)==
===Nuclear threats and diplomacy===
Nixon began troop withdrawals in 1969. His plan to build up the ARVN so it could take over the defense of South Vietnam became known as "[[Vietnamization]]". As the PAVN/VC recovered from their 1968 losses and avoided contact, Abrams conducted operations aimed at disrupting logistics, with better use of firepower and more cooperation with the ARVN.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|517}} In October 1969, Nixon had ordered B-52s loaded with nuclear weapons [[Operation Giant Lance|to race to the border of Soviet airspace]] to convince the Soviets, in accord with the [[madman theory]], he was capable of anything to end the war.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Sagan |first1=Scott Douglas |last2=Suri |first2=Jeremi |date=16 June 2003 |title=The Madman Nuclear Alert: Secrecy, Signaling, and Safety in October 1969 |id={{Project MUSE|43692}} |journal=International Security |language=en |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=150–183 |doi=10.1162/016228803321951126 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Evans |first=Michael |title=Nixon's Nuclear Ploy |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB81/index2.htm |access-date=8 February 2018 |website=nsarchive2.gwu.edu|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407114836/https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB81/index2.htm|archive-date=April 7, 2023}}</ref> Nixon had sought ''[[détente]]'' with the Soviet Union and [[Sino-American relations#Rapprochement|rapprochement with China]], which decreased tensions and led to nuclear arms reductions. However, the Soviets continued to supply the North Vietnamese.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1969-1972 |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/nixon/i/21100.htm |access-date=4 July 2021 |website=Foreign Relations, 1969-1976, Volume I |publisher=U.S. Department of State|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230513100856/https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/nixon/i/21100.htm|archive-date=May 13, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Van Ness |first=Peter |date=December 1986 |title=Richard Nixon, the Vietnam War, and the American Accommodation with China: A Review Article |journal=Contemporary Southeast Asia |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=231–245 |jstor=25797906}}</ref>

===Hanoi's war strategy===
[[File:Vietnampropaganda.png|thumb|upright=.8|Propaganda leaflet urging the defection of [[Viet Cong]] and [[North Vietnam]]ese to the side of the [[Republic of Vietnam]]]]
On 2 September 1969, Ho Chi Minh died.<ref>{{Cite news |date=4 September 1969 |title=Ho Chi Minh Dies of Heart Attack in Hanoi |page=1 |work=The Times}}</ref> The failure of the Tet Offensive to spark an uprising in the south caused a shift in Hanoi's war strategy, and the [[Võ Nguyên Giáp|Giáp]]-[[Trường Chinh|Chinh]] "Northern-First" faction regained control over military affairs from the Lê Duẩn-[[Hoàng Văn Thái]] "Southern-First" faction.<ref name="Currey">{{Cite book |last=Currey |first=Cecil B. |title=Victory at Any Cost: The Genius of Viet Nam's Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap |date=2005 |publisher=Potomac Books, Inc. |isbn=978-1-57488-742-6 |page=[{{GBurl|id=jm-jh1_D0I4C|p=272}} 272]}}</ref>{{Rp|272–274}} An unconventional victory was sidelined in favor of a conventional victory through conquest.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{Rp|196–205}} Large-scale offensives were rolled back in favor of [[Low intensity conflict|small-unit]] and [[Sapper#PAVN and Viet Cong|sapper]] attacks as well as targeting the pacification and Vietnamization strategy.<ref name=Currey/> Following Tet, the PAVN had transformed from a [[Light infantry|light-infantry]], limited mobility force into a [[Maneuver warfare|high-mobile]] and mechanized [[combined arms]] force.<ref name=Currey/>{{Rp|189}} By 1970, over 70% of communist troops in the south were northerners, and southern-dominated VC units no longer existed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kiernan |first=Ben |title=Viet Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present |date=February 2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=447}}</ref>

===U.S. domestic controversies===
The [[anti-war movement]] was gaining strength in the US. Nixon appealed to the "[[silent majority]]" who he said supported the war. But revelations of the 1968 [[My Lai massacre]],<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|518–521}} in which a US Army unit raped and killed civilians, and the 1969 "[[Green Beret Affair]]", where eight [[United States Army Special Forces|Special Forces]] soldiers, were arrested for the murder<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stein |first=Jeff |url=https://archive.org/details/murderinwartimeu00stei |title=A Murder in Wartime: The Untold Spy Story that Changed the Course of the Vietnam War |date=1992 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0-312-07037-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/murderinwartimeu00stei/page/60 60–2] |url-access=registration}}</ref> of a suspected double agent,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bob Seals |date=2007 |title=The "Green Beret Affair": A Brief Introduction |url=http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/20thCentury/articles/greenberets.aspx|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509150017/http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/20thCentury/articles/greenberets.aspx|archive-date=May 9, 2008}}</ref> provoked outrage.

In 1971, the ''Pentagon Papers'' were leaked to ''The New York Times''. The top-secret history of US involvement in Vietnam, commissioned by the Department of Defense, detailed public deceptions by the government. The [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] ruled its publication was legal.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=[[USA.gov]] |date=February 1997 |title=The Pentagon Papers Case |url=http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itdhr/0297/ijde/goodsb1.htm |url-status=dead |journal=eJournal USA |volume=2 |issue=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112095748/http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itdhr/0297/ijde/goodsb1.htm |archive-date=12 January 2008 |access-date=27 April 2010}}</ref>

===Collapsing U.S. morale===
{{Further|G.I. movement}}
Following the Tet Offensive and decreasing support among the public, US forces began a period of morale collapse, and disobedience.<ref name="Stewart">{{Cite book |last=Stewart |first=Richard |url=https://history.army.mil/books/AMH-V2/AMH%20V2/chapter11.htm |title=American Military History, Volume II, The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917–2003 |date=2005 |publisher=[[United States Army Center of Military History]] |isbn=978-0-16-072541-8 |access-date=22 June 2018 |archive-date=14 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214153119/http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH-V2/AMH%20V2/chapter11.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{Rp|349–350}}<ref name="Daddis">{{Cite book |last=Daddis |first=Gregory A. |title=Withdrawal: Reassessing America's Final Years in Vietnam |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-069110-3 |page=[{{GBurl|id=a3QzDwAAQBAJ|pg=PT172}} 172]}}</ref>{{Rp|166–175}} At home, desertion rates quadrupled from 1966 levels.<ref name="Heinl">{{Cite journal |last=Heinl |first=Robert D. Jr. |date=7 June 1971 |title=The Collapse of the Armed Forces |url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/Vietnam/heinl.pdf |journal=Armed Forces Journal |access-date=14 June 2018 |archive-date=12 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412060044/https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/Vietnam/heinl.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Among the enlisted, only 2.5% chose infantry combat positions in 1969–70.<ref name=Heinl/> [[Reserve Officers' Training Corps|ROTC]] enrollment decreased from 191,749 in 1966 to 72,459 by 1971,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sevy |first=Grace |title=The American Experience in Vietnam: A Reader |date=1991 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-2390-5 |page=[{{GBurl|id=dZg3emyCL6EC|p=172}} 172]}}</ref> and reached a low of 33,220 in 1974,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Richard Halloran |date=12 August 1984 |title=R.O.T.C. Booming as Memories of Vietnam Fade |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/12/us/rotc-booming-as-memories-of-vietnam-fade.html |access-date=14 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415124225/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/12/us/rotc-booming-as-memories-of-vietnam-fade.html|archive-date=April 15, 2023 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> depriving US forces of much-needed military leadership.

Open refusal to engage in patrols or carry out orders emerged, with a case of an entire company refusing orders.<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 March 1971 |title=General Won't Punish G.I.'s for Refusing Orders |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/23/archives/general-wont-punish-gis-for-refusing-orders-53-defiant-gis-escape.html |access-date=13 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409031624/https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/23/archives/general-wont-punish-gis-for-refusing-orders-53-defiant-gis-escape.html|archive-date=April 9, 2023 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Unit cohesion began to dissipate and focused on minimizing contact with the PAVN/VC.<ref name=Daddis/>{{Rp|}} A practice known as "sand-bagging" started, where units ordered to patrol would go into the country-side, find a site out of view from superiors and radio in false coordinates and reports.<ref name=Ward/>{{Rp|407–411}} Drug usage increased among US forces, 30% regularly used marijuana,<ref name=Ward/>{{Rp|407}} while a House subcommittee found 10% regularly used high-grade heroin.<ref name=Heinl/><ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|526}} From 1969 on, search-and-destroy operations became referred to as "search and avoid" operations, falsifying battle reports while avoiding guerrillas.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Graham |first1=Robert J. |title=Vietnam: An Infantryman's View of Our Failure |journal=Military Affairs |date=1984 |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=133–139 |doi=10.2307/1987487 |jstor=1987487 }}</ref> 900 [[fragging]] and suspected fragging incidents were investigated, most occurring between 1969-71.<ref name="Stanton">{{Cite book |last=Stanton |first=Shelby L. |title=The Rise and Fall of an American Army: U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1963–1973 |date=2007 |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-41734-3}}</ref>{{Rp|331}}<ref name=Ward/>{{Rp|407}} In 1969, field-performance was characterized by low morale and poor leadership.<ref name=Stanton/>{{Rp|331}} The decline in US morale was demonstrated by the [[Battle of FSB Mary Ann]] in 1971, in which a sapper attack inflicted serious losses on the U.S. defenders.<ref name=Stanton/>{{Rp|357}} Westmoreland, no longer in command but tasked with investigation of the failure, cited a dereliction of duty, lax defensive postures and lack of officers in charge.<ref name=Stanton/>{{Rp|357}}

On the collapse of morale, historian Shelby Stanton wrote:
{{Blockquote|In the last years of the Army's retreat, its remaining forces were relegated to static security. The American Army's decline was readily apparent in this final stage. Racial incidents, drug abuse, combat disobedience, and crime reflected growing idleness, resentment, and frustration{{Nbsp}}... the fatal handicaps of faulty campaign strategy, incomplete wartime preparation, and the tardy, superficial attempts at Vietnamization. An entire American army was sacrificed on the battlefield of Vietnam.<ref name=Stanton/>{{Rp|366–368}}}}

===ARVN taking the lead and U.S. ground force withdrawal===
[[File:ARVN and US Special Forces.jpg|thumb|ARVN and US Special Forces, September 1968]]
Beginning in 1969, American troops were withdrawn from border areas where most of the fighting took place and redeployed along the coast and interior. US casualties in 1970 were less than half of 1969, after being relegated to less active combat.<ref name="upi1970">{{Cite web |title=Vietnamization: 1970 Year in Review |url=http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1970/Apollo-13/12303235577467-2/#title |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110831125343/http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1970/Apollo-13/12303235577467-2 |archive-date=31 August 2011 |website=UPI.com}}</ref> While US forces were redeployed, the ARVN took over combat operations, with casualties double US ones in 1969, and more than triple US ones in 1970.<ref name="Wiest">{{Cite book |last=Wiest |first=Andrew |title=Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN |date=2007 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-9451-7 |pages=[{{GBurl|id=r3dez4JhXUQC|p=124}} 124]–140}}</ref> In the post-Tet environment, membership in the [[South Vietnamese Regional Force]] and [[South Vietnamese Popular Force|Popular Force]] militias grew, and they were now capable of providing village security, which the Americans had not accomplished.<ref name=Wiest/>

In 1970, Nixon announced the withdrawal of an additional 150,000 American troops, reducing US numbers to 265,500.<ref name=upi1970/> By 1970, VC forces were no longer southern-majority, nearly 70% of units were northerners.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Porter |first=Gareth |title=Vietnam: The Politics of Bureaucratic Socialism |date=1993 |isbn=978-0-8014-2168-6 |page=26|publisher=Cornell University Press }}</ref> Between 1969-71 the VC and some PAVN units had reverted to [[small unit tactics]] typical of 1967 and prior, instead of nationwide offensives.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{Rp|}} In 1971, Australia and New Zealand withdrew their soldiers and US troops were reduced to 196,700, with a deadline to remove another 45,000 troops by February 1972. The US reduced support troops, and in March 1971 the [[5th Special Forces Group (United States)|5th Special Forces Group]], the first American unit deployed to South Vietnam, withdrew.<ref name="StantonVOB">{{Cite book |last=Stanton |first=Shelby L. |title=Vietnam order of battle |date=2003 |publisher=Stackpole Books |isbn=978-0-8117-0071-9}}</ref>{{Rp|240}}{{Refn|On 8 March 1965 the first American combat troops, the [[3rd Marine Division (United States)#Vietnam War|Third Marine Regiment, Third Marine Division]], began landing in Vietnam to protect the [[Da Nang Air Base]].{{Sfn|Willbanks|2009|p=110}}<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010 |title=Facts about the Vietnam Veterans memorial collection |url=http://www.nps.gov/mrc/reader/vvmcr.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528032742/http://www.nps.gov/mrc/reader/vvmcr.htm |archive-date=28 May 2010 |access-date=26 April 2010 |publisher=[[National Park Service]]}}</ref>|group="A"}}

===Cambodia===
{{Main|Operation Menu|Operation Freedom Deal|5=Cambodian Civil War}}
[[File:Vietconginterrogation.jpg|thumb|upright|An alleged Viet Cong captured during an attack on an American outpost near the Cambodian border is interrogated.]]
Prince [[Norodom Sihanouk]] had proclaimed Cambodia neutral since 1955,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sihanouk |first1=Norodom |title=Cambodia Neutral: The Dictate of Necessity |journal=Foreign Affairs |date=1958 |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=582–586 |id={{ProQuest|198176909}} |doi=10.2307/20029312 |jstor=20029312 }}</ref> but permitted the PAVN/VC to use the port of [[Sihanoukville Autonomous Port|Sihanoukville]] and the [[Sihanouk Trail]]. In March 1969 Nixon launched a secret bombing campaign, called [[Operation Menu]], against communist sanctuaries along the Cambodia/Vietnam border. Only five congressional officials were informed.{{Refn|group="A"|They were: Senators [[John C. Stennis]] (MS) and [[Richard B. Russell]] Jr. (GA) and Representatives [[Lucius Mendel Rivers]] (SC), [[Gerald R. Ford]] (MI) and [[Leslie C. Arends]] (IL). Arends and Ford were leaders of the Republican minority and the other three were Democrats on either the Armed Services or Appropriations committees.}}

In March 1970, [[Cambodian coup of 1970|Sihanouk was deposed]] by his [[pro-American]] prime minister [[Lon Nol]], who demanded North Vietnamese troops leave Cambodia or face military action.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sutsakhan |first=S. |url=https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/239/2390505001A.pdf |title=The Khmer Republic at War and the Final Collapse |date=1987 |publisher=United States Army Center of Military History |page=42 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412060055/https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/239/2390505001A.pdf |archive-date=12 April 2019 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Nol began rounding up Vietnamese civilians in Cambodia into internment camps and massacring them, provoking reactions from the North and South Vietnamese governments.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lipsman |first1=Samuel |url=https://archive.org/details/fightingfortime00lips/page/145 |title=The Vietnam Experience Fighting for time |last2=Doyle |first2=Edward |date=1983 |publisher=Boston Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-939526-07-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/fightingfortime00lips/page/145 145]}}</ref> In April–May 1970, North Vietnam invaded Cambodia at the request of the [[Khmer Rouge]], following negotiations with deputy leader [[Nuon Chea]]. Nguyen Co Thach recalls: "Nuon Chea has asked for help and we have liberated five provinces of Cambodia in ten days."<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.4324/9780203790847 |title=Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda |date=2017 |isbn=978-0-203-79084-7 |editor-first1=Susan E. |editor-last1=Cook |page=54 }}</ref> US and ARVN forces launched the [[Cambodian Campaign]] in May to attack PAVN/VC bases. A counter-offensive in 1971, as part of [[Operation Chenla II]] by the PAVN, would recapture most border areas and decimate Nol's forces.

The US incursion into Cambodia sparked [[Protests against the Vietnam War|nationwide U.S. protests]] as Nixon had promised to deescalate American involvement. [[Kent State shootings|Students were killed by National Guardsmen]] in May 1970 during a protest at [[Kent State University]], which provoked further outrage. The reaction by the administration was seen as callous, reinvigorating the declining anti-war movement.<ref name=Daddis/>{{Rp|128–129}} The US Air Force continued to bomb Cambodia as part of [[Operation Freedom Deal]].

===Laos===
{{Main|3=Operation Commando Hunt|4=Laotian Civil War|6=Operation Lam Son 719}}
Building on the success of ARVN units in Cambodia, and further testing the Vietnamization program, the ARVN was tasked with [[Operation Lam Son 719]] in February 1971, the first major ground operation to attack the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This was the first time the PAVN would field-test its combined arms force.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{Rp|}} The first few days were a success, but momentum slowed after fierce resistance. Thiệu had halted the general advance, leaving PAVN armored divisions able to surround them.{{Sfn|Willbanks|2014|p=89}}

Thieu ordered [[air assault]] troops to capture the Tchepone crossroad and withdraw, despite facing four-times larger numbers. During the withdrawal, the PAVN counterattack had forced a panicked rout. Half of the ARVN troops were either captured or killed, half of the ARVN/US support helicopters were downed and the operation was considered a fiasco, demonstrating operational deficiencies within the ARVN.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|pp=644–645}} Nixon and Thieu had sought a showcase victory simply by capturing Tchepone, and it was spun off as an "operational success".{{Sfn|Willbanks|2014|p=118}}<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|576–582}}

=== Easter Offensive and Paris Peace Accords (1972) ===
[[File:СВС у обломков сбитого Б-52 в окрестностях Ханоя 23.12.1972 (1).jpg|thumb|Soviet advisers inspecting the debris of a B-52 downed in the vicinity of Hanoi]]
Vietnamization was again tested by the [[Easter Offensive]] of 1972, a conventional PAVN invasion of South Vietnam. The PAVN overran the northern provinces and attacked from Cambodia, threatening to cut the country in half. US troop withdrawals continued, but American airpower responded, beginning [[Operation Linebacker]], and the offensive was halted.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|606–637}} The US Navy initiated [[Operation Pocket Money]] in May, an aerial mining campaign in [[Haiphong]] Harbor that prevented North Vietnam's allies from resupplying it with weapons.<ref>{{Cite web |last=magazine |first=Marcelo Ribeiro da Silva, Vietnam |date=2020-01-14 |title=Inside America's daring plan to mine Haiphong Harbor |url=https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/01/14/inside-americas-daring-plan-to-mine-haiphong-harbor/ |access-date=2024-10-03 |website=Navy Times |language=en}}</ref>

The war was central to the [[1972 United States presidential election|1972 U.S. presidential election]] as Nixon's opponent, [[George McGovern]], campaigned on immediate withdrawal. Nixon's Security Advisor, [[Henry Kissinger]], had continued secret negotiations with North Vietnam's [[Lê Đức Thọ]] and in October 1972 reached an agreement. Thiệu demanded changes to the peace accord upon its discovery, and when North Vietnam went public with the details, the Nixon administration claimed they were attempting to embarrass the president. The negotiations became deadlocked when Hanoi demanded changes. To show his support for South Vietnam and force Hanoi back to the negotiating table, Nixon ordered [[Operation Linebacker II]], a bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong in December 1972.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|649–663}} Nixon pressured Thiệu to accept the agreement or face military action.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beschloss |first=Michael |title=Presidents of War: The Epic Story, from 1807 to Modern Times |date=2018 |publisher=Crown |isbn=978-0-307-40960-7 |location=New York |page=579}}</ref>

On 15 January 1973, all US combat activities were suspended. Lê Đức Thọ and Henry Kissinger, along with the PRG Foreign Minister [[Nguyễn Thị Bình]] and a reluctant Thiệu, signed the [[Paris Peace Accords]] on 27 January 1973.<ref name=Ward/>{{Rp|508–513}} This ended direct U.S. involvement in the war, created a ceasefire between North Vietnam/PRG and South Vietnam, guaranteed the territorial integrity of Vietnam under the Geneva Conference of 1954, called for elections or a political settlement between the PRG and South Vietnam, allowed 200,000 communist troops to remain in the south, and agreed to a POW exchange. There was a 60-day period for the withdrawal of US forces. "This article", noted Peter Church, "proved{{Nbsp}}... to be the only one of the Paris Agreements which was fully carried out."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Church |first=Peter |title=A Short History of South-East Asia |date=2006 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-470-82181-7 |pages=193–194}}</ref> All US forces personnel were withdrawn by March 1973.<ref name=Herring/>{{Rp|260}}