withdraw from Iraq? When? How? | 55 comments (55 topical, 0 hidden)
just reporting the facts (none / 0)
"Ken do you really think anyone besides you holds the end of the Viet Nam War against the Democratic Party?"

Hold on a second. Let me take another look at who historians hold responsible for the end of the Vietnam War. 

"The U.S. midterm elections in 1974 brought in a new Congress dominated by Democrats who were much more willing to confront the president on the war. Congress immediately voted in restrictions on funding and military activities to be phased in through 1975 and to culminate in a total cutoff of funding in 1976. On December 13, 1974, North Vietnam violated the Paris peace treaty by attacking into the South. When North Vietnam violated the 1973 cease-fire agreement and invaded the South again in 1975, Ford desperately asked Congress for funds to assist and re-supply the South before it was overrun. Congress refused. The U.S. had promised Thieu that it would use airpower to support his government. But, having been forbidden by law to assist South Vietnam, Ford was unable to act. The balance of power thus shifted decisively in North Vietnam's favor.

By 1975 the South Vietnamese Army faced a well-organized, highly determined and well-funded North Vietnam. Much of the North's material and financial support came from the communist bloc. Within South Vietnam, there was increasing chaos. Their abandonment by the American military had compromised an economy dependent on U.S. financial support and the presence of large numbers of U.S. troops."

OK then. I guess the answer is yes.

by KenTX on 05/21/2008 03:48:18 PM EST

[ Parent ]
First things first (none / 0)

Loas, Ken?

Cambodia, Ken?

Crickets chirping. 

by ProfRich on 05/21/2008 04:52:47 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Ken's source problem (none / 0)

Also from Ken's source:

During the 1968 presidential election, Richard M. Nixon promised "peace with honor".

Nixon also pursued negotiations

Nixon also began to pursue détente with the Soviet Union and rapprochement with the People's Republic of China. (Fucking appeaser!!!)

Nixon's National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger, continued secret negotiations with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho. In October 1972, they reached an agreement.

On January 15, 1973, Nixon announced the suspension of offensive action against North Vietnam. The Paris Peace Accords on "Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam" were signed on January 27, 1973, officially ending direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. A cease-fire was declared across North and South Vietnam. U.S. POWs were released. The agreement guaranteed the territorial integrity of Vietnam and, like the Geneva Conference of 1954, called for national elections in the North and South. The Paris Peace Accords stipulated a sixty-day period for the total withdrawal of U.S. forces. "This article," noted Peter Church, "proved … to be the only one of the Paris Agreements which was fully carried out."

The Paris Peace Accord, agreed between communist Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger, and reluctantly signed in January 1973 by President Thieu, produced a ceasefire and allowed for the exchange of prisoners of war. Later that year the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, but the Vietnamese negotiator declined it saying that a true peace did not yet exist in Vietnam.

So apparently Ken read all of that and then decided the Democratic Congress inaugarated in January of 1975 ended the war.  Someone should write a psych thesis on this guy. 

by ProfRich on 05/21/2008 04:59:46 PM EST

[ Parent ]

withdraw from Iraq? When? How? | 55 comments (55 topical, 0 hidden)