The conflict took a new turn after the Tet (Buddhist New Year) offensive of January-March 1968: equipped with Soviet missiles and refueled via the “Hô Chi Minh runway”, in Laotian territory, the Viet-Cong went so far as to attack with a daring foray into the outskirts of Saigon. The military events in Indochina had considerable repercussions on the course of the presidential elections in the USA. After Johnson’s withdrawal from the competition, the Republican candidate R. Nixon established himself through a program of gradual withdrawal; once elected, he enunciated the principles of a new policy with the “doctrine of Guam”. His goal of “Vietnamising” the conflict, certainly suggested by the establishment of an American home front in the face of the material and moral commitment of the long and bloody conflict, tended to invest the Vietnam merid. direct responsibility for the war and progressively withdrawing US forces from the battlefields. In an alternate story of suspension and resumption of the bombings N of the 17th parallel, secret negotiations were started in Paris with the Democratic Republic of the Vietnam and with the Viet-Cong (the FLN had established in June 1969 a provisional revolutionary government with communist, nationalist and neutralist elements). For his part, Van Thieu, re-elected president in October 1969, intensified the repression of legal and clandestine opponents, assuming an uncompromising demeanor, founded on the assumption that a peaceful settlement was unreal and that no agreement could guarantee the survival of the forces he represented. The Paris clauses, signed on January 27, 1973, were the result of several coinciding factors: first, the general orientation of the USA towards disengagement in Asia; but also the insistence of the Soviets and the Chinese for a political solution that would certainly have favored the revolutionary forces and, at the same time, allowed the American withdrawal in such a way as not to compromise either détente or the new tripolar diplomacy. The agreements included an armistice under international control, the withdrawal of American bases, the recognition by the governments of Washington and Hanoi of the right to self-determination of the Southern Vietnam establishment of a Council for reconciliation and national concord with the prerogative of organizing general elections. The signatories were the foreign ministers of the four parties involved: USA, Vietnam sept., Vietnam merid., Provisional revolutionary government. The USA recognized the political unity of the whole Vietnam, while the negotiations reflected in the international context the fact of the existence of two administrations, two political-military control zones and three political forces. The bloody civil war of 1973 opened the final act of the conflict. After the US Senate voted to reduce aid to Saigon (August 1974), the Viet-Cong could count on the support of the army of Hanoi, with armored units supplied by the USSR and led by gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, the theorist and creator of the modern people’s war.
After the resignation of Thieu, who took refuge abroad, and the refusal of the provisional government to negotiate with his successor, Duong Van Minh, already qualified as leader, assumed power in Saigon of a third party in favor of negotiations and compromise. On 1 April 1975 the provisional government formulated in ten points the political directives in the liberated regions of southern Vietnam, intended to restore order and guarantee administrative continuity. Unlike in 1954, this time the Catholic hierarchies were generally willing to collaborate. The archbishop of Saigon appealed to the faithful to discourage any attempts at clandestine opposition; the archbishop of Hué greeted the return to peace, hoping for a policy of national unity. While setting up re-education camps for former Saigon army officers and nationalizing the banks, the government authorities gave assurances to the “national bourgeoisie” (September 10, 1975), relating to the maintenance of ownership and production activities; the first recognitions had already been received in May (Pakistan, Australia, Nepal, Japan, Great Britain, Canada, Denmark). On April 25, 1976, a single National Assembly was elected (249 representatives of the North, 243 representatives of the South, from a list of candidates provided by the National Liberation Front, the “Vietnamese Alliance of National, Democratic and Peaceful Forces”, and revolutionary organizations. mass). Gathered in Hanoi on 24 June, the Assembly relaunched a program of socialist revolution and, on 2 July, proclaimed the Socialist Republic of the Vietnam (President Ton Duc Thang, former president of the Democratic Republic of the Vietnam), renaming Saigon with the name of Hô Chi Minh City; this was followed by the formation of a new government chaired by Pham van Dong. The IV Congress of the Workers’ Party of the Vietnam (Hanoi, December 14-20, 1976) changed the official name to that of the Communist Party of the Vietnam and retouched the fundamental lines of the five-year plan 1976-80, accentuating the priority increase of the industry heavy.
The expansionist thrust of the new Vietnam, based on the claim of the historical unity of the Indochinese peninsula, after repeated border incidents led to the breakdown of diplomatic relations with socialist Cambodia (December 1978); the subsequent military operations ended a year later with the conquest of Phnom Penh by Vietnamese troops and Cambodian insurgent forces, which formed the government of FUNK. But the war was part of the wider China-USSR confrontation: it provoked an immediate response with the intervention of forces by the People’s Republic of China (February 17-March 5, 1979), motivated by the need to stop the Vietnamese expansion and together, to reduce Soviet influence in Southeast Asia. Despite the defeat suffered, with the temporary occupation of some urban centers by the Chinese army, Vietnam has maintained its military presence in Cambodia, facing a resistance movement organized by the partisans of the deposed government of Pol Pot (with the support of other political forces headed by to Prince N. Sihanouk). Together with these political-military events, world opinion has seriously impressed the mass exodus of refugees, who have fled the Vietnamese territory in conditions of extreme difficulty, many of whom (apparently about 500,000) have been able to reach the countries of West. support of other political forces headed by Prince N. Sihanouk). Together with these political-military events, world opinion has seriously impressed the mass exodus of refugees, who have fled the Vietnamese territory in conditions of extreme difficulty, many of whom (apparently about 500,000) have been able to reach the countries of West. support of other political forces headed by Prince N. Sihanouk). Together with these political-military events, world opinion has seriously impressed the mass exodus of refugees, who have fled the Vietnamese territory in conditions of extreme difficulty, many of whom (apparently about 500,000) have been able to reach the countries of West.
