Ending the Vietnam War: A History of America's Involvement in and Extrication from the Vietnam War

Abstract

Contents Foreword 1. America's Entry into the Morass (1950-1969) 2. Evolution of a Strategy What the Nixon Administration Found * Groping for a Strategy: The North Vietnamese Offensive and the Bombing of Cambodia * Attempts at a Diplomatic Outcome * Initiatives * The Beginning of Troop Withdrawals * A Secret Meeting * Another Reassessment * The Unpacifiable Doves * A Strategy Emerges 3. Secret Negotiations and a Widening War The Secret Negotiations * Special Advisor Le Duc Tho and the First Round of Talks * Laos Interlude * The Overthrow of Sihanouk * Another Major Troop Withdrawal * The Attack on North Vietnamese Sanctuaries * The Cambodian Incursion * The Domestic Travail * The Balance Sheet 4. Diplomacy and Strategy: From a Cease-fire Proposal to the Interdiction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail Madame Binh's Eight Points * The Setting of a Strategy * The Laos Operation * Lam Son 719: The Military Operation * Braving Domestic Opposition * The Negotiations Are Resumed * The South Vietnamese Presidential Election * Revealing the Secret Talks 5. Hanoi Throws the Dice: The Vietnam Spring Offensive Diplomatic Maneuvers * What Strategy? 6. The Showdown The May 2 Secret Meeting * The Mining and Bombing of North Vietnam * The Summit in the Balance 7. From Stalemate to Breakthrough Testing the Stalemate * A Visit to Saigon * Interlude: Meetings of September 15 and 27 * The Breakthrough: The October 8 Meeting 8. The Troubled Road to Interlude in Paris * Consultation with Thieu * Rumblings * Showdown with Thieu * The Journey Home 9. Peace Is at Hand Election Interlude * Haig Visits Saigon Again * The Meetings with Le Duc Tho Resume * The Breakdown of the Negotiations * The Christmas Bombing * Negotiations Resume * The January Round of Negotiations * Thieu Relents * at Last * Postlude 10. A Visit to Hanoi 11. Enforcement and Aid The Thieu Visit * Watergate and Enforcement * The Search for in Cambodia * The Aborted Chinese Mediation * The Negotiations Unravel 12. Ford and Vietnam The Strangulation of South Vietnam * Hanoi Resumes the Offensive * The End of the Road 13. The Collapse of Cambodia The Myth of the Failure to Negotiate on Cambodia * The Final Collapse * Final Note 14. The End of Vietnamar The Debate over Evacuation * The Search for a Political Solution * The Evacuation * The Last Day Epilogue Acknowledgments Appendix Notes Index