Henry Kissinger Negotiations (1969-1976)
The Henry Kissinger Negotiations were peace negotiations that started in Paris in 1969 to create peace in Vietnam and to start to pull American soldiers out of Vietnam. Because the Secretary of State William Rogers was against peace negotiations, Mr. Kissinger had to go through back routes and talk to a North Vietnamese communist leader Le Duc Tho. Although Kissinger wanted to end the war in Vietnam, he also counseled President Nixon to continue bombing the North Vietnamese and expand the efforts to Cambodia and Laos. Kissinger assured North Vietnam that they would still be able to keep their troops in South Vietnam after the cease-fire, if they stopped sending in more and an electoral government made up of North, South and neutral people. In return all of the American prisoners of war were to be returned. In July 1971 his negotiations were made public and he was put onto the covers of magazines and was made into a celebrity because the Vietnam War was so unpopular. He also in 1971 replaced William Rogers as the Secretary of State. In 1973 the Paris Peace Accords were finalized, but later in 1975 and 1976 the accords failed and South Vietnam fell to North Vietnam and communism.