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Submitted by ctv_en_4 on Sat, 01/26/2008 - 00:00
The 1973 Paris Conference that ended the war and restored peace in Vietnam marked the biggest and longest struggle in Vietnam’s diplomatic history as it took nearly five years to complete.

The conference took 202 formal sessions, 14 preliminary sessions and 22 private meetings between the special advisors of the concerned parties. As many as 174 sessions were held for the plenary four-party conference. 


Ly Van Sau, former Deputy Head of the Vietnam Broadcasting Committee and former Deputy Editor-In-Chief of Radio the Voice of Vietnam was the chief spokesperson for the delegation of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam.


On the 35th anniversary of the Paris Peace Accords, Mr Sau recalled some of the most important moments in an interview granted to VOVNews.

 

VOVNews: The Paris Peace Accords was the result of negotiations over more than four years and eight months. What do you think about this victory?

Ly Van Sau (R) at the press briefing after the 1973 Paris Conference
Ly Van Sau (R) at the press briefing after the 1973 Paris Conference
Mr Sau: The agreement was signed in Paris at 11.30am on January 27, 1973 after four years, eight months and 16 days of negotiations. Thirty-five years ago, the Vietnam War had been the biggest and longest war after World War II. It was the first time the US had engaged in a big war far away from its mainland. It was also the first time in its long history that the US had been bogged down in the Vietnam War which was then described as a dirty war, captured great public attention. It was viewed as a fight between David and Goliath. Every war comes to an end, and the war between the US and Vietnam was finished with the Paris Peace Accords which was reached by all concerned parties and aimed at restoring peace in the war-torn country. The agreement was reached after a long period of time, almost as long as any war.


The Paris negotiations were described as the biggest and longest diplomatic struggle in the 20th century. The Vietnamese people were determined to wrest back national independence, sovereignty, unification and territorial integrity. Meanwhile, the US tried to put pressure on Vietnam. At the negotiating table, it was a tough battle of wits between the concerned parties, no matter how open or closed the negotiations were. In the end, the negotiators reached an agreement to end the war and restore peace in Vietnam. But in fact, peace was not restored because the war continued to drag on. Though the US withdrew its troops and repatriated captured personnel home, the regime in South Vietnam was still backed by the US.


By and large, the Paris conference was a great victory for us. Late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong once said “It was an excellent diplomatic victory because it met all our goals which were a ceasefire, an end to the war and the complete withdrawal of all US soldiers from Vietnam. It was a great achievement for a small nation against a strong power.”

 

The concerned parties sign the Paris Peace Accords
The concerned parties sign the Paris Peace Accords

VOVNews:
We were told that during a trip to Hanoi in late 1972, Henry Kissinger visited the Vietnam History Museum. After hearing the first sentence of a famous poem by Ly Thuong Kiet, a talented general of the Tran Dynasty in the 13th century, which said Nam quoc son ha, Nam de cu (literally the Vietnamese nation is reigned over by the Vietnamese King), Kissinger mumbled “Article 1 of the Paris Peace Accords.” What do you think of this detail?

Mr Sau: I also heard this story. When Kissinger was in Hanoi, I was staying in Paris. If he said so, it coincided with Article 1 of the Paris Peace Accords, which says, “The United States and all other countries respect the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of Vietnam as recognized by the 1954 Geneva Agreements on Vietnam.” In fact it was our foremost demand and the US had to accept this. Ly Thuong Kiet’s poem which is regarded as the first Declaration of Independence of the Vietnamese nation also states that “if anyone invades Vietnam, they will be defeated in the end”. This was clearly stated in Article 1 as well as the other Articles in the agreement, which demanded that the US withdraw its troops from Vietnam within 60 days to ensure a lasting and stable peace in the country. I think Kissinger had a good sense of humour and what he said at the museum was correct. 

VOVNews:
Do you think this also shows the Vietnamese nation’s will to gain victory in history?

Mr Sau: Vietnam is a strong nation and is ready to fight on all three fronts: military, political and diplomatic. The Paris Peace Accords, first of all, was the result of the struggle on the diplomatic front, along with the political and military fronts. Unlike other wars, we were both “negotiating” and “fighting” at the same time. Therefore, the agreement had its own characteristics that historians and researchers have subsequently studied.

 

VOVNews: The victory of Dien Bien Phu in the Skies in late 1972 was considered a decisive factor behind the victory of the agreement. Researchers said that the US stopped bombing to negotiate and then stopped negotiating to bomb. As the spokesperson of our delegation to the conference, Could you further elaborate on this?

Mr Sau: In fact the US broke its promise by launching the biggest ever air raids on Vietnam in terms of scale, frequency and time. It was an aggressive and ill-mannered act. The delegations of the US and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam declared they would return home for final consultations. Earlier, the then US President Nixon said that what they had agreed to was completely acceptable, while the Americans believed that the signing of the agreement was within reach. The bombing was testimony to the US’s underhand tactics, and our victory over their bombing of Hanoi was beyond their belief. While staying Paris, we condemned these air attacks and affirmed that nothing could change the right to self-determination for the Vietnamese nation. The victory of Dien Bien Phu in the Skies helped foil the US’s attempt to turn the tide and destroy the goals that we had pursued for years.

 

VOVNews: Vietnam will celebrate the 35th anniversary of the signing of the agreement this year. What do you think about this event in regard to Vietnam’s diplomacy at present?

Mr Sau: Thirty-five years is a rather long period of time. Despite this, the agreement has laid a firm legal foundation for the Vietnamese people to defend their national rights to live in peace, independence, freedom and unification from north to south, and we have done this. I want to emphasize the late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong’s speech when he said “It was an excellent diplomatic victory and the war of resistance against US aggression was a great victory.”


VOVNews:
Thank you. 

 

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