History - Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Northern Thailand - page 992

troops, but VC losses were more than 10 times higher, at around 32,000 deaths. For the
VC the Tet Offensive ultimately proved a success: it made the cost of fighting the war un-
bearable for the Americans.
Simultaneously, stories began leaking out of Vietnam about atrocities and massacres
carried out by US forces against unarmed Vietnamese civilians, including the infamous
My Lai Massacre. This helped turn the tide against the war, and antiwar demonstrations
rocked American university campuses and spilled onto the streets.
During the US bombing of 1964-73, some 13 million tonnes of bombs - equivalent to 450
times the energy of the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima - were dropped on the Indochina re-
gion. This equates to 265kg for every man, woman and child in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
Tricky Dick's Exit Strategy
Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968 in part because of a promise that he had a
'secret plan' to end the war. Nixon's strategy called for 'Vietnamisation', which meant
making the South Vietnamese fight the war without US troops.
The 'Christmas bombing' of Haiphong and Hanoi at the end of 1972 was meant to
wrest concessions from North Vietnam at the negotiating table. Eventually, the Paris
Peace Accords were signed by the US, North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the VC on 27
January 1973, which provided for a ceasefire, the total withdrawal of US combat forces
and the release of 590 US prisoners of war (POWs).
The End is Nigh
In January 1975 the North Vietnamese launched a massive ground attack across the 17th
parallel using tanks and heavy artillery. Whole brigades of ARVN soldiers disintegrated
and fled southward, joining hundreds of thousands of civilians clogging Hwy 1. The
North Vietnamese pushed on to Saigon and on the morning of 30 April 1975 their tanks
smashed through the gates of Saigon's Independence Palace (now called Reunification
Palace). The long war was over, Vietnam was reunited and Saigon was renamed Ho Chi
Minh City.