1973 in the Vietnam War began with a peace agreement, the Paris Peace Accords, signed by the United States and South Vietnam on one side of the Vietnam War and communist North Vietnam and the insurgent Viet Cong on the other. Although honored in some respects, the peace agreement was violated by both North and South Vietnam as the struggle for power and control of territory in South Vietnam continued. North Vietnam released all American prisoners of war and the United States completed its military withdrawal from South Vietnam.
U.S. Congressional opposition to the Vietnam War forced the U.S. to cease bombing communist forces in Cambodia in August and in November Congress adopted the War Powers Resolution which limited the U.S. President's authority to wage war.
January
At midday, following a 36-hour New Year ceasefire, U.S. aircraft resumed airstrikes across South Vietnam and North Vietnam up to the 20th parallel north. South Vietnam reported 49 ceasefire violations resulting in 44 People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN)/Vietcong (VC), eight South Vietnamese military and three civilians killed, the most serious incident being PAVN artillery firing 300 rounds against Republic of Vietnam Airborne Division positions 3 miles (4.8 km) southwest of Quảng Trị.
The Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives voted 154 to 75 to cut off U.S. funds for the war in Vietnam once all U.S. forces were withdrawn and U.S. Prisoners of war (POWs) were released. As President Richard Nixon and most Republicans opposed the cutoff, the vote had only symbolic impact.
The Pentagon acknowledged for the first time that Bạch Mai Hospital and Gia Lam Airport in Hanoi had been accidentally damaged during December's Operation Linebacker II bombing raids, but without clarifying if the damage was caused by bombing, falling debris or antiaircraft weapons.
In Cambodia Khmer Rouge forces captured two Khmer National Armed Forces (FANK) positions on Route 3, 24 miles (39 km) southwest of Phnom Penh, while FANK forces repelled a 36-hour Khmer Rouge/PAVN assault on Prey Totung, 10 miles (16 km) from Phnom Penh International Airport losing 20 killed.
U.S. aircraft continued to bomb North Vietnam below the 20th parallel, with 84 strikes by fighter-bombers and 13 flights of three B-52s each. 229 airstrikes were conducted over South Vietnam and 22 B-52 strikes were conducted near the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). PAVN/VC forces increased attacks across South Vietnam and shelled Bien Hoa Air Base killing three civilians.
A Khmer Rouge/PAVN rocket attack on Phnom Penh International Airport and a nearby refugee camp killed three civilians and wounded more than 300, while two FANK positions 11 miles (18 km) and 17 miles (27 km) south of Phnom Penh were overrun by Khmer Rouge/PAVN forces.
In Beijing, Chinese leader Zhou Enlai told North Vietnam's peace negotiator, Lê Đức Thọ, that "the U.S. effort to exert pressure through bombing has failed." He advised Tho to be flexible in peace negotiations with the Americans and to "let them leave as quickly as possible" and wait for the situation to change.
South Vietnamese military spokesmen said that PAVN/VC attacks had risen to their highest level since October 1972 when a ceasefire agreement was expected to go into effect, with 116 incidents across the country, including 22 PAVN/VC and eight South Vietnamese militia were reported killed in fighting at Truong Luu in Tây Ninh province. 293 South Vietnamese, 1,288 PAVN/VC and five U.S. military personnel were reported to have been killed in the preceding week.
North Vietnam reported that 1,318 people had been killed and 1,261 wounded in the Linebacker II raids on Hanoi.
The Democratic members of the United States Senate followed the lead of the Democrats in the House of Representatives in voting 36 to 12 to cut off funds for the Vietnam War once all U.S. military forces were withdrawn and the POWs released.
South Vietnam reported 97 attacks throughout the country, but U.S. sources described them as "small in scale and significance." ARVN Airborne forces killed 24 PAVN and captured one for the loss of two killed in fighting in the foothills west of Quảng Trị. Vietnamese Rangers and militia killed 39 PAVN in the Central Highlands west of Route 14. 116 fighter-bomber and 15 B-52 flights struck North Vietnam, while 229 fight-bomber and 14 B-52 strikes were conducted over South Vietnam along with 176 sorties by Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) aircraft.
At a bipartisan breakfast meeting with Congressional leaders, Nixon said that he was neither optimistic nor pessimistic regarding the peace negotiations and would do what he regarded as necessary to secure "a proper kind of settlement."
Canada's Secretary of State for External Affairs, Mitchell Sharp, said he found it difficult to understand the reason for the U.S. Christmas bombing and that "we deplore the action."
Nixon wrote a letter to President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu of South Vietnam asking for Thiệu's cooperation in the Paris peace negotiations and stating that "the unity of our two countries...would be gravely jeopardized if you persist in your present course." Thiệu had scuttled a draft peace agreement reached in October 1972. Nixon pledged to respond with "full force" if North Vietnam violated the peace agreement.
An attempt by two FANK battalions to relieve the besieged town of Tram Khnar was repulsed with heavy losses reported.
As U.S. National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger prepared to resume peace talks with North Vietnam in Paris, Nixon told him that "almost any settlement would be tolerable." Nixon expressed willingness to accept the draft agreement of October 1972 with a few cosmetic changes to make it appear the U.S. had gained something in the negotiations.
45 B-52s and 115 U.S. fighter-bombers hit targets in North Vietnam many around Vinh and Đồng Hới.
FANK troops succeeded in recapturing Tram Khnar.
United States Air Force (USAF) crewmen Captain Paul Howman and First lieutenant Lawrence Kullman, scored the last U.S. aerial victory of the war shooting down a Vietnam People's Air Force MiG-21 with their F-4D Phantom.
Five U.S. jets accidentally bombed Da Nang Air Base destroying three fuel tanks, damaging seven aircraft and injuring ten Americans and one South Vietnamese.
Kissinger and Le Duc Tho in Paris achieved a "breakthrough" in the peace talks with the main obstacle remaining the opposition of the South Vietnamese government to the agreement.
With most details of a peace agreement worked out, Kissinger and Tho reached secret agreements regarding cease fires in both South Vietnam and Laos, the release of American POWs and political prisoners in South Vietnam and the partial withdrawal of North Vietnamese forces from South Vietnam.
The Governor General of Australia Paul Hasluck proclaimed the cessation of hostilities in South Vietnam by Australian forces.
Nixon wrote a letter to Thiệu which was delivered in Saigon by military adviser Alexander Haig. Nixon said he was "irrevocably" committed to sign the peace agreement and said he would do so "alone, if necessary." The consequences if Thiệu did not sign the agreement would be a cutoff in American military and economic aid. Nixon pledged to "react strongly in the event the agreement is violated" by North Vietnam and to continue aid to South Vietnam if Thiệu cooperated."
All bombing of North Vietnam by the United States was halted and would not be resumed.
Thiệu responded to Nixon's letter with a long list of objections to the draft peace agreement, most importantly the fact that the withdrawal of all PAVN forces from South Vietnam was not required.
Operation Phou Phiang III was the final offensive of the Royal Lao Army (RLA) in the Laotian Civil War. The RLA attacked PAVN positions on the Plain of Jars but failed to evict them before the ceasefire mandated by the Vientiane Treaty came into effect on 21 February.
Nixon responded to Thiệu's objections to the draft peace agreement. He attempted to reassure Thiệu on the issue of PAVN soldiers in South Vietnam. He repeated that he would sign the agreement whether or not Thiệu agreed.
Thiệu notified the U.S. government that he would sign the Paris Peace Accords on behalf of South Vietnam.
Knowing that the peace agreement called for a cease fire in place, Thiệu ordered his armed forces to regain as much territory as possible prior to the ceasefire agreement. South Vietnamese forces established forward posts in communist-controlled areas to bolster their claim to the surrounding land. This was the beginning of what was called the War of the flags.
Former U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson, whose presidency was marred by the Vietnam War, died.
Nixon announced that a peace agreement had been reached in Paris which would end the Vietnam War and "bring peace with honor."
With the knowledge that the Paris Peace agreement called for a cease fire in place, PAVN/VC troops in South Vietnam attacked 400 villages attempting to expand their area of control before the cease fire took effect. Both North and South Vietnam struggled to gain control of more territory during the "land grab." Within two weeks South Vietnam had regained control of all but 23 of the villages.
PAVN rockets damaged two United States Marine Corps (USMC) F-4s as they rearmed at Da Nang Air Base.
In the Battle of Cửa Việt, South Vietnamese forces attempted to recapture the Cửa Việt Base and its vicinity, in northeast Quảng Trị Province. While initially successful, the PAVN eventually forced them to retreat with heavy losses in armored vehicles. Two U.S. aircraft were shot down while supporting the battle, resulting in one captured and three missing.
The Paris Peace Accords, formally titled the "Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam", intended to halt the fighting between North and South Vietnam and end U.S. military involvement in the war were signed in Paris. The governments of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and the United States, as well as the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) that represented the VC signed the agreement. The U.S. agreed to withdraw its remaining military personnel from South Vietnam within 60 days. North Vietnam agreed to a ceasefire and to return all American prisoners of war. North Vietnam was permitted to leave 150,000 soldiers and to retain the territory it controlled in South Vietnam.
The U.S. and North Vietnam also pledged to withdraw their military forces from Laos and Cambodia and cease military operations there.
The ceasefire was observed in some areas, but South Vietnamese troops still fought to regain control of villages captured by PAVN/VC forces the day before.
Lieutenant Colonel William B. Nolde was killed near An Lộc, the last American soldier to die prior to the ceasefire envisioned in the Paris Peace Accords.
United States Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announced that the draft of young American men into military service would be ended. A few men continued to be drafted until June 30, 1973, when the federal government's authority to induct expired.
The PAVN 141st Regiment captured Sa Huỳnh Base in southern Quảng Ngãi Province. Despite the ceasefire coming into effect, given its strategic location the ARVN 2nd Division launched a series of counterattacks, forcing the PAVN out of Sa Huỳnh by 16 February 1973.
North Vietnam celebrated the signing of the Paris Peace Accords as a victory. "The Vietnamese revolution has achieved several important gains, but the struggle of our people must continue to consolidate those victories [to] build a peaceful, unified, independent, democratic, and strong Vietnam." The U.S. media praised Nixon and Kissinger for their achievement of "peace with honor." In South Vietnam few believed that the agreement would lead to a lasting peace.
Elliot Richardson replaces Melvin Laird as U.S. Secretary of Defense.
Reports from American military advisers in the countryside of South Vietnam reported "ceasefire or no, operations are continuing much as before" and "with the support of daily air strikes and heavy artillery barrages they [the South Vietnamese military forces] have finally begun to roll the VC back" and more Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) tactical air "strikes were flown in Lam Dong in the three days after the ceasefire than had been flown in the previous six months."