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1973: The Paris Peace Accords and the Allied Withdrawal from South Vietnam

02 March - 04 March 2023
- Lubbock, TX

The views and opinions expressed in these papers, presentations, and videos are strictly those of the presenters and authors and do not represent The Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University, or the State of Texas.

Friday, March 3rd

Video

[Petroleum Room]
8:00 AM : WELCOMING REMARKS

Moderator: Ron Milam, Ph.D., Executive Director, Institute for Peace & Conflict, Texas Tech University

Tosha Dupras, Ph.D., Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, Texas Tech University
Administrative Remarks
Stephen Maxner, Ph.D., Director, Vietnam Center & Sa
    Video

    [Petroleum Room]
    8:30 AM : Ambassador’s Roundtable

    Moderator: Justin Hart, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Academic Programs, Institute for Peace and Conflict, Texas Tech University

    Introduction: Ron Milam, Ph.D., Texas Tech University
    A Discussion Featuring:
    Ambassador Ron Neumann
    Ambassador Chase Untermeyer
      Video

      [University Room]
      10:30 AM 2B: “Captain Canada’s” ICCS Challenge: Overcoming Obstructions to Peace in A War Zone

      Moderator: Rebecca McGee, Ph.D. Student, Texas Tech University

      • James Baldwin, Oral History Project/Researcher, The Military Museums (Calgary), Alberta Canada
        Sense of Humour and Teamwork Required: Canadian ICCS Experiences While Monitoring War In The Company of “HIP’ Colleagues

      • “Captain Canada’s” Personal Experiences in POW (including John McCain) Release Exchanges of Vietnamese and Americans
        James Baldwin, Oral History Project/Researcher, The Military Museums (Calgary), Alberta Canada (Sources: ICCS Captain Norman Altenhof = “Captain Canada”)

      • “Boots On The Ground Perspectives”: Canadian ICCS Veteran Experiences Presentation and ICCS Veteran Panel Questions
        Captain Tony Burton, ICCS Canadian Veteran (Retired) Lt. Colonel Fletcher Thomson, ICCS Canadian Veteran -Captain In 1973 (Retired) Colonel Charles Simonds, ICCS Canadian Veteran, (Retired)

      Video

      [Cotton Room]
      10:30 AM 2C: “A Grain of Rice is Worth a Drop of Blood.”

      Moderator: Stephen Sherman, Vietnam Veteran, Independent Researcher

      • History of Rice in Southeast Asia 1939-1979
        Bill Laurie, Vietnam Veteran, Independent Researcher

      • Land Reform in North and South Vietnam (1954-1978)
        Nghia Vo, Vietnam Veteran, Independent Researcher

      • Rice in 1973
        Stephen Sherman, Vietnam Veteran, Independent Researcher

      Video

      [Atrium]
      12:00 PM Lunch: The Vietnamese Communist Playbook & the Russo-Ukrainian War

      Moderator: Pierre Asselin, Ph.D. Professor of History, Dwight E. Stanford Chair in U.S. Foreign Relations San Diego State University

        Video

        [Petroleum Room]
        1:30 PM 3A: Paris Peace Accords

        Moderator: Ms. Jenny Nguyen, United States Institute of Peace

        • Leaving Vientiane: Ambassador Godley, the USAF Ravens, and the Embattled Defense of Laos, 1972-1973
          Jeffrey Schultz, Luzerne County Community College

        • The Paris Peace Accords and South Vietnam
          Hieu Vu, Ph.D., Fort Hays State University

        • The Two Vietnams
          Nghia Vo, Independent Researcher

        Video

        [University Room]
        1:30 PM 3B: Roundtable Discussion on the Failure of ICCS: The Vietnamese American Perspective

        Moderator: Ms. Rachel Qúy Le


        • Mr. Cao Thai Hai, Vietnamese boat people refugee in 1975, businessman, and politician


        • Mr. Dao Le, son-in-law of an ARVN special force intelligence, survived boat people refugee, and an eyewitness of post-war 1975


        • Ms. Le Hang My (aka Ms. Michelle Le-Chen), author of The Children Hope- The story of Đảo Minh Le (Major General Đảo Minh Le is her father and served as commander of the 18th ARVN Division and as ground commander during the final Battle of Saigon)


        • Ms. Paula Hicks-Le: BBA, Accounting Information Systems, Pace University, New York, ARVN descendant, an accountant, former president of New Jersey Vietnamese-American Community Association (2014-2018), and AICC of PPA73 advocator

        Video

        [Cotton Room]
        1:30 PM 3C: Why the U.S. “Lost” the Second Indochina War: Kissinger, Congress, and the Anti-War Movement in 1973

        Moderator: Stephen Sherman, Independent Researcher, Vietnam Veteran

        • The Paris Accords
          Steve Young, Independent Researcher

        • Congress and Vietnam: a 1973 case study
          Professor Robert Turner, Distinguished Fellow, Center for National Security Law, University of Virginia School of Law (Retired)

        • The Fog of War, Politics, and Peace: How the Antiwar Movement Won the Political War in Congress, and the Peace Movement Lost the Peace in Indochina and in the USA
          Roger B. Canfield, Ph.D., Independent Scholar, Vietnam Veteran, ATN2, USN 1959-1964

        Video

        [Petroleum Room]
        3:30 PM 4A: Enforcing the Paris Peace Accords

        Moderator: James Baldwin, Oral History Project/Researcher, The Military Museums (Calgary), Alberta Canada

        • Between a Rock and Hard Place: Canada and the International Commission of Control and Supervision
          Michael Carroll, Ph.D., MacEwan University, Canada

        • New Commission – Same Commission? Polish Delegation in the International Commission for Control and Supervision
          Jarema Slowiak, Ph.D., Jagiellonian University, Poland

        • Post-Paris Peace Accords: Violations or Ambiguity (1973)?
          Jerry Silverman, Ph.D., Vietnam Veteran, Independent Scholar

        Video

        [University Room]
        3:30 PM 4B: Understanding the last phase of U.S. Advisory Efforts through District Teams, Mobile Advisory Teams, and South Vietnamese Territorial Forces

        Moderator: James H. Willbanks, Ph.D., LTC, USA Ret, Professor Emeritus of Military History, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College

        • Local Security at the Bottom Rungs: Mobile Advisory Teams and Territorial Forces
          Uyen H. “Carie” Nguyen, Ph.D., Texas Tech University

        • In the Mouth of the Dragon: A Memoir of a District Advisor in the Mekong Delta, 1971-1973
          John B. Haseman, Vietnam Veteran, Independent Researcher

        • An Unconventional Approach to Unconventional Warfare
          David L. Priddy, Vietnam Veteran, Independent Researcher

        Video

        [Texas Tech University International Cultural Center Hall of Nations]
        6:45 PM : Special Vietnam Veteran Recognition Program

        Hosted by the Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech University
          Video

          [Texas Tech University International Cultural Center Hall of Nations]
          7:15 PM : The Past Has Another Pattern

          Welcoming Remarks:
          Ron Milam, Ph.D., Executive Director, Institute for Peace and Conflict, Texas Tech University
          Lawrence Schovanec, Ph.D., President, Texas Tech University
          Keynote Address:
          Larry Berman, Ph.D.
          Professor Emeritus, University of California, Davis

            Saturday, March 4th

            Video

            [Petroleum Room]
            8:30 AM Session 5: The Paris Peace Agreement at 50: A Roundtable Discussion

            Moderator: John Burns, Director, Midway Institute for Teachers, USS Midway Museum, San Diego, California

            Larry Berman, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, University of California, Davis
            George Veith, Ph.D., Independent Scholar
            Pierre Asselin, Ph.D., Professor of History, San Diego State University
              Video

              [Petroleum Room]
              10:30 AM 6A: Reporting and Commentary about the Vietnam War in 1973

              Moderator: Sean Cunningham, Ph.D., Texas Tech University

              • Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia
                Arnold Isaacs, War Correspondent, Independent Researcher

              • Photographs of 1973 - The End Was In Sight (Or So We Thought)
                Neal Ulevich, War Correspondent, Independent Researcher

              Video

              [University Room]
              10:30 AM 6B: The Ground War in 1973

              Moderator: Trevor Yates, Ph.D. Student, Texas Tech University

              • The Cambodian Incursion
                Isaac Mounce, Independent Researcher

              • 1973: Fighting on Alone
                James H. Willbanks, Ph.D., LTC, USA Ret, Professor Emeritus of Military History, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College

              • Will the Last Medic Leaving Please Turn Out the Lights: Shutting Down the U.S. Army Health Service System in the Republic of Vietnam, 1972—1973
                Donald Hall, Ph.D., Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

              Video

              [Cotton Room]
              10:30 AM 6C: Prisoners of War

              Moderator: John Nelson, Ph.D., Texas Tech University

              • Hour of Deliverance: Operation Homecoming and the End of America’s War in Vietnam
                J. Keith Saliba, Ph.D., Jacksonville University

              • Tiger Cages
                Justin Simundson, Ph.D., U.S. Air Force Academy

              Video

              [Atrium]
              12:00 PM Lunch: The Paris Peace Agreement: Reflections on a Failed War

              Moderator: Justin Hart, Ph.D., Texas Tech University

              Carolyn Eisenberg, Ph.D.
              Hofstra University
                Video

                [Petroleum Room]
                1:30 PM 7A: Comparison and Discourse: The Comparative Legacy America’s War in Vietnam

                Moderator: Kyle Rable, Ph.D. Student, Texas Tech University

                • Victims of Peace: Comparing and Contrasting the Paris Peace Accords (1973) and the Doha Agreement (2020)
                  James Pomeroy, Graduate Student, Texas Tech University

                • Decolonization and sovereignty: Recontextualizing the cold war perspectives in the Nigerian and Cambodian civil wars, 1967-1975
                  Emmanuel Ojelabi, Ph.D. Student, Texas Tech University

                • Proxy Wars: Seemingly Unrelated Conflicts, More of the Same, and How They Start
                  Ryan Miller, Graduate Certificate in Strategic Studies, Texas Tech University

                Video

                [University Room]
                1:30 PM 7B: 1973: The Air War Continues in Vietnam

                Moderator: Philip Webster, Ph.D. Student, Texas Tech University

                • Residual Forward Air Controller (FAC) Operations – 1973
                  Darrel Whitcomb, Independent Researcher, Vietnam Veteran

                • Vietnam helicopter pilot who served in 1973 discusses combat incidents that continued in 1973 after the cease-fire
                  John M. Harris, CW5, USA Ret, Independent Researcher, Vietnam Veteran

                Video

                [Petroleum Room]
                3:30 PM 8A: The Implications of the Paris Peace Accords

                Moderator: Clayton Kozan, Ph.D. Candidate, Texas Tech University

                • Difficulties Attendant to Researching the American – Viet Nam War from 1954 through the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, American Withdrawal and Beyond
                  Frank Scotton, Field Operative Viet Nam 1962-1973; author UPHILL BATTLE published by Texas Tech Press

                • Ambassador Martin’s Mission Impossible – And Fatal Misjudgment
                  Frank Snepp, Vietnam Veteran, Central Intelligence Agency

                Video

                [University Room]
                3:30 PM 8B: Legacies of the Vietnam War

                Moderator: Justin Hart, Ph.D., Texas Tech University

                • Our Commitment to Freedom: The Creation of the All-Volunteer Force in 1973 and Its Legacy
                  William A. Taylor, Ph.D., Angelo State University

                • Teaching the Vietnam War in High School - A New Orientation
                  Drew Gibson, Independent Researcher

                • Republic of Vietnam and United States Militaries Arsenic Contribution to the Mekong Delta Groundwater during the Vietnam War
                  Kenneth Olson, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana

                Video

                [Cotton Room]
                3:30 PM 8C: The Hanoi Hilton’s Silver Lining

                Moderator: Rebecca McGee, Ph.D. Student, Texas Tech University

                • What Vietnam POWs Have Taught Us
                  Taylor Kiland, Independent Researcher

                Video

                [Cotton Room]
                5:00 PM : Closing Remarks

                Moderator: Stephen Maxner, Ph.D., Director, Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech University