c, issued an ultimatum to North Vietnam that serious negotiations had to resume within 72 hours. When Hanoi did not respond, Nixon ordered operation Linebacker II, eleven days and nights of maximum force bombing against military targets in Hanoi. On December 18 the operation began. The so-called Christmas bombings were widely denounced by American politicians, the public, the media, and various world leaders including the pope. On the eighth day of the bombings, North Vietnam agreed to resume the peace talks 5 days after the bombings had stopped. This operation was the most intense bombing campaign of the whole war. Over 100,000 bombs were dropped over Hanoi and Haiphong. The operation was quite successful, although it had cost 1318 civilian lives, the peace negotiations resumed, and on the second day of negotiating all the differences between Kissinger and Le Duc Tho had been resolved. Thieu was against the proposal that the U.S. would allow North Vietnamese, already in South Vietnam, to remain there. But when he was threatened by America that there would be a total cut-off of all American aid if he wouldnt agree, he unwillingly accepted the agreement. In January 1973 the Paris Peace Accords were signed by the U.S., North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the Vietcong. Under the terms, the U.S. agreed to immediately halt all military activities and withdraw all remaining military personnel (there were only advisors for the South Vietnamese army left) within 60 days. The North Vietnamese agreed to an immediate cease-fire and releases all American POWs (prisoners of war) within 60 days. An estimated 150,000 North Vietnamese soldiers at that moment in South Vietnam, were allowed to remain there. Vietnam was still divided. Vietnam was considered to be one country with two governments, one lead by President Thieu, the other lead by the Vietcong, pending future reconciliation. The end of the warAfter the Paris Peace Accords were singed, the war ...
