Chapter 297
Chapter 297
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Paris Peace Accords
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Who would die first?
The West and Korea's game of chicken showed no signs of ending.
If anything, it was escalating as time went on.
"The one who wins this fight gets all the chips."
Amid the intensifying chicken race between Korea and the West, the Third World nations reaped sweet benefits and cranked their economic growth engines to full throttle.
To boost their growth efficiency, Korea dispatched policy advisory teams, providing blueprints for economic development.
"We should go with the light industry tech tree here."
"Not heavy industry?"
"Can you handle the capital investment that requires?"
"Ah, no."
While offering advice on new industries to Third World countries, Korea slyly slotted them into an industrial chain centered on Pyongyang.
"This is international division of labor. Each country should focus on what it's good at to maximize competitiveness."
"Feels like we're getting played, but it doesn't sound wrong."
In truth, Third World nations had no real choice.
Given their location along the Indian Ocean-Western Pacific rim, they couldn't find a closer collaboration partner than Korea.
Europe and Britain were options, sure, but they couldn't compete with Korea either emotionally or in terms of competitiveness.
America?
Way too far.
Korea also ramped up its access to the Second World.
Previously limited to light industry goods, it now exported a wide range of heavy industry products, from petrochemicals to machinery.
"Isn't that a COCOM violation?"
"The Europeans are openly selling restricted items too."
COCOM regulations had effectively been nullified when Europe preemptively started dumping the latest TVs and radios—restricted items—to survive the subsidy wars.
In this situation, expect Korea to play by the rules?
Ridiculous.
The Soviets welcomed Korea's exports of restricted items.
"Finally, we can breathe a little."
With America eyeing détente with the Soviets, it stopped making an issue of COCOM rules.
Or rather, it shifted gears entirely.
"Might as well export restricted items to the Soviets too."
Once America began selling machine tools and other restricted items, COCOM was done for good.
National interest, not Cold War remnants, now dictated each country's policies.
In a world where you'd sell bullets and missiles to your enemies if it profited you, Korea held the clear advantage.
As the only nation with free access to First, Second, and Third World markets, paired with the world's strongest industrial chain.
"In this setup, confident in a war of attrition?"
Korea slowed the rate of its deficit expansion by profiting off the growth engines it spun up in the Second and Third Worlds.
Meanwhile, the West's deficits ballooned uncontrollably amid the escalating subsidy wars.
"At this rate, we're all going down."
Even America found the bleeding from the subsidy wars burdensome.
It already had massive baseline spending on military and such.
"This can't go on. We need to cut expenditures."
"Where from?"
President Richard Nixon sought a way out of this mess.
"How about negotiating with North Vietnam?"
"End the Vietnam War?"
"Yes, sir."
Ending Vietnam would slash the enormous war costs.
But South Vietnam? It'd be done for.
No need to belabor the point.
"Everyone will see it as abandoning an ally. How do we handle the fallout?"
In a normal Cold War era, ditching South Vietnam might've just dented America's prestige.
But today's environment was worlds apart from yesterday's.
It wasn't an age of ironclad ideological blocs.
Show the world you're abandoning an ally in this climate, and how would they view America?
The faith in America's First World alliance—the bedrock of trust—could crumble.
"But sir, we can't take on Korea while saddled with that South Vietnam albatross."
America was already tying up one arm in the arms race with the Soviets.
The president agonized over this for days.
Ally loyalty or easing America's burden?
No easy answer.
Spotting the president's dilemma, Kissinger offered advice.
"Sir, do you know how Africans catch monkeys? The natives stuff a narrow-necked gourd full of food at the entrance. The monkey reaches in, grabs a fistful, and can't pull it out."
Kissinger's point was simple.
You couldn't yank both the nut of alliance credibility and burden relief out of the gourd.
One had to go.
The president knew that much.
It was just too big a stake to decide lightly.
"Prepare talks with North Vietnam."
Nixon chose to withdraw from Vietnam and lighten America's load.
National interest trumped alliance credibility.
Kissinger approved of the president's call.
He flew to Moscow immediately as the president's special envoy.
There, Kissinger proposed a final solution to the Vietnam issue.
"I propose a peace accord guaranteed by America, the Soviet Union, and North Vietnam."
The Soviets liked the sound of it.
'The Yankees finally brought something sensible.'
They had no desire to pour more money into North Vietnam.
The new Shelest regime desperately needed funds for reforms anyway.
Interests aligned.
To lure North Vietnam to the table, America proposed "appropriate shows of force" to Moscow, and Shelest consented.
Over the next two weeks, America staged six large-scale military demonstrations, buzzing in and out of North Vietnamese waters.
"How's the carrier battle group show? Scary, right?"
"Those Yankee bastards—think they'll stage another false flag?"
Hanoi couldn't hold out against fears of another American ploy.
'This is a temporary retreat for a strategic advance.'
Accepting Soviet persuasion, North Vietnam entered peace talks with America.
'Now the outline's set.'
America crunched the numbers during technical talks with North Vietnam.
'Europeans won't be a problem.'
Even if Europe fretted over the abandonment, reliant on American might for security, they wouldn't openly bolt the alliance.
With reds still kicking around, how could Europe leave America's fold?
Kissinger figured alliance grumbles were containable from a realist standpoint.
"What about China?"
"China's leashed by our loans too. Stuff their mouths with cash and float the idea of U.S. troops in China—they'll calm down."
"Loans and U.S. troops in China."
America calculated this would suffice for damage control.
Washington moved fast.
"Smile, please."
*Click click.*
On May 9, 1969, the Paris Peace Accords were signed in Paris.
America had accepted most Soviet and North Vietnamese terms without quibbling.
'The imperialists can negotiate humbly too?'
North Vietnam felt a twinge of suspicion but was overall pleased.
'With U.S. withdrawal, we've got all we could've gained.'
Whatever the inner motives, America, the Soviet Union, and North Vietnam agreed via the Paris Peace Accords to maintain peace in Vietnam.
"This is betrayal of our allies!"
Democrats and even some Republicans voiced outrage.
"Nation that ditches allies on the battlefield representing the First World? Absurd."
"Thought the Republicans were trustworthy, but they're no different from Democrats."
Nixon ran his own PR counteroffensive.
"We just cleaned up a war we never needed to fight. Remember: Democrats started it, not Republicans."
He diluted domestic backlash by slinging mud at the prior administration.
World opinion, ignoring the grubby backroom squabbles, hailed the accord's architects for ending the war.
"Your decision saved hundreds of thousands of lives."
The Swedish Academy and Nobel Committee announced they would award the Nobel Peace Prize to Nixon's special advisor Henry Kissinger and North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho envoy.
Le Duc Tho coldly rebuffed the offer.
"True peace hasn't come to Vietnam yet. Nor do I want some bourgeois-sentimental prize."
As his words hinted, the Paris Peace Accords were just a pretty packaging job on Washington's ally abandonment scam.
No one was fooled by the ploy.
America declared U.S. troop withdrawal the moment the accords were inked.
"Per the agreement, we'll vacate the premises."
Of course, America didn't just ghost irresponsibly.
It pledged arms, economic aid, and security guarantees as minimal safeguards.
But to South Vietnam, suddenly dumped, such peanuts were laughable.
The South Vietnamese government expressed utmost fury at Washington.
"America stabbed us in the back. This is Washington's betrayal!"
General Nguyen Van Thieu, South Vietnam's leader, railed at length against America's "betrayal" of free democracy.
Korea amplified the interview by plastering photos of South Vietnamese and American flags flapping side by side across Europe.
With the situation unfolding thus, European nations eyed America's cut-and-run with icy stares.
'America that dumps even blood-sharing allies. Blind faith in those bastards is no answer.'
The First World took another massive hit from the Paris Peace Accords.
Korea watched the fissures widen while gearing up for the next strike.