穿越时空双语读：1973年3月29日 美军撤出越南

穿越时空双语读：1973年3月29日 美军撤出越南

uread

March 29

1973 - U.S. troops withdraw from Vietnam 美军撤出越南

March 29, 1973: Two months after the signing of the Vietnam peace agreement, the last U.S. combat troops leave South Vietnam as Hanoi frees many of the remaining American prisoners of war held in North Vietnam. America’s direct eight-year intervention in the Vietnam War was at an end.

1973 年 3 月 29 日：越南和平协议签署两个月后， 最后一批美军作战部队撤离南越 ，河内方面释放了许多仍被关押在北越的美国战俘。美国对越南战争长达八年的直接干预就此结束。

In Saigon, some 7,000 U.S. Department of Defense civilian employees remained behind to aid South Vietnam in conducting what looked to be a fierce and ongoing war with North Vietnam.

在西贡，约有 7000 名美国国防部文职人员留守，协助南越进行与北越之间看似激烈且持续不断的战争。

In 1961, after two decades of indirect military aid, U.S. President John F. Kennedy sent the first large force of U.S. military personnel to support the ineffectual autocratic regime of South Vietnam against the North. Three years later, with the South Vietnamese government crumbling, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered limited bombing raids on North Vietnam, and Congress authorized the use of U.S. troops. By 1965, North Vietnamese offensives left President Johnson with two choices: escalate U.S. involvement or withdraw. Johnson ordered the former, and troop levels soon jumped to more than 300,000 as U.S. air forces commenced the largest bombing campaign in history.

1961 年，在长达二十年的间接军事援助之后，美国总统约翰·F·肯尼迪派遣了第一支大规模美军部队，支持软弱无能的南越独裁政权对抗北方政权。三年后，随着南越政府的瓦解， 林登·B·约翰逊总统下令对北越进行有限的轰炸，国会也授权美军出兵。到 1965 年，北越的攻势迫使约翰逊总统面临两个选择：要么扩大美国的军事介入，要么撤军。约翰逊最终选择了前者，随着美军空军展开历史上规模最大的轰炸行动，驻越美军人数迅速增至 30 多万人。

During the next few years, the extended length of the war, the high number of U.S. casualties, and the exposure of U.S. involvement in war crimes, such as the massacre at My Lai, helped turn many in the United States against the Vietnam War. The Tet Offensive of 1968 crushed U.S. hopes of an imminent end to the conflict and galvanized U.S. opposition to the war. In response, Johnson announced in March 1968 that he would not seek reelection, citing what he perceived to be his responsibility in creating a perilous national division over Vietnam. He also authorized the beginning of peace talks.

在接下来的几年里，战争的旷日持久、美军伤亡惨重，以及美国参与战争罪行（例如美莱村大屠杀）的曝光，促使许多美国人开始反对越南战争。1968 年的春节攻势粉碎了美国对战争即将结束的希望，并进一步激化了美国民众对战争的反对情绪。作为回应，约翰逊于 1968 年 3 月宣布不再寻求连任，理由是他认为自己应对在越南问题上造成的危险的国家分裂负有责任。他还授权启动了和平谈判。

In the spring of 1969, as protests against the war escalated in the United States, U.S. troop strength in the war-torn country reached its peak at nearly 550,000 men. Richard Nixon, the new U.S. president, began U.S. troop withdrawal and “Vietnamization” of the war effort that year, but he intensified bombing. Large U.S. troop withdrawals continued in the early 1970s as President Nixon expanded air and ground operations into Cambodia and Laos in attempts to block enemy supply routes along Vietnam’s borders. This expansion of the war, which accomplished few positive results, led to new waves of protests in the United States and elsewhere.

1969 年春，随着美国国内反战抗议活动愈演愈烈，驻越美军人数达到顶峰，接近 55 万人。新任美国总统理查德·尼克松于当年启动了美军撤离和“ 越南化 ”战争政策，但他同时加大了轰炸力度。20 世纪 70 年代初，随着尼克松总统将空袭和地面行动扩展到柬埔寨和老挝，试图切断敌军沿越南边境的补给线，美军继续大规模撤军。战争的扩张收效甚微，反而引发了美国及其他地区新一轮的抗议浪潮。

Finally, in January 1973, representatives of the United States, North and South Vietnam, and the Vietcong signed a peace agreement in Paris, ending the direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. Its key provisions included a cease-fire throughout Vietnam, the withdrawal of U.S. forces, the release of prisoners of war, and the reunification of North and South Vietnam through peaceful means. The South Vietnamese government was to remain in place until new elections were held, and North Vietnamese forces in the South were not to advance further nor be reinforced.

最终，在1973年1月，美国、北越、南越和越共的代表在巴黎签署了和平协议，结束了美国直接参与越南战争。协议的主要条款包括在越南全境停火、美军撤出、释放战俘以及通过和平方式实现南北越统一。南越政府将继续执政直至举行新的选举，而北越军队在南方的军事行动不得进一步推进或得到增援。

In reality, however, the agreement was little more than a face-saving gesture by the U.S. government. Even before the last American troops departed on March 29, the North violated the cease-fire, and by early 1974 full-scale war had resumed. At the end of 1974, South Vietnamese authorities reported that 80,000 of their soldiers and civilians had been killed in fighting during the year, making it the most costly of the Vietnam War.

然而，事实上，这项协议不过是美国政府为了挽回颜面而做出的姿态。甚至在最后一批美军于3月29日撤离之前，北方就违反了停火协议，到1974年初，全面战争已经重燃。1974年底，南越当局报告称，当年有8万名军民在战斗中丧生，使其成为越南战争中伤亡最惨重的一年。

On April 30, 1975, the last few Americans still in South Vietnam were airlifted out of the country as Saigon fell to North forces. North Vietnamese Colonel Bui Tin, accepting the surrender of South Vietnam later in the day, remarked, “You have nothing to fear; between Vietnamese there are no victors and no vanquished. Only the Americans have been defeated.” The Vietnam War was the longest and most unpopular foreign war in U.S. history and cost 58,000 American lives. As many as two million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were killed.

1975年4月30日，随着西贡陷落于北方军队之手，最后几名仍留在南越的美国人被空运撤离。当天晚些时候，北越上校裴廷在接受南越投降时说道：“你们不必害怕；越南人之间没有胜利者，也没有失败者。只有美国人战败了。”越南战争是美国历史上持续时间最长、最不得人心的对外战争，造成5.8万美国人丧生。多达200万越南军民丧生。