By 1969, the Vietnam War seemed like it would go on forever. On May 22, 1969, world leaders met at plenary session of the Paris peace talks to discuss how to end the war. Some leaders felt like they were all agreeing, but Nguyen Thanh Le from North Vietnam said that the ideas and programs they were talking about were “as different as day and night.” Two weeks before this meeting, the National Liberation Front had showed these world leaders a 10-point program for an “overall solution” to the war. This program said that United States and Allied troops had to leave Vietnam, and that Vietnam had to set up a coalition government and free elections so that all of their
people could vote. The program also said that the South Vietnamese had to fix their own problems without international help and that North and South Vietnam had to work towards reuniting.
Nothing helpful came from these peace talks, however, and the United States brought their troops home from helping South Vietnam in 1973. South Vietnam fought for their freedom as long as they could, but 2 years later, on April 30, 1975, North Vietnam took over South Vietnam. Vietnam became a communist country where freedoms were taken away and people could note vote. A few things in the government changed in 1992, but the people in Vietnam still do not have the right to vote.
