Laos. See 2/12/1975.
13/2/1973, The USA devalued the Dollar by 10%, causing the price of gold to rise to US$42.22.
12/2/1973, The first group of American POWs was released from North Vietnam.
30/1/1973, G Gordon and James McCord were convicted of burglary, wire-tapping, and attempted bugging of the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Building in Washington. The men were part of the Campaign to Re Elect the President (CREEP) campaign (President Nixon). See 17/6/1972 and 17/5/1973.
29/1/1973, The USA’s balance of payments deficit for 1972 was estimated at US$ 6 – 7 billion; the Dollar collapsed.
27/1//1973. The war in Vietnam ended, as President Nixon signed the ceasefire agreement in Paris. One million combatants had been killed. The last US troops left Vietnam on 29/3/1972. This was just days before the Watergate scandal erupted. US astronauts were preparing for the launch of Skylab. However fighting later continued between North and South Vietnam, see 30/4/1975.
15/1/1973. Bombing of North Vietnam halted by Nixon, as he ordered a ceasefire. This followed an intensive US bombing campaign of Hanoi over Christmas 1972, in which a hospital was destroyed and 1,600 civilians killed as 36,000 tons of bombs were dropped on the city, leaving much of it in ruins. US Congress was hostile to further bombing raids.
18/12/1972. Heavy bombing of Hanoi by US B-52s.
22/11/1972. The first US B-52 bomber was shot down over Vietnam.
3/10/1972, The US and USSR signed SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) accords, limiting submarine based and land based missiles.
26/9/1972. President Nixon opened the Museum of Immigration, at the base of the Statue of Liberty, New York.
15/9/1972, Seven men were indicted in Washington over the Watergate burglary on 17/6/1972. They were charged with burglary, wiretapping and conspiracy. Five of the seven were arrested at the scene, attempting to install bugging devices. All seven were members of the Republican committee to re-elect President Nixon.
8/7/1972, US President Nixon announced that the USSR was to buy US$ 750 million worth of US grain over the next 3 years.
29/6/1972. The US Supreme Court abolished the death penalty.
28/6/1972, US President Nixon announced that no more draftees would be sent to Vietnam.
17/6/1972. American biggest political scandal, Watergate, began when five burglars were caught breaking into the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office complex, Washington DC, with photographic and surveillance equipment. See 30/1/1973.
29/5/1972. Brezhnev and Nixon signed SALT-2 (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty).
22/5/1972. US President Richard Nixon arrived in Moscow, the first visit to the Soviet Union by an American President..
15/5/1972, George Wallace, Governor of Alabama, was shot and injured by a White assailant, Arthur Bremer, aged 21. Wallace, known for his racist and segregationist policies (see 2/9/1963), was campaigning for the Democratic Party’s Presidential nomination.
2/5./1972, J Edgar Hoover, American founder of and head of the FBI, died in Washington DC.
15/4/1972, US bombers made heavy raids on North Vietnam.
30/3/1972, North Vietnam launched a major attack on the South. On 15/4/1972 the US made heavy bombing raids on North Vietnam. North Vietnam abandoned guerrilla tactics and launched a major conventional invasion, with tanks and heavy artillery. The South Vietnamese city of Quang Tri fell on 1/5/1972 and South Vietnam seemed to have lost the war. However the US responded with massive air power and smart bombs. North Vietnamese forces were driven back to the dividing line and Hanoi proposed peace talks in October 1972. Under domestic pressure to end US involvement in Vietnam, Nixon could not refuse this offer.
21/2/1972, US President Nixon landed in China to forge links with Prime Minister Chou En Lai and Chairman Mao Tse Tung. China still objected to US support for the Taiwan regime.
For more events of Vietnam War see South East Asia
26/12/1971. The US resumed bombing of North Vietnam.
10/12/1971, The John Sinclair Freedom Rally is he