The Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was not all cold. It evolved into a series of intense proxy battles in Korea, and Vietnam. Throughout the 1950s, American leaders watched in alarm as Russia extended their influence over Vietnam, in Southeast Asia. Protecting the democratic southern section became a priority, as the U.S. dispatched first military advisers, then planes, then ground troops to the region. American involvement in the war lasted more or less a decade, causing some 350,000 casualties and achieving very little in the way of a victory. As the tide of public opinion began turning against the war, President Nixon, who inherited the war, had no choice but the sue for peace.

On this day, January 15, 1973, in preparation for the Paris Peace Accords, President Nixon announced the unilateral cessation of all offensive military action in North Vietnam. The announcement came on the heels of an intense bombing campaign intended to pressure the North Vietnamese to accept the peace agreement.

The Vietnam War introduced Americans to the hard slog of guerrilla warfare. The North Vietnamese were effectively able to counter overwhelming American military might by avoiding them head on. A famous story has it that an American colonel met his North Vietnamese counterpart well after the war and reminded him the North never won a single engagement on the field of battle. “That may be true,” the NVA officer countered, “But it is also irrelevant.”