France hosted the peace talks that produced the Paris Peace Accords.
The negotiations took place in Paris and culminated in the agreement signed on January 27, 1973. The accord was formally titled the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet-Nam. Its signatories were North Vietnam, South Vietnam, the United States, and the Provisional Revolutionary Government, which represented the Viet Cong.
The talks began in 1968 and became famous for their elaborate negotiating table, reflecting the difficulty of recognizing the parties involved. Henry Kissinger represented the United States, while Lê Đức Thọ represented North Vietnam. The agreement called for the withdrawal of remaining U.S. forces and the return of prisoners of war, but it did not end fighting between Vietnamese forces.
A common mix-up is confusing the Paris Peace Accords with the 1954 Geneva Accords, which temporarily divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel. Paris is also associated with the agreement’s monitoring commission, whose members included Canada, Poland, Hungary, and Indonesia.