Which event marked the end of direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War?

• A. The signing of the Paris Peace Accords (1973)
• B. The fall of Saigon
• C. The Tet Offensive
• D. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Answer: (A)

Ending American combat involvement came with the Paris Peace Accords signed in 1973. These agreements established a ceasefire, arranged for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, and led to the release of prisoners of war. They mark the point at which the United States formally stepped back from direct military engagement in Vietnam, even though fighting continued and South Vietnam eventually fell another two years later.

The other events illustrate different moments in the war's course but not its end for the United States. The Tet Offensive in 1968 was a major turning point that shifted public opinion and exposed the resilience of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong, but it didn’t end U.S. involvement. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964 expanded U.S. authority to escalate the war rather than end it. The fall of Saigon in 1975 symbolized the end of the Vietnam War itself, but by then the United States had already withdrawn its combat forces.