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Dear Delegates,
Welcome to WorldMUN and to the Paris Peace Conference! My name is Charlene Wong, and I am a third-year at Harvard studying Government and Economics. I was born in Singapore and grew up in New Jersey, although I return almost every year—including last year, for WorldMUN 2011! I have participated in Model UN since middle school, and at Harvard, I run the Specialized Agencies at our high school conference (HMUN), and continue to travel on the college circuit. Apart from classes and extracurriculars, I enjoy playing electric guitar, pursuing my interest in graphic design, and reading foreign newspapers.
Some of you may remember me as the Under-Secretary-General for Administration from WorldMUN 2011—if there’s something I love as much as answering emails, it’s definitely the Specialized Agencies! I am so excited to chair the Paris Peace Summit—the conference that brought an end to the Vietnam War. Over the course of the week, delegates will represent diplomats from North Vietnam, the United States, South Vietnam, and other parties in attempting to craft the conditions of a ceasefire and long-term peace. Beginning in 1955, the Cold War-era military conflict pitted communist North Vietnam, supported by China and the Soviet Union, against South Vietnam and the United States. In real life, the Paris Peace Accords fell apart months after the last signature was inked—resulting in the forced unification of Vietnam under communist leadership. At WorldMUN, we’ll have the opportunity to craft out an agreement that will promote lasting peace in one of the most war-ravaged regions of Southeast Asia.
What excites me most about this topic is its unconventional take on the Cold War in the Asian arena. Despite two million casualties, the Vietnam war has been an uncommon topic on the Model UN circuit. This committee seeks to remedy that disparity. If you’re interested in Cold War politics, Southeast Asia, or the dynamics of peace treaty negotiation, I hope you will join me in the Paris Peace Summit at WorldMUN XXI! I look forward meeting you.
Sincerely,
Charlene Wong
Chair, Paris Peace Conference
World Model United Nations 2012
ppa@worldmun.org
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By the turn of the decade in 1970, the Vietnam War had cost over 1,700,000 lives. Taking place amid the tension of the Cold War, the conflict between North and South Vietnam (and its Western allies) wreaked immense havoc on the Vietnamese people. The roots of the Vietnam War lie in the independence movement of Ho Chi Minh against the French empire, beginning in 1955. Since 1960, guerrilla tactics used by the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong insurgency, napalm-fueled total war strategies employed by American forces have forced the relocation of entire villages, and destroyed acres of farms and forests. As representatives of North Vietnam, South Vietnam, the United States, the Viet Cong, and other parties come to the negotiation table, they must answer questions of how to overcome the military deadlock that has prevented the establishment of a ceasefire, and how to create a long-term, sustainable peace between North and South Vietnam that is acceptable to all parties. In the backdrop of Cold War tensions, the diplomats of the Paris Peace talks must find a balance between their ideological and nationalist interests and the need to end a war of unending escalation and brutal destruction.