Secretary of State William P. Rogers’ Pen Used to Sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement.

ROGERS, William P. [Richard Nixon].

$25,000.00

Item Number: 145329

Paris:, January 27, 1973.

The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, ending the Vietnam War, Paris, 27 January 1973. Sheaffer fountain pen with 14 karat gold tip, housed in an adjustable gold pen holder, wooden base, brass hardware including etched plaque. The plaque reads, “To the Association of the Bar of the City of New York / Pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to Sign the Viet-Nam Peace Agreements / Paris January 27, 1973.” During his tenure as Secretary of State under President Nixon, William P. Rogers was involved in multiple matters of foreign policy including negotiations leading up to the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 after years of negotiations and secret talks. On 27 January 1973, representatives of the South Vietnamese communist forces, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the United States gathered in Paris to sign the Paris Peace Accords and officially end the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. The ceasefire took effect the next day on January 28, 1973, and the last U.S. troops left Vietnam in March 1973. In very good condition. A unique piece of world history.

In 1955, conflict between North and South Vietnam began. Fearing the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, the United States entered the war in the early 1960s, providing financial aid, military advisors, and eventually combat troops in support of South Vietnam. As the conflict escalated and anti-war sentiment grew, talks about ending United States military intervention began in 1968, proceeding for years until an agreement in 1973. Fighting reignited almost immediately after US departure and continued for two more years before the Fall of Saigon and the end of the war. Eric Caren, proprietor of the most significant private collection of historical documents in the United States, notes that this item "represented the most tragic element of the 1960s, inspiring the collective rebellion on university campuses, and the combined rights for women and Blacks that led to the most positive changes in the most interesting decade. There is rare and there is unique, this pen is obviously both."