82. “Tham luan ve cong tac ngoai giao cua CP cua Ong Phan-van-Su, dai bieu Vinh-long,” 3.
83. Luu Van Loi, Fifty Years of Vietnamese Diplomacy, 1945–1995, Vol. 1: 1945–1975 (Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers, 2000), 139; “Thong cao cua UB thuong vu QH” [Declaration by the National Assembly Standing Committee], 29 July 1961, Ho so 791: Ho so phien hop thu 22 cua UBTVQH khoa II ngay 29.7.1961 quy dinh thoi gian bau cu HDND xa, thi tran o KTT Thai Meo, xet de nghi khen truong, ve thai do cua UBTVQH voi viec xam luoc Tuy-ni-di cua Phap va bao cao Hoi nghi Gio-ne-vo giai quyet van da Lao, Phong Quoc hoi, VNAC3, 1.
84. French Embassy, Saigon, to MFA, 20 September 1960, #31, AO: VN, ADF, 1.
85. “Tham luan ve phong trao cong tac ngoai giao cua CP cua Ong Phan-van-Su, dai bieu Vinh-long” [Address on the Diplomatic Work of the Government by Mr. Phan Van Su, Representative from Vinh Long], 26 October 1961, Ho so 729: Ho so ky hop thu ba cua QH khoa III tu ngay 23–27.10.1961. Tap 3: Phien hop ngay 26.10.1961: Thuyet trinh ve tong quyet toan ngan sach Nha nuoc nam 1960, tham luan ve tang cuong phap che, tinh hinh mien Nam va dau tranh chong My, thong nhat dat nuoc, cong tac ngoai giao, Phong Quoc hoi, VNAC3, 2.
86. “Nghi quyet Hoi nghi Trung uong lan thu 15,” 58, 62; Truong Chinh, Écrits, 1946–1975 [Selected Writings, 1946–1975] (Hanoi: Éditions en langues étrangères, 1977), 6.
87. Quoted in FGDH to MFA, 12 September 1960 (II), #16, AO: VN, ADF, 2.
88. Bui Kim Dinh, “Tim hieu nguyen nhan cuoc dung dau lich su o Viet Nam (1954–1975)” [Understanding the Cause of Historical Encounters in Vietnam, 1954–1975], Tap chi Lich su Dang [Journal of Party History], no. 186 (May 2006): 68.
89. “Tham luan cua ong Dang-thai-Mai,” 1–2.
90. FGDH to MFA, 20 February 1961, #31, AO: VN, ADF, 1.
91. “Review of Events in North Vietnam (the D.R.V.) during 1961,” 3.
92. The French position is related in British Embassy, Paris, to FO, 21 December 1961, FO 371/160125, NAUK, 1; and FGDH to MFA, 1 December 1961, #72, AO: VN, ADF, 1.
93. Quoted in BCGH to BES, 23 April 1962, FO 371/166712, NAUK, 2.
94. Ibid.
95. “Review of Events in North Vietnam (the D.R.V.) during 1961,” 1.
96. French Embassy, Moscow, to MFA, 28 June 1961, #35, AO: VN, ADF, 2.
97. FGDH to MFA, 1 March 1961, #31, AO: VN, ADF, 1.
98. FGDH to MFA, 8 March 1961, #19, AO: VN, ADF, 1–2.
99. French Embassy, Moscow, to MFA, 27 June 1961, #35, AO: VN, ADF, 2; BCGH to BES, 23 April 1962, 1; Szalontai, Kim Il Sung in the Khrushchev Era, 164.
100. FGDH to MFA, 12 June 1961, #35, AO: VN, ADF, 2.
101. Szalontai, Kim Il Sung in the Khrushchev Era, 178.
102. “Review of Events in North Vietnam (the D.R.V.) during 1961,” 3–4.
103. Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali, Khrushchev’s Cold War: The Inside Story of an American Adversary (New York: Norton, 2006), 336; Mark Atwood Lawrence, The Vietnam War: A Concise International History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 68.
104. Qiang Zhai, China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950–1975 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 83–85.
105. Khuat Bien Hoa, Dai tuong Le Duc Anh [General Le Duc Anh] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Quan doi nhan dan, 2005), 60.
106. Jay Tao, “Mao’s World Outlook: Vietnam and the Revolution in China,” Asian Survey 8, no. 5 (May 1968): 417.
107. Donald S. Zagoria, “Khrushchev’s Attack on Albania and Sino-Soviet Relations,” China Quarterly, no. 8 (October–December 1961): 3
108. Lorenz Lüthi, The Sino-Soviet Split, 1956–1966 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2008), 197.
109. Sergei Radchenko, Two Suns in the Heavens: The Sino-Soviet Struggle for Supremacy, 1962–1967 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2009), 24; Zagoria, “Khrushchev’s Attack on Albania,” 1–19. Unable to reach consensus with Khrushchev on Albania and other issues, Zhou Enlai left the conference on 23 November, a week before it closed.
110. “Calendar of Events in North Vietnam during 1961.”
111. Ang Cheng Guan, Vietnamese Communists’ Relations with China and the Second Indochina Conflict, 1956–1962 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1997), 206.
112. Szalontai, Kim Il Sung in the Khrushchev Era, 187.
113. “Calendar of Events in North Vietnam during 1961.”
114. Ang Cheng Guan, Vietnamese Communists’ Relations with China, 214.
115. Xiaoming Zhang, “Communist Powers Divided: China, the Soviet Union, and the Vietnam War,” in Lloyd C. Gardner and Ted Gittinger, eds., International Perspectives on Vietnam (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000), 83.
116. BCGH to SEAD, 1 January 1962, FO 371/166712, NAUK, 2.
117. “Du thao de cuong gio thieu ve tinh hinh ve duong loi cach mang mien Nam,” 11.
118. Philip E. Catton, Diem’s Final Failure: Prelude to America’s War in Vietnam (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002), 74.
119. Seth Jacobs, Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America’s War in Vietnam, 1950–1963 (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), 122.
120. “Du thao de cuong gio thieu ve tinh hinh ve duong loi cach mang mien Nam,” 11.
121. Bo Quoc phong—Vien Lich su quan su Viet Nam, Lich su quan su Viet Nam, Tap 11, 142.
122. “History of the NLF, 1954–63” [CRIMP Document], undated, Folder 03, Box 01, DPC: Unit 05—National Liberation Front, VATTU, 6–7.
123. “Chi thi cua Ban Bi thu, so 19-CT/TW, ngay 11 thang 5 nam 1961: Ve phat dong dau tranh chong am muu de quoc My dinh dua quan vao mien Nam Viet Nam” [Secretariat Instruction, no. 19-CT/TW, 11 April 1961: On the Mobilization Struggle against the American Imperialists’ Plan to Introduce Troops into Southern Vietnam], in VKD: 1961, 323–24.
124. “‘Bao cao ve tinh hinh mien Nam va tinh hinh dau tranh thong nhat nuoc nha cua ta’ cua Uy ban Thong nhat,” 3.
125. “Vietnam: Chronology,” part of “Memorandum for the Minister,” 9 March 1965, 21-13-VIET-ICSC [Pt. 1.1], Vol. 10122, RG 25, LAC, 3.
126. “‘Bao cao ve tinh hinh mien Nam va tinh hinh dau tranh thong nhat nuoc nha cua ta’ cua Uy ban Thong nhat,” 1.
127. Mark Moyar, Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 124.
128. Catton, Diem’s Final Failure, 87–88, 90.
129. Ibid., 93, 97, 133.
130. Moyar, Triumph Forsaken, 156–60.
131. Catton, Diem’s Final Failure, 120, 141, 187–88.
132. John B. O’Donnell, “The Strategic Hamlet Program in Kien Hoa Province, South Vietnam: A Case Study of Counter-Insurgency,” 11 May 1965, Folder 13, Box 06, John Donnell Collection, VATTU, 48–49, 57, 59.
133. Catton, Diem’s Final Failure, 137.
134. Quoted in Elliott, Vietnamese War, 175.
135. Ibid., 164.
136. Catton, Diem’s Final Failure, 138.
137. The latter referred to joint South Vietnamese-American covert activities against or within the DRVN.
138. PLAF strength stood at approximately 17,000 troops at the time (Turley, Second Indochina War, 63).
139. “Nghi quyet Hoi nghi R lan thu I (mo rong)” [Resolution of the First Plenum (expanded) of R (i.e., COSVN)], in VKD: 1961, 656–730. For an English translation of the document, see “Draft of COSVN Resolution 1,” October 1961, Folder 02, Box 12, DPC: Unit 06—Democratic Republic of Vietnam, VATTU.
140. In short, southern leaders wanted to “increasingly attack the enemy and expand our movement, rapidly develop and strengthen our forces in every respect, completely change the balance of forces between us and the enemy, actively pave the way for a general uprising and be ready to seize every opportunity to achieve big successes.”
141. Gareth Porter, “Hanoi’s Strategic Perspective and the Sino-Soviet Conflict,” Pacific Affairs 57, no. 1 (Spring 1984): 12.
142. “It will only be by means of revolutionary overthrow of the ruling bourgeoisie
that peace can be attained” in the world, Beijing maintained publicly at this time, and “this is an unprecedentedly favorable new epoch for proletarian revolution in the countries of the world and for the national revolution in the colonies and semi-colonies.” Quoted in Thomas Perry Thornton, “Peking, Moscow, and the Underdeveloped Areas,” World Politics 13, no. 4 (July 1961): 492.
143. “Thong tri cua Ban Bi thu, so 45-TT/TW,” 485.
144. Duiker, Communist Road to Power, 220–21.
145. “‘Bao cao tinh hinh the gio va cong tac ngoai giao’ doc truoc ky hop thu ba cua Quoc hoi khoa hai (ngay 24 thang 10.1961)—Bo Truong Bo Ngoai giao Ung Van Khiem,” 4.
146. “Thu cua QH gui dong bao mien Nam” [National Assembly Letter to Southern Compatriots], Ho so 730: Ho so ky hop thu ba cua QH khoa II tu ngay 23–27.10.1961. Tap 4: Phien hop ngay 27.10.1961: Nghi quyet ve tong quyet toan ngan sach Nha nuoc nam 1960, sap nhap Dong Trieu vao Hong Quang, ve tinh hinh the gioi va cong tac ngoai giao cua CP, Phong Quoc hoi, VNAC3, 2.
147. Turley, Second Indochina War, 48.
148. “Note d’information: Position de certaines personnalités de la R.D.V.N. à l’égard de l’opposition vietnamienne non communiste, et de la réunification du Vietnam” [Information Note: Stance of Certain DRVN Figures on Noncommunist Vietnamese Opposition, and Vietnamese Reunification], 3 June 1961, #1, AO: VN, ADF, 1–2.
149. Le Quang Dao, “Let Us Step Up Army Building and Consolidation of National Defense,” Hoc tap, no. 12 (December 1961). Reproduced and translated in Folder 10, Box 13, DPC: Unit 06—Democratic Republic of Vietnam, VATTU, 34–36, 38.
150. FGDH to MFA, 1 January 1962, #72, AO: VN, ADF, 4.
151. BCGH to FO, “Visit of Chinese Military Delegation to North Vietnam,” 3 January 1962, FO 371/166713, NAUK, 1.
152. “‘Bao cao tinh hinh the gio va cong tac ngoai giao’ doc truoc ky hop thu ba cua Quoc hoi khoa hai (ngay 24 thang 10.1961)—Bo Truong Bo Ngoai giao Ung Van Khiem,” 9.
153. “‘Bao cao ve tinh hinh mien Nam va tinh hinh dau tranh thong nhat nuoc nha cua ta’ cua Uy ban Thong nhat,” 1.
154. British Embassy, Peking, to FO, 1 January 1962, FO 371/166713, NAUK, 1.
155. “Visit of Chinese Military Delegation to North Vietnam,” 3.
156. Bui Tin, Following Ho Chi Minh: Memoirs of a North Vietnamese Colonel (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999), 45. The Chinese military delegation, Bui Tin writes, traveled to Hanoi “to suggest that our southern compatriots should only attack at section or company level, never at battalion strength.”
157. Qiang Zhai, China and the Vietnam Wars, 113.
158. Ye’s comments are reported in “Visit of Chinese Military Delegation to North Vietnam,” 3.
159. Giap’s comments are quoted in ibid., 2–3.
160. “Canadian Report on Visit of Chinese Military Mission to DRV,” 2 February 1962, FO 371/166713, NAUK, 2.
161. Ang Cheng Guan, Vietnamese Communists’ Relations with China, 213.
162. “Visit of Chinese Military Delegation to North Vietnam,” 3.
163. “Tham luan ve k.h. xam luoc moi cua de quoc My vao mien Nam Viet Nam cua ong Nguyen-van-Huong, dai bieu Long Xuyen” [Address on the New Aggression of the American Imperialists in Southern Vietnam of Mr. Nguyen Van Huong, Representative of Long Xuyen], Ho so 729: Ho so ky hop thu ba cua QH khoa II tu ngay 23–27.10.1961. Tap 3: Phien hop ngay 26.10.1961: thuyet trinh ve tong quyet toan ngan sach Nha nuoc nam 1960, tham luan ve tang cuong phap che, tinh hinh mien Nam va dau tranh chong My, thong nhat dat nuoc, cong tac ngoai giao, Phong Quoc hoi, VNAC3, 2–3.
164. Ibid., 6–7.
165. Ibid., 9–10.
166. “Tham luan cua o. Tran-tong, dai bieu tinh Quang nam doc tai QH, khoa II, ky hop thu III ve tinh hinh mien Nam” [Address by Mr. Trang Tong, Representative of Quang Nam Province before the National Assembly, Second Session, Third Meeting on the Situation in the South], Ho so 729: Ho so ky hop thu ba cua QH khoa II tu ngay 23–27.10.1961. Tap 3: Phien hop ngay 26.10.1961: thuyet trinh ve tong quyet toan ngan sach Nha nuoc nam 1960, tham luan ve tang cuong phap che, tinh hinh mien Nam va dau tranh chong My, thong nhat dat nuoc, cong tac ngoai giao, Phong Quoc hoi, VNAC3, 5.
5. EXPLORING NEUTRALIZATION, 1962
1. “Tuyen bo cua QH nuoc VNDCCH huong ung loi kieu goi cua Xo Viet toi cao Lien Xo ve viec giam bot quan so” [Statement by the DRVN National Assembly in Support of the Declaration by the Supreme Soviet on the Reduction of Military Forces], 23 January 1960, Ho so 636: Ho so ve viec QH Viet Nam ve cac nuoc huong ung, ung ho loi kieu goi cua Xo viet toi cao Lien Xo ve dau tranh lam diu tinh hinh the gio, giai tru quan bi va hop tac hoa binh tu 1957–1960, Phong Quoc hoi, Vietnam National Archives Center 3, Hanoi [hereafter VNAC3], 2; Qiang Zhai, China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950–1975 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 93.
2. Ban chi dao Nghien cuu ly luan va thuc tien Trung uong Dang nhan dan cach mang Lao, Lich su Dang nhan dan cach mang Lao [History of the People’s Revolutionary Party of Laos] (Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Chinh tri quoc gia, 2005), 111. Most, including Souphanouvong, escaped from prison in May 1960 (ibid., 114).
3. British Embassy, Saigon [hereafter BES], to Foreign Office, London [hereafter FO], “Vietnam—Annual Report for 1959,” 27 January 1960, FO 371/152737, National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew [hereafter NAUK], 12; “Loi tuyen bo cua cu Ton Duc Thang, Chu tich Uy ban TW MTTQVN voi Thong tan xa Lien Xo” [Statement by Ton Duc Thang, President of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front for the Soviet News Agency], October 1959, Ho so 636: Ho so ve viec QH Viet Nam ve cac nuoc huong ung, ung ho loi kieu goi cua Xo viet toi cao Lien Xo ve dau tranh lam diu tinh hinh the gio, giai tru quan bi va hop tac hoa binh tu 1957–1960, Phong Quoc hoi, VNAC3, 1.
4. William J. Duiker, The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam, 2nd ed. (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996), 201.
5. “‘Bao cao tinh hinh the gio va cong tac ngoai giao’ doc truoc ky hop thu ba cua Quoc hoi khoa hai (ngay 24 thang 10.1961)—Bo Truong Bo Ngoai giao Ung Van Khiem” [“Report on the World Situation and Diplomatic Tasks” Read before the Third Meeting of the Second Session of the National Assembly (24 October 1961—Foreign Minister Ung Van Khiem], 24 October 1961, Ho so 728: Ho so ky hop thu ba cua QH khoa II tu ngay 23–27.10.1961. Tap 2: Phien hop ngay 24.10.1961: Bao cao, to trinh cua UBTVQH, Bo Ngoai giao, Uy ban Thong nhat, Bo Tai chinh, Phu Thu tuong ve cong tac cua UBTVQH, tinh hinh the gio va cong tac ngoai giao, mien Nam ve thong nhat nuoc nha, Phong Quoc hoi, VNAC3, 12–13.
6. Roger M. Smith, “Cambodia’s Neutrality and the Laotian Crisis,” Asian Survey 1, no. 5 (July 1961): 19–20; Ang Cheng Guan, The Vietnamese War from the Other Side: The Vietnamese Communists’ Perspective (New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002), 62–63.
7. Christopher E. Goscha, “The Revolutionary Laos of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam: The Making of a Transnational ‘Pathet Lao Solution’ (1954–1956),” in Christopher E. Goscha and Karine Laplante, eds., L’Échec de la paix en Indochine / The Failure of Peace in Indochina (1954–1962) (Paris: Les Indes savantes, 2010), 64.
8. “Summary of Vietnamese Aid to the Lao Revolution (1945–1975),” Science Section of the General Department of Rear Services, People’s Army of Vietnam, 6 (document in Christopher Goscha’s possession). See also Ang Cheng Guan, Vietnamese Communists’ Relations with China and the Second Indochina Conflict, 1956–1962 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1997), 175–76.
9. Ban chi dao Nghien cuu ly luan va thuc tien Trung uong Dang nhan dan cach mang Lao, Lich su Dang nhan dan cach mang Lao, 119; French General Delegation, Hanoi [hereafter FGDH], to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris [hereafter MFA], 24 July 1961, #44, Asie-Océanie [hereafter AO]: Vietnam Conflit [hereafter VC], Archives Diplomatiques de France, La Courneuve [hereafter ADF], 1.
10. FGDH to MFA, 1 June 1961, #71, AO: Vietnam Nord [hereafter VN], ADF, 1, 4.
11. For the best treatment of this topic, see Goscha, “Revolutionary Laos of the Democratic Republic of Viet
nam,” 61–84.
12. “Tieu ban nghien cuu cong tac Lao: De an cong tac kinh te tai chinh giup chinh phu Lao” [Laotian Affairs Research Sub-Committee: Program for Economic and Financial Assistance to the Government of Laos], 31 September 1961, Ho so 7809: De an, bao cao cua Ban Liep te T-W, Bo Quoc phong va tieu ban nghien cuu cong tac Lao ve tinh hinh vien tro cho Lao nam 1961, Phong Phu Thu tuong, VNAC3, 7.
13. Hoang Van Hoan, A Drop in the Ocean: Hoang Van Hoan’s Revolutionary Reminiscences (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1988), 382. According to another source, the “Lao Operations Committee” was called CP 31 (“Summary of Vietnamese Aid to the Lao Revolution (1945–1975),” 6.
14. “De an: Vien tro cho Vuong quoc va Pathet Lao nam 1961 cua Ban tiep te TW” [Program: Supplies for the Kingdom and Pathet Lao for 1961 by the Central Supply Committee], 8 August 1961, Ho so 7809: De an, bao cao cua Ban Liep te T-W, Bo Quoc phong va tieu ban nghien cuu cong tac Lao ve tinh hinh vien tro cho Lao nam 1961, Phong Phu Thu tuong, VNAC3, 1; “Dien van cua Bo truong Bo ngoai giao” [Message from the Foreign Minister], 30 November 1961, Ho so 7809: De an, bao cao cua Ban Liep te T-W, Bo Quoc phong va tieu ban nghien cuu cong tac Lao ve tinh hinh vien tro cho Lao nam 1961, Phong Phu Thu tuong, VNAC3, 1.
15. “Tieu ban nghien cuu cong tac Lao: De an cong tac kinh te tai chinh giup chinh phu Lao,” 2.
16. “Dien van cua Bo truong Bo ngoai giao,” 1.
17. “Cong cuoc hau can—Bao cao cong tac vien tro cho Lao nam 1961” [The Great Logistical Undertaking: Report on the Supply Work for Laos in 1961], 20 February 1962, Ho so 7809: De an, bao cao cua Ban Liep te T-W, Bo Quoc phong va tieu ban nghien cuu cong tac Lao ve tinh hinh vien tro cho Lao nam 1961, Phong Phu Thu tuong, VNAC3, 1, 15.
18. “Tong ket so vu khi dan duoc cua Trieu tien vien tro Pathet Lao trong nam 1961—Viet Nam da chuyen giao tu thang 1/1962 den thang 9/1962” [Summary of the Amount of Weapons (and) Ammunition Supplied by Korea to the Pathet Lao in 1961—Delivered by Vietnam between January and September 1962], 25 October 1962, Ho so 7809: De an, bao cao cua Ban Liep te T-W, Bo Quoc phong va tieu ban nghien cuu cong tac Lao ve tinh hinh vien tro cho Lao nam 1961, Phong Phu Thu tuong, VNAC3, 1. North Korea was the only member of the socialist camp to offer aid exclusively to the Pathet Lao.
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