Reckless: Henry Kissinger and the Tragedy of Vietnam
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36. As quoted in Isaacson, Kissinger, 486.
37. Ibid., 487.
38. Bundy, “Reconsiderations.”
39. Stanley Hoffmann, “The Case of Dr. Kissinger,” New York Review of Books, December 6, 1979, 1.
40. Ibid., 2.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. Luu van Loi, Le Duc Tho–Kissinger Negotiations in Paris, 114–115.
44. Memorandum of a Conversation, February 21, 1970, 9:40 a.m. and 4:10 p.m., box 121, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid.
48. Bo Ngoai Giao [Ministry of Foreign Affairs], Dai su ky chuyen de: Dau Tranh Ngoai Giao va van dong quoc te trong nhung chien chong My, cuu nuoc [Special chronology: the diplomatic struggle and international activities of the anti-American resistance and national salvation] (Hanoi, 1987), 249–250.
49. Ibid.
50. Memorandum of a Conversation, February 21, 1970, 9:40 a.m. and 4:10 p.m., box 121, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
51. Bo Ngoai Giao [Ministry of Foreign Affairs], Dai su ky chuyen de: [Special chronology], 249–250; see also, Nguyen, Hanoi’s War, 164–165.
52. Memorandum, To the President from Henry Kissinger, February 21, 1970, box 121, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
53. Ibid.
54. Ibid.
55. Ibid.
56. Ibid.
57. Ibid.
58. People in attendance at the February 21, 1970, meeting included Le Duc Tho, adviser to the DRV Delegation; Xuan Thuy, chief of the DRV Delegation; Mai Van Bo, DRV delegate general in Paris; Nguyen Dinh Phuong, DRV interpreter and member of the Foreign Ministry; Luu Van Loi, DRV interpreter and member of the Foreign Ministry; Henry Kissinger, national security adviser; Major General Vernon Waters, defense attaché, US Embassy—Paris; W. Richard Smyser, National Security Council staff; and Anthony Lake, National Security Council staff.
59. Memorandum of Conversation, Morning Session, February 21, 1970, 9:40 a.m., box 121, and Memorandum of Conversation, Afternoon Session, February 21, 1970, 4:10 p.m., box 121, both National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
60. Luu van Loi, Le Duc Tho–Kissinger Negotiations in Paris, 120.
61. Ibid., 119.
62. Kissinger, White House Years, 444.
63. Memorandum, Current State of Vietnam Papers, February 25, 1970, box 121, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
64. As quoted in David Milne, Wordmaking: The Art and Science of American Diplomacy (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2015), 368.
65. Ibid.
66. Brinkley and Nichter, Nixon Tapes, 717.
67. Larry Berman, No Peace, No Honor: Nixon, Kissinger, and Betrayal in Vietnam (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001), 149.
68. David F. Schmitz, Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War (Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield, 2014), 141–144.
69. Memorandum of a Conversation, March 16, 1970, box 121, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
70. Ibid.
71. Kissinger, White House Years, 445.
72. Memorandum, Kissinger to President Nixon, December 9, 1970, box 3, National Security Council Files, POW/MIA, RNPLM.
73. Jeffrey Kimball, Nixon’s Vietnam War (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998), 189.
74. Isaacson, Kissinger, 255, and Kimball, Nixon’s Vietnam War, 190.
75. Isaacson, Kissinger, 254–255. See also, Memorandum of a Conversation, March 16, 1970, 9:40 a.m., box 121, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM; see also, Memorandum for the President, My Meeting with North Vietnamese on March 16, 1970, box 121, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM; FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VI, Vietnam, January 1969–July 1970, “Memorandum of Conversation, March 16, 1970,” document number 201; and Memorandum of Conversation, April 4, 1970, 9:30 a.m., box 121, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
76. Kissinger, White House Years, 447.
77. Isaacson, Kissinger, 254.
78. Haldeman Diaries, March 13, 1970, 138.
79. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VI, Vietnam, January 1969–July 1970, “Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, February 27, 1970, document number 192.
80. Ibid.
81. Ibid.
82. Memorandum of a Conversation, March 16, 1970, box 121, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
83. Ibid.
84. Ibid.
85. Ibid.
86. Memorandum, My Meeting with North Vietnamese, March 16, 1970, box 852, National Security Council Files: For the President’s File, Winston Lord—China Trip, Vietnam Sensitive, Camp David, RNPLM.
87. Ibid.
88. Ibid.
89. Memorandum of Conversation, March 16, 1970, 9:40 a.m., box 121, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
90. Memorandum of Conversation, April 4, 1970, 9:30 a.m., National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
91. Ibid.
92. Luu van Loi, Le Duc Tho–Kissinger Negotiations in Paris, 131.
93. Memorandum of Conversation, April 4, 1970, 9:30 a.m., National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
94. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VI, Vietnam, January 1969–July 1970, “Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), April 6, 1970,” document number 223.
95. Ibid.
96. Memorandum of Conversation, April 4, 1970, 9:30 a.m., National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
97. Ibid.
98. Kissinger, White House Years, 447.
99. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 119.
100. Richard Nixon, “Address to the Nation on Progress Toward Peace in Vietnam, April 20, 1970,” at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=2476.
101. Ibid.
102. Ibid.
103. Ibid.
104. Ibid.
105. Ibid.
106. As quoted in Gareth Porter, A Peace Denied: The United States, Vietnam, and the Paris Peace Agreement (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975), 90.
107. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VI, Vietnam, January 1969–July 1970, “Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, March 19, 1970,” document number 205.
108. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VI, Vietnam, January 1969–July 1970, “Memorandum from Senior Military Assistant (Haig) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), April 1, 1970,” document number 217.
109. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VI, Vietnam, January 1969–July 1970, “Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, April 11, 1970,” document number 227.
110. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VI, Vietnam, January 1969–July 1970, “Editorial Note,” document number 239.
111. Memorandum, Westmoreland to Laird, April 21, 1970, and Pursley to Kissinger, April 22, 1970, box 88, National Security Council Files: Vietnam Subject Files, RNPLM.
112. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VI, Vietnam, January 1969–July 1970, “Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs to President Nix
on, undated,” document number 253.
113. Schmitz, Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War, 85.
114. Hunt, Melvin Laird, 158.
115. Dale Van Atta, With Honor: Melvin Laird in War, Peace, and Politics (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2008), 263.
116. Haldeman Diaries, April 24, 1970, 154.
117. Memorandum, From Kissinger to President Nixon, April 26, 1970, box 965, National Security Council Files: Haig Chronology Files, RNPLM; see also Conversation, Kissinger and Wheeler, April 24, 1970, 7:25 p.m., box 5, HAK Telecons: White House Tapes, Chronological File, RNPLM.
118. Memorandum, From Kissinger to President Nixon, April 26, 1970, box 965, National Security Council Files: Haig Chronology Files; and Memorandum, From Haig to Kissinger, April 27, 1970, box 965, National Security Council Files: Haig Chronology Files, RNPLM.
119. Richard Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), 445.
120. Haldeman Diaries, April 23, 1970, and April 24, 1970, 153–154; see also, Hunt, Melvin Laird, 158.
121. Ibid.
122. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 160.
123. President Nixon, “Address to the Nation on the Situation in Southeast Asia, April 30, 1970,” at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=2490.
124. Ibid.
125. Ibid.
126. Isaacson, Kissinger, 269.
127. New York Times, May 3, 1970.
128. As quoted in Harry Kopp, “The State of Dissent in the Foreign Service,” September 2017, at http://www.afsa.org/state-dissent-foreign-service.
129. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VI, Vietnam, January 1969–July 1970, “Editorial Note,” document number 277.
130. William Shawcross, Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979), 145.
131. Schmitz, Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War, 92.
132. Memorandum, Kissinger to President Nixon, May 8, 1970, box 318, National Security Council Files, RNPLM.
133. Memorandum, Kissinger to President Nixon, May 4, 1970, box 585, National Security Council Files: Cambodia Operations, 1970, RNPLM.
134. Dallek, Kissinger and Nixon, 210.
135. Public Papers of the President, Richard Nixon, 1970, 476–480.
136. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 171.
137. Ibid., 163.
CHAPTER FOUR: THE STANDSTILL CEASE-FIRE
1. Henry Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War: A History of America’s Involvement in and Extrication from the Vietnam War (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003), 179.
2. Ibid., 175.
3. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VI, Vietnam, January 1969–July 1970, “Memorandum from the President’s Deputy for National Security Affairs to President Nixon, undated,” document number 346 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 2006).
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. As quoted in the Washington Post, December 6, 1977.
7. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 178.
8. Ibid., 179.
9. Conversation, Kissinger and Joseph Aslop, October 7, 1970, box 7, HAK Telecons: White House Tapes, RNPLM.
10. As quoted in Robert Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 254.
11. Henry Kissinger, White House Years (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979), 975–976.
12. Ibid.
13. Luu Van Loi, Le Duc Tho–Kissinger Negotiations in Paris, 147.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VII, Vietnam, July 1970–January 1972, “Memorandum of Conversation, September 7, 1970, 9:30am–2:30pm,” document number 34; see also Kissinger, White House Years, 976–977.
17. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VII, Vietnam, July 1970–January 1972, “Memorandum of Conversation, September 7, 1970, 9:30am–2:30pm,” document number 34; see also Luu van Loi, Le Duc Tho–Kissinger Peace Negotiations in Paris, 149.
18. Ibid.
19. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 183.
20. Ibid., 182.
21. Kissinger, White House Years, 978.
22. Ibid.
23. Memorandum, From Kissinger to President Nixon, September 17, 1970, box 4, National Security Council Files: POW/MIA, Camp David—Sensitive, vol. 7, RNPLM.
24. Memorandum, A Longer Look at the New Communist Peace Proposal on Vietnam, September 22, 1970, box 3, National Security Council Files: Paris Talks, July–September 1970, RNPLM.
25. Charles W. Colson, Born Again (Grand Rapids: F. H. Revell, 1976), 41.
26. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 431.
27. Ibid.
28. Haldeman Diaries, August 18, 1970, 190.
29. Haldeman Diaries, August 17, 1970, 189.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Odd Arne Westad, Chen Jian, Stein Tonnesson, Nguyen Vu Tungard, and James Hershberg, eds., “Zhou Enlai and Pham Van Dong, September 17, 1970,” 77 Conversations Between Chinese and Foreign Leaders on the Wars in Indochina, 1964–1977, Working Paper No. 22 (Washington, DC: Cold War International History Project, 1998), 174–178, at https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/ACFB39.pdf.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. Jussi M. Hanhimaki, The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy (New York: Oxford, 2004), 107–108.
36. Westad et al., 77 Conversations, September 17 and September 23, 1970, 174–178.
37. Ibid., September 23, 178.
38. Memorandum, From Kissinger to President Nixon, September 28, 1970, box 4, National Security Council Files: POW/MIA, Meeting Folder, Camp David—Sensitive, vol. 6, RNPLM.
39. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 184.
40. Jeffrey Kimball, Nixon’s Vietnam War (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998), 235.
41. Richard Nixon, “Address to the Nation About a New Initiative for Peace in Southeast Asia, October 7 1970,” at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=2708.
42. New York Times, October 9, 1970.
43. Wall Street Journal, October 9, 1970.
44. Daily Citizen, October 9, 1970.
45. New York Times, October 8, 1970.
46. Ibid.
47. Kissinger, White House Years, 980.
48. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VII, Vietnam, July 1970–January 1972, “Editorial Note,” document number 46.
49. New York Times, October 8, 1970.
50. Public Papers of the President, Richard Nixon, 1970, 830.
51. “Nixon’s Peace Plan,” New Republic, October 17, 1970.
52. New York Times, October 9, 1970.
53. Ibid.
54. As quoted in Daniel Sargent, A Superpower Transformed: The Remaking of American Foreign Relations in the 1970s (New York: Oxford, 2017), 57.
55. Haldeman Diaries, December 15, 1970, 220–221.
56. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 187.
57. Ibid.
58. Kissinger, White House Years, 986.
59. James H. Willbanks, A Raid Too Far: Operation Lam Son 719 and Vietnamization in Laos (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2014), 24.
60. Memorandum, Meeting between President Thieu, Ambassador Bunker and General Haig, December 17, 1970, 6:00 p.m. Saigon time, box 1011, National Security Council Files: Alexander M. Haig Special Files, folder 1, RNPLM.
61. Willbanks, A Raid Too Far, 25–26.
62. Alexander M. Haig Jr., Inner Circles: How America Changed the World—A Memoir (New York: Grand Central Publishers, 1992), 273.
63. Hunt, Melvin Laird, 176.
64. Ibid., 177.
65. Ibid.
66. Ibid.
67. Conversation, Kissinger and President Nixon, December 9, 1970, box 8, HAK Telecons: White House Tapes, RNPLM.
68. Richard A. Hunt, Melvin Laird and the Foundation of the Post-Vietnam Military, 1969–1973, Secretary of Defense Historical Series (Washington, DC: Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of D
efense, 2015), 177.
69. Ibid., 179.
70. Douglas Brinkley and Luke Nichter, eds., The Nixon Tapes, 1971–1972 (New York: Harcourt Brace, 2014), 11.
71. Memorandum, From Kissinger to President Nixon, December 23, 1970, box 4, National Security Council Files: Alexander Haig Chronological Files, RNPLM; see also FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VII, Vietnam, July 1970–January 1972, “Memorandum for the Record, December 23, 1970,” document number 96.
72. Willbanks, A Raid Too Far, 57.
73. Nguyen Duy Hinh, Lam Son 719, Indochina Monographs (Washington, DC: US Army Center of Military History, 1979), 53–54.
74. Willbanks, A Raid Too Far, 50.
75. Bui Diem, In the Jaws of History (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), 284–285.
76. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VII, Vietnam, July 1970–January 1972, “Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, April 10, 1971,” document number 176.
77. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VII, Vietnam, July 1970–January 1972, “Transcript of a Telephone Conversation Between the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) and the US Army Chief of Staff (Westmoreland), April 12, 1971,” document number 178.
78. Willbanks, A Raid Too Far, 59.
79. Kissinger, White House Years, 1004; see also Hinh, Lam Son 719, 79.
80. Willbanks, A Raid Too Far, 89.
81. Washington Post, March 9, 1971.
82. Memorandum: Henry Kissinger to the Honorable Carl Albert, March 29, 1971, box 116, National Security Council Files: Vietnam Subject Files, RNPLM.
83. Hunt, Melvin Laird, 185.
84. Ibid., 186.
85. Memorandum from Kissinger to President Nixon, February 26, 1971, box 116, National Security Council Files: Vietnam Subject Files, RNPLM.
86. Hunt, Melvin Laird, 186.
87. As quoted in Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger, 260.
88. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VII, Vietnam, July 1970–January 1972, “Backchannel Message from President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to Ambassador to Vietnam (Bunker), March 9, 1971,” document number 147.
89. As quoted in John Prados, Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945–1975 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009), 415.
90. For an excellent description of PAVN activities in Laos during Lam Son 719, please see Merle Pribbenow’s translation of the PAVN’s official history, Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People’s Army of Vietnam, 1954–1975 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002), 271–278.