124. Ibid.
125. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VIII, Vietnam, January–October 1972, “Memorandum of a Conversation, August 17, 1972, Saigon, 4:35–6:40 p.m.,” document number 243.
126. Interview with Nguyen Xuan Oanh, economist and former South Vietnamese official, Ho Chi Minh City, July 1989.
127. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VIII, Vietnam, January–October 1972, “Memorandum of a Conversation, August 17, 1972, Saigon,” document number 243.
CHAPTER SIX: PEACE IS AT HAND
1. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume XLII, Vietnam: The Kissinger–Le Duc Tho Negotiations, August 1969–December 1973, “Memorandum of Conversation, September 15, 1972,” document number 18 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2017).
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Douglas Brinkley and Luke Nichter, The Nixon Tapes, 1971–1972 (New York: Harcourt Brace, 2014), 622.
5. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume XLII, Vietnam: The Kissinger–Le Duc Tho Negotiations, August 1969–December 1973, “Memorandum of Conversation, September 15, 1972,” document number 18.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. See Jeffrey Kimball, Nixon’s Vietnam War (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998), 331.
9. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume XLII, Vietnam: The Kissinger–Le Duc Tho Negotiations, August 1969–December 1973, “Memorandum of Conversation, September 15, 1972,” document number 18.
10. Memorandum, DRVN Proposals, September 15, 1972, box 121, National Security Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
11. Brinkley and Nichter, Nixon Tapes, 631.
12. “Official US Congressional Election Results, 1972,” at clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1972election.pdf.
13. The Gallup poll regularly asked Americans whether it “was a mistake to send American troops to Vietnam.” From October 1967 until January 1973, more Americans agreed that it was a mistake than disagreed. By 1971–1972, 60 percent of Americans polled consistently thought it was a mistake to send American troops to Vietnam. For an interesting essay explaining this data, please see Frank Newport and Joseph Carroll, “Iraq Versus Vietnam: A Comparison of Public Opinion,” Gallup News, August 24, 2005, at news.gallup.com/poll/18097/Iraq-versus-vietnam-comparison-public-opinion.aspx. The quotes come from Barbara J. Keys, Reclaiming American Virtue: The Human Rights Revolution of the 1970s (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014), 63.
14. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume XLII, Vietnam: The Kissinger–Le Duc Tho Negotiations, August 1969–December 1973, “Memorandum of Conversation, September 15, 1972,” document number 18.
15. Ibid.
16. Brinkley and Nichter, Nixon Tapes, 617.
17. Memorandum, General Haig to the President, Kissinger Mission, September 15, 1972, box 855, National Security Council Files: For the President’s Files, Vietnam Negotiations, Winston Lord—China Trip, Vietnam Sensitive, Camp David, August–September 1972, RNPLM.
18. Memorandum, From Haig to Kissinger, September 14, 1972, box 855, National Security Council Files: For the President’s Files, Vietnam Negotiations, Winston Lord—China Trip, Vietnam Sensitive, Camp David, August–September 1972, RNPLM.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Opinion Research Corporation, “Poll of a National Adult Sample Conducted for Richard Nixon, April 27–29, 1972.” For an interesting discussion of the polls, see Patrick Hagopian, The Vietnam War in American Memory: Veterans, Memorials, and the Politics of Healing (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011), 29–31 and 442.
23. Brinkley and Nichter, Nixon Tapes, 609.
24. Memorandum, Henry A. Kissinger to Ambassador Bunker, September 22, 1972, box 856, National Security Council Files: For the President’s Files, Vietnam Negotiations, Winston Lord—China Trip, Vietnam Sensitive, Camp David, August-September 1972, RNPLM.
25. Memorandum, From Sven Kraemer to Mr. Kissinger, President Thieu and the Future of Vietnam, September 28, 1972, box 1019, National Security Council Files: Alexander M. Haig Special Files, Additional Material, Vietnam Trip, September 29–October 4, 1972, RNPLM.
26. Ibid.
27. Kimball, Nixon’s Vietnam War, 336.
28. Ibid., 337.
29. Brinkley and Nichter, Nixon Tapes, 631.
30. Ibid., 628.
31. Memorandum, From Henry A. Kissinger to the President, My Meetings with the North Vietnamese, September 26–27, 1972, box 1014, National Security Council Files: Alexander M. Haig Special Files, Additional Material, Vietnam trip, September 29–October 4, 1972, RNPLM.
32. Ibid.
33. Henry Kissinger, White House Years (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979), 1336–1337.
34. Memorandum, From Henry A. Kissinger to the President, My Meetings with the North Vietnamese, September 26–27, 1972, box 1014, National Security Council Files: Alexander M. Haig Special Files, Additional Material, Vietnam trip, September 29–October 4, 1972, RNPLM.
35. Ibid. Le Duc Tho made a special point of this in his meeting with Kissinger on September 26.
36. See message from the Politburo to Le Duc Tho in Paris dated October 4, 1972, and summarized in Luu van Loi, Le Duc Tho–Kissinger Negotiations in Paris, 302–303 (Hanoi: Gioi Publishers, 1996).
37. Memorandum, Proposal of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, September 26, 1972, box 121, National Security Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
38. Memorandum, From Henry A. Kissinger to the President, My Meetings with the North Vietnamese, September 26–27, 1972, box 1014, National Security Council Files: Alexander M. Haig Special Files, Additional Material, Vietnam trip, September 29–October 4, 1972, RNPLM. See also FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume VIII, Vietnam, January–October 1972, “Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs to President Nixon, September 28, 1972,” document number 267; see also a summary of these dispatches in FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume XLII, Vietnam: The Kissinger–Le Duc Tho Negotiations, August 1969–December 1973, “Memorandum of Conversation, September 27, 1972,” document number 20.
39. Ibid.
40. Brinkley and Nichter, Nixon Tapes, 622
41. As quoted in 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), 323.
42. Memorandum of Conversation, Wednesday, October 4, 1972, Presidential Palace, Saigon, box 1018, National Security Council Files: Alexander M. Haig Special Files, Additional Material, Vietnam Trip, September 29–October 4, 1972, RNPLM.
43. Willbanks, Abandoning Vietnam, 167.
44. Memorandum, Henry Kissinger to Al Haig, October 4, 1972, box 1018, National Security Council Files: Alexander M. Haig Special Files, Additional Material, Vietnam Trip, September 29–October 4, 1972, RNPLM.
45. As quoted in Ken Hughes, Fatal Politics: The Nixon Tapes, the Vietnam War, and the Casualties of Reelection (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2015), 90.
46. Ibid.
47. Memorandum, Text of Memorandum Tabled by President Thieu at Our October 4 Meeting, box 1018, National Security Council Files, Alexander M. Haig Special Files, Additional Material, Vietnam Trip, September 29–October 4, 1972, RNPLM.
48. Memorandum, Memorandum of Conversation, Sunday, October 8, 1972, Paris, box 122, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
49. Ibid.
50. Ibid.
51. As quoted in Willbanks, Abandoning Vietnam, 169; see also Kissinger, White House Years, 1366.
52. Op. cit. note 48.
53. Ibid.
54. Ibid.
55. Ibid.
56. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 329.
57. Ibid.
58. Memorandum, Cable to President Nixon from Henry Kissinger, Paris Talks, October 10, 1972, box 856, National Security Council Files: For the President’s Files, Vietnam Negoti
ations, Winston Lord—China Trip, Vietnam Sensitive, Camp David, October 1972, RNPLM.
59. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 328.
60. Luu van Loi, Le Duc Tho–Kissinger Negotiations in Paris, 302–303.
61. Ibid.
62. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume XLII, Vietnam: The Kissinger–Le Duc Tho Negotiations, August 1969–December 1973, “Memorandum of Conversation, September 26, 1972,” document number 19.
63. Kissinger, White House Years, 1347–1348.
64. Interviews with Luu van Loi and Nguyen Dinh Phuong, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hanoi, Vietnam, June 1997 and February 1998.
65. Conversation, McGeorge Bundy and Henry Kissinger, October 26, 1972, 2:34 p.m., box 16, HAK Telecons: White House Tapes, Chronological Files, RNPLM.
66. Memorandum, Memorandum of Conversation, Monday, October 9, 1972, Paris, box 122, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
67. Memorandum, Memorandum of Conversation, Tuesday, October 10, 1972, Paris, box 122, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
68. Memorandum, Memorandum of Conversation, Wednesday, October 11, 1972, Paris, box 122, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
69. Kissinger, White House Years, 1345–1346.
70. Brinkley and Nichter, Nixon Tapes, 629.
71. Ibid.
72. Brinkley and Nichter, Nixon Tapes, 629–630.
73. Memorandum, Memorandum of Conversation, Tuesday, October 17, 1972, Paris, box 122, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
74. Memorandum, From General Haig for the President, Meeting with President Thieu, October 19, 1972, box 857, National Security Council Files: For the President’s Files, Vietnam Negotiations, Winston Lord—China Trip, Vietnam Sensitive, Camp David, October 1972, RNPLM.
75. Memorandum, From Haig to the President, Second Day Meeting with President Thieu, October 20, 1972, box 857, National Security Council Files: For the President’s Files, Vietnam Negotiations, Winston Lord—China Trip, Vietnam Sensitive, Camp David, October 1972, RNPLM. The report from Haig is a cover letter attached to the longer report from Kissinger to the White House dated October 20, 1972.
76. Conversation, McGeorge Bundy and Henry Kissinger, October 26, 1972, 2:34 p.m., box 16, HAK Telecons: White House Tapes, Chronological Files, RNPLM.
77. Bui Diem, In the Jaws of History, 307.
78. Kissinger, White House Years, 1379–1380.
79. Memorandum, For Kissinger from the Central Intelligence Agency, The Security Aspects of the Settlement Package—“Could the GVN Accept a Cease-fire in Place,” October 16, 1972, box 113, National Security Council Files: Vietnam Subject Files, Ceasefire—Vietnam, 1972, RNPLM.
80. Author interview with Nguyen Xuan Oanh, economist and former South Vietnamese official, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, July 1989.
81. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 352.
82. Ibid., 352–353.
83. Cable, From General Haig at the White House to Col. Quay in Paris, October 22, 1972, box 119, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
84. Transcript, News Conference of October 26, 1972, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, box 119, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
85. Conversation, Chuck Colson and Henry Kissinger, October 26, 1972, 7:26 p.m., box 16, HAK Telecons: White House Tapes, Chronological Files, RNPLM.
86. Conversation, William Rogers and Henry Kissinger, October 26, 1972, 12:45 p.m., box 16, HAK Telecons: White House Tapes, Chronological Files, RNPLM.
87. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 383.
88. Kimball, Nixon’s Vietnam War, 349.
89. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 389.
90. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume XLII, Vietnam: The Kissinger–Le Duc Tho Negotiations, August 1969–December 1973, “Memorandum of Conversation, November 21, 1972,” document number 27 [passage in footnotes].
91. Ibid. [passage in footnotes].
92. Memorandum, From Henry A. Kissinger to the President, Changes Obtained in the Draft Agreement, November 25, 1972, box 110, National Security Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM.
93. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume XLII, Vietnam: The Kissinger–Le Duc Tho Negotiations, August 1969–December 1973, “Memorandum of Conversation, December 4, 1972,” document number 32.
94. Ibid.
95. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume XLII, Vietnam: The Kissinger–Le Duc Tho Negotiations, August 1969–December 1973, “Memorandum of Conversation, December 9, 1972,” document number 37.
96. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume XLII, Vietnam: The Kissinger–Le Duc Tho Negotiations, August 1969–December 1973, “Memorandum of Conversation, December 12, 1972,” document number 40.
97. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume IX, Vietnam, October 1972–January 1973, “Message from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, December 9, 1972,” document number 152 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2010).
98. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume IX, Vietnam, October 1972–January 1973, “Message from the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Haig) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), December 10, 1972,” document number 155.
99. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume IX, Vietnam, October 1972–January 1973, “Message from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Haig), December 11, 1972,” document number 156.
100. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume IX, Vietnam, October 1972–January 1973, “Message from the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Haig) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), December 12, 1972,” document number 158.
101. Ibid.
102. As quoted in the excellent footnotes by John Carland and Merle Pribbenow to FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume XLII, Vietnam: The Kissinger–Le Duc Tho Negotiations, August 1969–December 1973, “Memorandum of Conversation, December 12, 1972,” document number 40.
103. Ibid.
104. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume IX, Vietnam, October 1972–January 1973, “Message from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Haig), December 12, 1972,” document number 163.
105. Ibid.
106. Memorandum, Memorandum of Conversation, December 13, 1972, Paris, box 119, National Security Council Files: Henry A. Kissinger Office Files, Country Files, Far East—Vietnam, RNPLM; see also FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume XLII, Vietnam: The Kissinger–Le Duc Tho Negotiations, August 1969–December 1973, “Memorandum of Conversation, December 13, 1972, Paris,” document number 41, and FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume IX, Vietnam, October 1972–January 1973, “Message from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Haig), December 12, 1972, Paris,” document number 163.
107. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume IX, Vietnam, October 1972–January 1973, “Message from John D. Negroponte of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), December 14, 1972,” document 174.
108. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume IX, Vietnam, October 1972–January 1973, “Conversation Among President Nixon, the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), and the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Haig), December 14, 1972,” document 175.
109. Ibid.
110. Willbanks, Abandoning Vietnam, 180.
111. Nixon, RN, 733–734.
112. Ibid.
113. Willbanks, Abandoning Vietnam, 181.
114. Kissinger, White House Years, 1459–1460; see also Nixon, RN, 737.
115. Memorandum, Haig to Kissinger, December 20, 1972, box 1020, National Security Council Files: Alexander M. Haig Special Files, General Haig’s Vietnam Trip and Miscellany, December 17–22, 1972, RNPLM.
116. James H. Willbanks, ed., Vietnam War: A Topical Exploration and Primary Source Collection (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2017), 352.
117. Nixon, RN, 738.
118. All of these criticisms of the bombings are captured by the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum at https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/exhibits/decbomb/chapter-v.html.
119. Nixon, RN, 738.
120. Luu van Loi, Le Duc Tho–Kissinger Negotiations in Paris, 422.
121. New York Times, December 30, 1972.
122. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume XLII, Vietnam: The Kissinger–Le Duc Tho Negotiations, August 1969–December 1973, “Memorandum of Conversation, January 8, 1973,” document number 42.
123. Ibid.
124. Memorandum, Key Points to Be Made with Respect to Vietnam Agreement, Vietnam Peace Reaction, box 178, White House Special Files: Alpha Names Files, H. R. Haldeman, RNPLM.
125. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume IX, Vietnam, October 1972–January 1973, “Message from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, January 9, 1973,” document number 256.
126. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume IX, Vietnam, October 1972–January 1973, “Message from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, January 11, 1973,” document number 263.
127. Brinkley and Nichter, Nixon Tapes, 726.
128. FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume IX, Vietnam, October 1972–January 1973, “Message from Richard T. Kennedy of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) in Paris, January 11, 1973,” document number 264.
129. Nixon, RN, 737.
130. New York Times, December 13, 1972.
131. Conversation, Roland Evans and Henry Kissinger, January 24, 1973, 4:26 p.m., box 18, HAK Telecons: White House Tapes, Chronological Files, RNPLM.
132. As reported in Willbanks, Abandoning Vietnam, 191.
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