0 - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
CHAPTER 7
NEGOTIATIONS
The partition if Vietnam in 1954, despite the military
aefeat of the French in thý? battle for Dien Bien Phu, meant
t;iat the North Vietnamese achieved less at the ronference
table than they had won on the battlefield. They resolved
to never let that happen again. B13% the early 1960s, the
North Vietnamese had come to see negotiations only for their
tactical value. Thus, what Hanoi sought in direct talks
with the United States was a say to improvw its chances of
winning a war, 'ot a way of preventing or ending one. I/
Allen E. 'oodman
The Los. Peace, 1978
A negotiating procedure and a definitiun of objectives
cannot guarantee a settlement, of course IT Hanoi proves
intransigent and the war goes on, we shol 'A• eek to acnieve
as many of our objectiies as possible uniiaterally We
should adopt a strategy which reduces ca-ualties and concentrates
on protecting the population. We should continue to
strengthen the Vietoamese army to pe.-.it. ; gradual wiiLhdrawal
of some American forces, and we shouid encourage
Saigon to b,'odden its base so that it 4s stronger for the
political contest with the communists wlich sooner or later
it must undertake. 2/
ForignHenry A. Kiss~nger
Foreign Affairs, Jan, 1969
A. INTRODUCTION
At "arious times during tne p,)st-WWII period of US involvement in
Southeast Asia, American diplomats a-tempted to use negotiations as a means
to attain a positi-e balance of rc,ier in the area.
hampered by a US
Those efforts were
Sforties
foreign policy w'zich varied from ambivalence in the late
to ambiguity in the fifties and sixties, while the policy of the
Communist Vietnamese throughout romained constant.
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