0 - The Black Vault

F THE
BOM CORPORATION
bargaining. The propaganda value was potentially high--couldn't the US
wait a few hours vefure plunging back to the 3ttack? MoF'e importantly it
was a way of cancelling out the US negotiating blue chip."5?/
3) The XYZ Affair
Between the two bombing pauses of 1965 (see Figure 7-2,
Bombing Pauses over North Vietnam) another series of contacts with the DRV
were initiated. These became known as the "XYZ Affair' when former Ambassador
Edmund Gullion (called from retirement) and another former Foreign
Service officer were dispatched to several meetings with Mai Van 13o, Those
meetings were characterized as being the most serious mutual effort to
resolve matters cf substance between the two nations up to that time.53/
Without exception, no progress resulted from the contacts, which is indicative
of the comparative lack of true seriousness of the majority of peace
initiatives before l968,
this phase was
4) The Peace Offensive
The most energetic and ambitious US
initiative during
conducted during the 37-day bombing halt which began or
Cliristmas Eve, 1965, and became known is the "peace offensive."54/ US
! Amnassador to Burma, Henry Byroade, was giver, a nessage to deliver to the
ORV Consulate in Rangoon. The note was not well received by the DRV; it
was considered an "ultimation" rather than conciliatory. 55/ Other top
level USG representatives joined in the peace offensive--Harriman flew on a
ten-nation trip which began in Warsaw, Poland; McGeorge Bundy went to
Canada; Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Man;i flew to Mexico; UN Ambascador
Goidberg visited the Vatican, the Ttalian government in Rome, ao
Paris; Vice Prerident Humphrey went to Toky', and G. Mennen Williams toured
fourteen African countries. At each stop the US attempted to sell its
fourteen point program ("US contributions ýo the Basket of Peace") and tn
convince the worla's leaders that the US %as willing to talk tc the DRV on
almost any terms (as an addendum to the 14-points, the drafters add3d, "in
other words, we have put everything into t0e basket of peace excep, the
surrender of Scuth Vietnam").56/
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