0 - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
other and began to shape a settlement from a seemingly intractable stale-
=7.3 m a t e .
b, A Return to Secret Negotiations
The situation in the wir~ter of I?9 was
lookir.i up for the
new administration: there was a lull in the combat, the presdent ha(
taken his case to tne people and the US public responded to the presiGent's
Lall with suostantial support. The time appeared ripe for serious negotila-•
[ tions; nowever, the North Vietnamese, who had stalemated the Paris Peace
Talks for over a year, remained as intransigent and obstinate as ever. Mr.
Kissilger, with the President's approval,
thought the time right for secret
negotiations. and through the eff rts of Genera] Vernon Walters, then
Defense Attache in France, secret talxs were arranged in January, 1970.106/
And so Mr. Kissinger began what was to become an almost three-year secret
search for a negotiated settlement to the war. The me,,44nrcs "n a small
house situated in the Paris suburbs were attended by f[
an Thuy and
his Special Adviser, Le Duc Tho, nigh ranking D'V Politburo member. Le Duc
Tho, a strict Leninist whose "profession was revolution" and "vocation
guerrilla warfare," ditected the efforts of the DRV
[ tionlO_7/
negotiating delega-
Le Duc Tho considered negotiations as another battlr. His
idea of a negotiWtion was to out forard his unilateral
demands. Their essence was fcr the US to withdraw on a
deadline so short that the collapse of Saigon would be
inevitahle. On the vay ouc we were being asked to dismaitie
an allied government and establish an alternative whose
composition would be prescribed by Hanoi. Any proposition
that -ailed to agree with this he rejected as 'not concrete".108/
During a February, 1970,
secret session, Mr, Kissinger, in a
prepared statement, made the following points to the ORV negotiators-
0 the US was seeking a settlement which would resolve the issues,
once and for all.
• Hanoi's combat position had not improved since the August 1969
meetings
RVN).,
(especially with respect to the balance of fo,'ces in
7-45