0 - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
Sremaining
The January 8, 1973 meeting produced agreement on the
issues, which were-
0 o to designate the DMZ as a provisional military demarcation
between two parts of Vietnam -- tnus recognizing the separate
entiLy of South Vietnam
0 to restrict military movement across the DMZ
* to develop a formula whereby the PRG and GVN per se, were not
mentioned in the agreements document,
Shu,:ly thereafter, General Alexander Haig was given the
mission of flying to Saigon with an ultimatum that the US
would sign the
peace agreements. if neceSsary, without President Thieu's concurrence,
General Haig delivered a scorching letter from President Nixon to Thieu on
Jinuary 16th, Its crucial paragrapih read: "I have irrevocably decided to
initial the Agreement on January 27, i973, in Paris. I will do so, if
necessary, alone. In that case I shall have to explain publicly that your
government obstructs peace,
The result will be an inevitable and immediate
termination of US econom~c and military assiscance."141/ On January 21st,
Thieu relented.
On January 23, 1973, Mr. Kissinger and Le Duc Tho met for
the last time in Paris. Prior to signing the agreements, Le Duc Tho was
reported to have insisted on ironclad assurances of American ecoromic aid
to North Vietnam. Mr, Kissinger told him that tnis could no+ be discussed
further until after the agreement was signed; also that it depended on
congressicoial approval and on observance of the agreement.142/ The Paris
Peace Agreements were initialed then by Kissinger and L2 Duc Tho, both of
whom were to become re:ipients of the Nobel Peace Prize for a peace that
never came to Vietnam and Indochina.
e. Outcomes of the Third Phase
When he assurmed office, President Nixon recognized that the
war was not winable. Convwrsely, the DRV was unable to gain a military
victory while US troops dere engaged in the combat arena, Under chose
circumstances, Nixon and his special assistant, Mr, Kissinger, devised a
strategy which would al'ow the US to withdraw from the war as an expression
of policy and not as of collapse.
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