Word: mending
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...Minus-One. Mendès had begun that day, the next to last before his deadline, faced with new demands 1) from China's Chou En-lai for a slice of northern Laos to be attached to China's province of Yunnan, and 2) from Pham Van Dong for more than a third of Laos to be handed over to the "free" Pathet Laos movement. Heavy black circles under his eyes, Mendès had picked up his faithful backer Anthony Eden, rushed off to see Chou Enlai...
...argument that followed, said a Frenchman, was "Homeric." After two hours Mendès got Chou to abandon his grab for Laotian territory, and to withdraw most of his support for the Pathet Laos claims. In exchange, Mendès accepted Communist Poland as a member of the three-nation supervisory commission agreed that major decisions should be by unanimous vote, thus yielding the Communists a veto...
...Mendès had scarcely returned to his villa Joli-Port when Molotov arrived. Was it true that the U.S. would refuse to sign the agreement? the Russian demanded. If so. the cease-fire might not be acceptable to Russia. Mendès scurried over to the Hotel du Rhône, where U.S. Under Secretary of State Bedell Smith had taken dismally to his bed with lumbago...
Three hours later Mendès was back. He reported to Molotov that the U.S. would refuse to sign the same document as Red China, but would issue a unilateral declaration stating that the U.S. would take a serious view of any violation of an agreed armistice. Molotov accepted this formula with only faint protest. "Ouf!" exclaimed Mendès in relief...
...Communists were looking for a pretext to break off the talks, Mendès had figured that U.S. "dissociation" was the one they were most likely to pick, since it would let them blame the U.S. for failure. Cheered, he went off to cut up the map with Pham Van Dong in the villa by Lac Leman...