Word: thieu
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Kissinger's close-to-the-vest style proved nearly disastrous when it came to dealing with South Viet Nam's President Nguyen Van Thieu, who had been kept in the dark about the negotiations. In a hand-holding visit to Saigon in July 1972, Kissinger made no mention of his concessions to the Communists on troop withdrawals and the tripartite commission. He said merely that with an election coming, the Administration would have to put on a show of serious negotiating for a while, but that it would be "a different story" after a Nixon win. Implying that...
Szulc stops short of concluding that Kissinger deliberately misled Thieu, but does insist that he "grossly overestimated his ability to bring Thieu around." When Kissinger showed him the draft of the peace agreement for the first time in October, Thieu "reacted with undisguised fury." It was the outraged opposition of Thieu (for whom Kissinger developed an active hatred, says Szulc) that led to delays in the signing of the agreement, to Hanoi's second thoughts about U.S. intentions, and to the "Christmas bombings" that finally ended the agony of Viet...
...Thieu to prevent final agreement. As Szulc tells it, Kissinger's celebrated statement that "peace is at hand" was not only aimed at Hanoi and Saigon, but made partly with an eye to the election only twelve days away. Some of Kissinger's aides have told Szulc that they doubted that Kissinger really believed an agreement was at hand, but that he wanted "to commit Nixon to a quick peace. He seemed worried that after the elections Nixon might reopen the whole diplomatic situation; he feared that given Nixon's natural inclinations, the President might revert...
...level." The standoff between the Administration and Congress points up the cruel dilemma that Viet Nam continues to pose for the U.S. Having invested so many lives and dollars in the conflict, the U.S. has a natural reluctance to cut back drastically on financial aid and thereby weaken the Thieu regime. Just maintaining the present spending level means an actual reduction because of inflation. Yet continuing or raising the assistance would seem to guarantee the new status quo-a bloody, inconclusive struggle among the Vietnamese that could go on indefinitely. No one in the Administration or in Congress appears...
...great year for international revolution. The two countries whose apparent victories lit up last May Day have found their victories elusive. In Vietnam, the cease-fire won by almost three decades of struggle proved to be little more than a scrap of paper, as the dictatorship of Nguyen Van Thieu continued to hold tens of thousands of political prisoners and to attack liberated territories. And Chile's military, frightened by Popular Unity's movement toward true socialization of wealth and its rights--within the framework of traditional law and with full respect for traditional civil liberties--violently overthrew Salvador Allende...