Word: thieu
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...Nixon's refuge in the Executive Office Building. Somewhat exultantly, I told the President that it looked as if he had achieved all three of his major goals for 1972-the first two being the visit to Peking and the Moscow summit. Nixon's principal concern was Thieu's reaction. I was -naively-optimistic...
That was putting it mildly. "Thieu objected not to specific terms but to the fact of an agreement," Kissinger writes. He did not come right out and say so. "Instead, he fought in the Vietnamese manner: indirectly, elliptically, by methods designed to exhaust rather than to clarify, constantly needling but never addressing the real issue." On the third day of meetings, the Vietnamese presented Kissinger with 23 changes, some major, in the draft peace treaty; later that figure would triple, to 69. Finally the talks broke down completely as Thieu, between tears of rage, accused the Americans of having "connived...
Haig would leave on Jan. 14 for Saigon with an ultimatum that we would sign the document, if necessary, without Thieu. I would return to Paris on Jan. 23 to complete the agreement...
...complained not only about our "cruel" bombing but about the whole history of our involvement in Viet Nam. He denied that military actions were needed to end the war. Hanoi was eager to negotiate; all we had to do was to get rid of South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu and accept Hanoi's "reasonable" political program...
Kosygin suggested that we get rid of Thieu; he was reasonably sure such a proposal would be accepted by Hanoi. (So were we. We did not think we required Soviet help to surrender.) Podgorny concluded the presentations. His epithets were the equal of his colleagues', though his delivery was blander and his tone actually milder...