Word: wars
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...cannot yet write about Viet Nam except with pain and sadness. When we came into office, over half a million Americans were fighting a-war 10,000 miles away. Their numbers were still increasing on a schedule established by our predecessors. We found no plans for withdrawals. Whatever our original war aims, by 1969 our credibility abroad, the reliability of our commitments, and our domestic cohesion were alike jeopardized by a struggle in a country as far away from the North American continent as our globe permits...
...contrast between the matter-of-fact peacefulness of the scene and our own anxiety was almost beyond bearing. At 4 p.m. we would know whether the agony endured by so many for nearly a decade would have purchased an honorable end to the war in Viet...
...Nixon addressed the nation. In a restrained and powerful address, he repeated his willingness to settle the war. But the North Vietnamese "arrogantly refuse to negotiate anything but an imposition." The only way to stop the killing, therefore, was "to keep the weapons of war out of the hands of the international outlaws of North Viet Nam." He recited the military actions he was taking; he stated our negotiating position, the most forthcoming we had put forward: a standstill ceasefire, release of prisoners and total American withdrawal within four months...
...meeting resumed on schedule. Le Duc Tho did not beat around the bush. "In order to show our good will and to ensure a rapid end to the war, rapid restoration of peace in Viet Nam, as all of us wish for, today we put forward a new proposal, a very realistic and very simple proposal," he said...
Kissinger saw this, he writes, as a great opportunity; unless it was grasped, the U.S. mood was such that even with an overwhelming mandate, Nixon would quickly be "pushed against the grindstone of congressional pressures" to end the war on almost any terms. In this situation, an unprecedented four-day secret session was convened on Sunday morning, Oct. 8. The critical meeting was held in a house in suburban Gif-sur-Yvette, once owned by the French artist Fernand Léger and still adorned with his Cubist paintings and tapestries. Around noon, after Kissinger had laid out the essentially...