Kissinger on Kissinger by Winston Lord

Author:Winston Lord
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

SEVEN

Breakthrough and the Paris Accords

The final agreement exceeded expectations and the calls of many critics. Ever since, two stubborn shibboleths have persisted: This pact was overdue because Nixon and Kissinger could have made it much earlier. This pact was cynical because Nixon and Kissinger knew it would fail after a “decent interval.”

In other words, they should have made a deal earlier that they should never have made at all.

These are the facts: From day one, the North Vietnamese ruled out the contours of the final agreement and then concrete offers; they insisted that we overthrow the Saigon government while we withdrew our forces. Finally, in the fall of 1972, facing the prospect of four more years of Nixon, they dropped their political demands and agreed to the original American proposal for a military settlement only.

While harboring no illusions about our adversary’s goals, we believed the Paris Accords could be sustained through enforcement of the cease-fire, assistance to Saigon, economic incentives for Hanoi, and the self-interested support of Beijing and Moscow.

Nixon and Kissinger were convinced that these factors would give the South Vietnamese a “decent opportunity” to shape their own future so long as the United States upheld its responsibilities. Because the United States reneged on its pledges, we will never know whether our ally could have seized this reasonable chance.

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