Office of the Historian

236. Message From Richard T. Kennedy of the National Security Council Staff to the Air Attaché at the Embassy in France (Guay)1

Washington, December 29, 1972, 0216Z.

WHP 270. The following is the message you should deliver to the North Vietnamese at your 9:30 a.m. meeting on December 29, 1972:

Begin text: The U.S. side has read the message of the DRV side of December 28, 1972.2 The U.S. accepts the following propositions:

1.
Experts of the two sides will resume meetings on January 2, 1973.
2.
A private meeting of Special Adviser Le Duc Tho and Minister Xuan Thuy with Dr. Kissinger will take place on January 8, 1973 in Paris.

U.S. liaison officers will be in touch with their North Vietnamese counterparts regarding specific arrangements for the meetings of experts as well as arrangements for alternating the meeting sites for the private meetings.

As indicated in its messages of December 22 and 27, 1972, the U.S. side will as a unilateral gesture cease the bombing of North Vietnam north of the 20th parallel by 7:00 p.m. Washington time on December 29, 1972.

The U.S. side wants to again affirm that it will make one final major effort to see whether a settlement within the October framework can be worked out. The U.S. side wants to point out that Dr. Kissinger will not be able to spend more than four days in Paris on this occasion. A repetition of the procedures followed in December could lead to a collapse of the talks.

The U.S. side enters these renewed negotiations with good will but urges the DRV side to study carefully the U.S. message of December 18, 1972. The decision must be made now whether it is possible to move from a period of hostility to one of normalization. This remains the U.S. goal which will be pursued with great seriousness.

In the interim it is essential that both sides show the maximum restraint in their public pronouncements. End of text.

Warm regards.

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 865, For the President’s Files (Winston Lord)—China Trip/Vietnam, Camp David Memcons, December 1972 [1 of 3]. Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only. Written on December 28.↩
  2. See Document 231.↩