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Vietnamese United States Negotiations During the Vietnam War (1965-1968)

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Vietnamese United States Negotiations During the Vietnam War (1965-1968) Vietnamese United States Negotiations during the Vietnam War (1965-1968) Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Philosophie an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München vorgelegt von Dang Thi Hoai aus Nghe An/ Vietnam 2017 Erstgutachter: Dr. Andreas Etges Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Michael Hochgeschweder Datum der mündlichen Prüfung: 20.02.2018 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are legions of people I need to thank for supporting my PhD program in Germany. Thanks to Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Ho Chi Minh City University of Education for dispatching me to Germany to study. Also heartfelt thanks to Vietnamese Government, FAZIT Stiftung and Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation for generous fellowship and research grant. Thanks to staffs and faculties of Free University of Berlin and Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) Munich for encouragement. Thanks to the staffs of Vietnamese National Archives II, Lyndon B. Johnson Library, The Central Committee of Communist Party of Vietnam Archives, Institute of Ho Chi Minh National Politics for making significant contributions to the completion of my dissertation. Thanks to my editors Jasmine Louwe, Kristen Brown, Terri Meyer for kind English proofreads. Thanks to my professors Robert McMahon, Jessica Gienow-Hecht, Michael Hochgeschwender, Masaya Shiraishi, Le Phung Hoang, Nguyen Thanh Tien, Ha Bich Lien, Tran Viet Ngac, Tran Thi Thanh Thanh, Trinh Thanh Cong, Ngo Minh Oanh, Huynh Thanh Trieu, Nguyen Kim Hong, Bach Van Hop, Nguyen Thi Kim Hong for guidance and support. Thanks to my dissertation supervisor, Dr. Andreas Etges for his generosity, patience and focus. To my beloved family and friends for always loving me. To my parents Dang Dinh Son and Nguyen Thi Tuyet, my sister Dang Thi Trang and my nephew Le Dang Minh An, Whose love and support sustain me 3 Table of Contents ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 7 CHAPTER 2. VIETNAMESE PATRIOTISM AND VIETNAMESE COLLECTIVIST CULTURE DURING THE VIETNAM WAR ................................ 21 CHAPTER 3. THE COLD WAR AND THE U.S. SEARCH PEACE FOR VIETNAM ........................................................................................................... 55 3.1 Harry S. Truman’s and Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Administrations ......................... 55 3.2 The John F. Kennedy Administration ..................................................................... 62 3.3 Lyndon B. Johnson’s Administration Stays the Course .......................................... 67 CHAPTER 4. THE AMERICAN ASSESSMENT OF NORTH VIETNAM’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS NEGOTIATIONS ............................................................... 89 4.1 Hanoi’s Position ...................................................................................................... 89 4.2 National Front for Liberation of South Vietnam ..................................................... 92 4.3 The Chinese Communist Position on Vietnam ....................................................... 93 4.4 The Soviet Position on Vietnam .............................................................................. 94 4.5 The UN and the War in Vietnam ............................................................................. 94 CHAPTER 5. INTERNATIONAL SEARCH FOR PEACE IN VIETNAM .......... 97 5.1 Yugoslav Efforts to Achieve a Vietnam Solution ................................................... 97 5.2 Indonesian Effort for a Vietnam Solution ............................................................... 98 5.3 The Gordon Walker Mission on Vietnam ............................................................... 98 5.4 Radhakrishnan Proposal .......................................................................................... 99 5.5 Commonwealth Initiative ...................................................................................... 100 5.6 The Davis Mission ................................................................................................. 101 5.7 President Ho Chi Minh Meets the Messenger of President Nkrumah ................... 102 5.8 The Japanese Role as Intermediary on the Vietnam Question-The Miki Mission 104 5.9 The French opinion on a Vietnam Settlement ....................................................... 104 5.10 Why not Negotiations Now? ................................................................................. 104 CHAPTER 6. PINTA-PEACE INITIATIVE BETWEEN VIETNAM AND THE UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 1965-FEBRUARY 1966) .................................... 109 6.1 International Reaction ........................................................................................... 113 6.2 Why Vietnam Refused to Talk .............................................................................. 133 4 CHAPTER 7. NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN VIETNAM AND THE UNITED STATES 1966-1967.................................................................................................... 141 7.1 De Gaulle’s 1966 Peace Initiative on the Vietnam War: the Sainteny Mission .... 141 7.2 An American Journalist Harrison E. Salisbury comes to North Vietnam ............. 144 CHAPTER 8. VIETNAMESE STRATEGIES OF WAR AND PEACE .............. 148 CHAPTER 9. VIETNAM WINS THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE WORLD’S PEOPLE ................................................................................................... 170 9.1 The Tet Offensive .................................................................................................. 170 9.2 The Killy Peace Initiative: Vietnam and the United States Peace Talks through Rome Channel ......................................................................................................................... 181 CHAPTER 10. CONCLUSION ............................................................................... 187 ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................... 196 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................... 198 5 ABSTRACT Before the Paris Peace Talks, Hanoi and Washington had tried for several years to achieve a peaceful settlement through a number of different channels, but all efforts had not achieved any results. This dissertation describes secret negotiations and explains why these negotiating initiatives failed. This will not only contribute to scholarship on the Vietnam War, but also try to draw lesson from the past. 6 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION During the Vietnam War, all belligerent parties made the utmost efforts to win, by using not only military force but also diplomatic activities. Many people still remember the picture of Xuan Thuy and Henry Kissinger shaking hands in Paris on January 23th 1973 with Le Duc Tho standing at their side, smiling happily.1 Le Duc Tho and Kissinger were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973.2 The text of the “Paris Agreements on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam” was warmly welcomed all over the world. Today, some people wonder whether agreements ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam could have been signed sooner. As the former American Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara wrote, “I hypothesized, opportunities either to have avoided the war before it started or to have terminated it long before it had run its course. Were there such opportunities? If so, why were they missed? What lessons can we draw to avoid such tragedies in the twenty-first century?”3 Before the Paris Peace Talks officially began on May 13th 1968, Vietnam and the United States had tried for years to achieve a peaceful settlement through a number of different channels, but those efforts had not achieved any results. Why didn’t the negotiation initiatives between 1965 and 1968 lead towards an early peace? Did Washington and Hanoi miss opportunities to achieve their geopolitical objectives without the terrible loss of life suffered by each? Why was the small country of Vietnam able to defeat the aggressive will of the western superpower and consequentially begin opening the peace talks in Paris to end the Vietnam War? The Vietnam War was an extremely bloody war that generated great controversy and indignation all over the world. It was also the longest war in the 20th century.4 1 Xuan Thuy was the Foreign Minister of North Vietnam from 1963 to 1965 and then chief negotiator of the North Vietnamese at the Paris Peace talks. Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State of the United States from 1973 to 1977. Le Duc Tho’s real name was Phan Dinh Khai (1911-1990). He was a special advisor to the North Vietnamese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference and a member of the Politburo of the Vietnam Workers' Party (the Communist Party of Vietnam after 1976). 2 Le Duc Tho refused to receive the Nobel Prize because peace in Vietnam was the result of a hard struggle of the Vietnamese people, not himself alone, he said. 3Robert S. Mcnamara. James Blight, Robert Brigham, Thomas Biersteker and Col. Herbert Schandler, “Preface,” Argument without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy (New York: Public Affairs, 1999), xi. 4 The Vietnam War (1954-1975) is sometimes called “the American War” or “the Second Indochina War.” I prefer to use "the Vietnam War" because the term “Vietnam War” describes the geographic location of the fighting (on Vietnamese territory), and it focuses on only a single
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