Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword

1. America's Entry into the Morass (1950-1969)

2. Evolution of a Strategy

What the Nixon Administration Found • Groping for a Strategy: The North Vietnamese Offensive and the Bombing of Cambodia • Attempts at a Diplomatic Outcome • Peace Initiatives • The Beginning of Troop Withdrawals • A Secret Meeting • Another Reassessment • The Unpacifiable Doves • A Strategy Emerges

3. Secret Negotiations and a Widening War

The Secret Negotiations • Special Advisor Le Duc Tho and the First Round of Talks • Laos Interlude • The Overthrow of Sihanouk • Another Major Troop Withdrawal • The Attack on North Vietnamese Sanctuaries • The Cambodian Incursion • The Domestic Travail • The Balance Sheet

4. Diplomacy and Strategy: From a Cease-fire Proposal to the Interdiction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail

Madame Binh's Eight Points • The Setting of a Strategy • The Laos Operation • Lam Son 719: The Military Operation • Braving Domestic Opposition • The Negotiations Are Resumed • The South Vietnamese Presidential Election • Revealing the Secret Talks

5. Hanoi Throws the Dice: The Vietnam Spring Offensive

Diplomatic Maneuvers • What Strategy?

6. The Showdown

The May 2 Secret Meeting • The Mining and Bombing of North Vietnam • The Summit in the Balance

7. From Stalemate to Breakthrough

Testing the Stalemate • A Visit to Saigon • Interlude: Meetings of September 15 and 27 • The Breakthrough: The October 8 Meeting

8. The Troubled Road to Peace

Interlude in Paris • Consultation with Thieu • Rumblings • Showdown with Thieu • The Journey Home

9. "Peace Is at Hand"

Election Interlude • Haig Visits Saigon Again • The Meetings with Le Duc Tho Resume • The Breakdown of the Negotiations • The Christmas Bombing • Negotiations Resume • The January Round of Negotiations • Thieu Relents • Peace at Last • Postlude

10. A Visit to Hanoi

11. Enforcement and Aid

The Thieu Visit • Watergate and Enforcement • The Search for Peace in Cambodia • The Aborted Chinese Mediation • The Negotiations Unravel

12. Ford and Vietnam

The Strangulation of South Vietnam • Hanoi Resumes the Offensive • The End of the Road

13. The Collapse of Cambodia

The Myth of the Failure to Negotiate on Cambodia • The Final Collapse • Final Note

14. The End of Vietnamar

The Debate over Evacuation • The Search for a Political Solution • The Evacuation • The Last Day

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Appendix

Notes

Index

About the Author

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Medal of Liberty. He is the bestselling author of numerous books, and is currently the chair of Kissinger Associates, Inc., an international consulting firm.