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 Vietnam

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

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Appendix

Notes

Index