Item COLD WAR 27/130 - Transcript of interview with diplomat John Negroponte, 1997

Typescript transcript of interview with Ambassador John Dimitri Negroponte, Second Secretary, US State Department, Saigon, Republic of South Vietnam, 1964-1968, Liaison Officer between the US Delegation and the North Vietnamese Delegation, Paris Peace Talks on Vietnam, France, May 1968-Aug 1969, Head of Vietnam Office, US National Security Council Staff, Sep 1970-Feb 1973, US Ambassador to Honduras, 1981-1985, and to Mexico, 1989-[1993], relating to the official peace talks on Vietnam, Paris, France, May 1968-Aug 1969, and the secret negotiations between North Vietnamese chief negotiator Le Duc Tho and US National Security Adviser Dr Henry Alfred Kissinger, Feb 1970-Jan 1973; the progress made during the secret peace negotiations, 1970-1973; the exclusion of an official US peace delegation from the negotiations, 1970-1973; the importance in achieving a total US withdrawal from Vietnam as quickly as possible, 1968-1973; the influence of the US Presidential election on the peace negotiations, 1972; the preparation of the draft peace agreement between North Vietnam and the USA, 8-11 Oct 1972; the reaction of Gen Nguyen Van Thieu, President of South Vietnam, to the draft peace agreement, Oct 1972; the signing of the Paris Peace Accords on Vietnam, Jan 1973; Operation LINEBACKER II, the USAF conventional bombing by Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses of Hanoi and Haiphong, North Vietnam, Dec 1972; speculation on whether the USA pressured the Republic of South Vietnam into agreeing to the peace settlement, Jan 1973; the influence of the Watergate scandal on the Vietnamese peace process, 1972-1973; the North Vietnamese offensive across the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) and into the Republic of South Vietnam, Mar-Apr 1972; the summit meeting between US President Richard Milhous Nixon and Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, Moscow, USSR, May 1972; Operation LINEBACKER I, the US bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong, North Vietnam, in response to the North Vietnamese offensive against the Republic of South Vietnam, Mar-Apr 1972; the possibility of the cancellation of the Moscow summit because of the conflict in Vietnam, May 1972; the policy of détente between the USA and the USSR, 1969-1975; the achievements in US foreign policy under Nixon and Kissinger, 1969-1974; the character and leadership of Soviet First Secretary Brezhnev, 1964-1982. 19pp