271. Message From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon 1
Paris, January 12, 1973,
1725Z.
Hakto 27. Please pass the following message to the President.
Begin text:
- 1.
- We met for six hours and we have substantially completed the basic issues on the protocols except for two relatively minor technical ones with which I need not bother you today.2 On the International Control Commission they finally agreed on a figure of 1160, as against the 250 they originally proposed. This is practically what we had aimed for to begin with. The other provisions about the ICC are also very satisfactory. Tomorrow we shall conclude the few remaining issues on the protocols, complete the text, and agree on a final schedule. I have agreed that the initialling would be on the 23rd with no press present but official photographers, and that the pictures would not be released until after you had made your announcement. The signing will be on January 27th in Paris. We also received a message today from the South Vietnamese which indicates that perhaps Thieu is beginning to come around.
- 2.
- I noticed that there is a plan to divide the announcement of my trip to Paris on the 23rd and your speech on the 18th into an announcement by Ziegler and a speech by you. I think this would be a mistake and might overload the circuit with the North Vietnamese. In my judgment you should announce both in your speech.3
End text.
Warm regards.
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 28, HAK Trip Files, HAK Paris Trip Hakto 1–48, January 7–14, 1973. Top Secret; Flash; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only. Sent via Kennedy.↩
- A memorandum of conversation of the meeting, January 12, 10:15 a.m.–4:15 p.m., is ibid., Box 866, For the President’s Files (Winston Lord)—China Trip/Vietnam, Camp David Memcons, January 8–13, 1973 [January 23, 1973].↩
- Kennedy wrote in the margin of paragraph 2: “deleted per HAK phone call.”↩