Appendix 2
[70] Draft Agreement Between the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 857, For the President’s Files (Winston Lord)—China Trip/Vietnam, Sensitive Camp David, Vol. XX [2 of 2]. No classification marking. All brackets are in the original. The agreement was attached at Tab A to a memorandum of conversation recording an October 19 meeting among Kissinger, Thieu, and U.S. and South Vietnamese officials printed in Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, vol. IX, Vietnam, October 1972–January 1973, Document 27. For the memorandum of conversation recording the October 17 meeting at which Kissinger and Le Duc Tho agreed to this draft, see Document 25.
The North Vietnamese Government transmitted its acceptance of the U.S. formulation of Articles 7 and 8—the language of which had not been agreed at the conclusion of the October 17 meeting—on October 19. In an October 20 message acknowledging the North Vietnamese acceptance, the U.S. Government wrote: “For purposes of clarity and to avoid any ambiguity, the U.S. side has deleted the first clause of the second paragraph of Article 7, and the entire Article 7 as accepted by the U.S. side now reads as follows: Quote: Article 7. From the enforcement of the ceasefire to the formation of the government provided for in Articles 9b and 9i of this agreement, the two South Vietnamese parties shall not accept the introduction of troops, military advisers, and military personnel including technical military personnel, armaments, munitions, and war material into South Vietnam. The two South Vietnamese parties shall be permitted to make periodical replacements of armaments, munitions and war material which have been worn out or damaged after the ceasefire, on the basis of piece-for-piece, of the same characteristics and properties, under the supervision of the Joint Military Commission of the two South Vietnamese parties and of the International Commission of Control and Supervision. End quote.” (See Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, vol. IX, Vietnam, October 1972–January 1973, Document 30 and footnote 2 thereto.)
The final agreed text of Article 8 reads: “a) The return of captured military personnel and foreign civilians of the parties shall be carried out simultaneously with and completed on the same day as the troop withdrawal mentioned in Article 5. The parties shall exchange complete lists of the above-mentioned captured military personnel and foreign civilians on the day of the signing of this agreement. b) The parties shall help each other to get information about those captured military personnel and foreign civilians of the parties missing in action, to determine the location and take care of the graves of the dead so as to facilitate the exhumation and the repatriation of the remains, and to take any such other measures as may be required to get information about those still considered missing in action. c) The question of other Vietnamese civilian personnel detained in South Vietnam and not covered by 8 a) above will be resolved by the South Vietnamese parties on the basis of the principles of Article 21 b) of the agreement on the cessation of hostilities in Vietnam of July 20, 1954. The South Vietnamese parties will do so in a spirit of national reconciliation and concord, with a view to ending hatred and enmity, in order to ease suffering and to reunite families. The two South Vietnamese parties will do their utmost to resolve this question within three months after the ceasefire comes into effect.” (Attached but not printed at Tab A, Document 26.)
On the South Vietnamese government’s rejection of the October 17 agreement, see footnote 1, Document 26.