19. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to Secretary of State Vance1

SUBJECT

  • U.S.-Vietnamese Talks in Paris

The President has approved the negotiating strategy set forth in your memorandum of November 29, 1977, entitled “U.S.-Vietnamese Talks in Paris.”2 In addition, the President has directed that Assistant Secretary Holbrooke be given the following instructions:

1. We should not be overly appreciative of any positive Vietnamese responses concerning the three American yachtsmen they now hold. We should not praise them for civilized behavior.

2. We should not table the interest section proposal if the Vietnamese abuse the United States in their initial presentation. It would be demeaning for us to be forthcoming a second time if the Vietnamese scorn us.

3. We should clearly leave the ball in Vietnam’s court at the end of the meeting, by telling them we have now made two offers and we will meet with them when they are ready to accept one of our alternatives or have a concrete reasonable proposal to make of their own. The burden should not always be ours to make the proposals.

Zbigniew Brzezinski
  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Country File, Box 85, Vietnam, 1/77–12/78. Secret.
  2. See Document 18.