49. Memorandum From the Executive Secretary of the Department of State (Tarnoff) to Secretary of State Vance1
SUBJECT
- Your Breakfast Meeting with the President Friday, May 4, 19792
[Omitted here is discussion unrelated to Vietnam.]
3. Talks with the Vietnamese. We continue to receive reports of Vietnamese interest in resuming contact with U.S. and in reducing Hanoi’s high level of dependency on the USSR. There is significant Hill interest (Glenn, Montgomery, Kennedy, Wolff, Holtzman, Nunn, etc.) in our discussing the refugee situation and MIAs with the Vietnamese. Many Asian leaders, most recently Ohira, have pointed out the advantages of keeping in touch with Hanoi. The most natural way to for us to contact the Vietnamese would be to accept their invitation to resume [Page 182] talks in New York at the Oakley/Ha Van Lau level.3 We would convey tough messages to Hanoi: normalization is not an imminent prospect, concern over the SRV handling of refugees, opposition to the SRV occupation of Kampuchea. If we are to exercise any leverage in dealing with the SRV on these issues, a direct contact would have to be resumed. We would make sure that key congressional leaders and the press (on background) understand our objectives if we were to resume talks with the SRV representatives.
[Omitted here is discussion unrelated to Vietnam.]
- Source: Department of State, Office of the Secretariat Staff, Records of Cyrus Vance, 1977–1980, Lot 84D241, President’s Breakfast 5/1/79–8/31/80. Secret; Nodis. Vance’s initials are stamped at the bottom of the first page of the memorandum.↩
- The breakfast meeting took place in the Cabinet Room at the White House, 7:30–8:56 a.m. Carter, Mondale, Vance, Brown, Brzezinski, and Strauss attended. (Carter Library, Presidential Materials, President’s Daily Diary) No record of the discussion has been found.↩
- See Document 53.↩