Office of the Historian

50. Memorandum From Secretary of State Vance to President Carter1

Washington, May 16, 1979

SUBJECT

  • Vietnam

I would like to raise the question of our policy towards a dialogue with Vietnam for discussion on Friday morning.2 I believe strongly that we are on the wrong course and that we are driving the Vietnamese further and further into the arms of the Soviets. We do not need to normalize at this point, but the failure to have any dialogue is foregoing an important opportunity. The dialogue could be carried out at the United Nations with a minimum of publicity. All of our ASEAN partners are pressing us to conduct such a dialogue, as is Japan. In addition to the opening of a dialogue being the right substantive course, failure to do so is raising increasing political problems at home. We are coming increasingly under attack from both the right and the left. I believe we should change our course and do it promptly.

  1. 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.↩
  2. May 18. The President held a breakfast meeting that morning with Mondale, Vance, Brzezinski, and Jordan, 7:30–9:10 a.m. (Carter Library, Presidential Materials, President’s Daily Diary) No record of the discussion has been found.↩