On 28 Jun 2004 22:56:48 GMT, (BUFDRVR) wrote:

By 1972, the table was most assuredly round and all
four parties were involved in the negotiation.

According to several books I've read, only the NVN and US were in Paris...at
least at the peace accords.

As has been earlier mentioned here, one of the stumbling blocks was
the unwillingness of Diem regime to concede some of the points agreed
to beween the US and NVN.

Ed, Ngo Dihn Diem was killed in 1963, the SVN President in 1972 was Nguyen Van
Thieu whom the North refused to negotiate with since they claimed his regime
was illegitimate.

Encroaching senility. Meant Thieu. His representative was Le Duc Tho.

Yeah, it was Diem who was brother-in-law to Madame Nhu, the "Dragon
Lady". By late '72, of course we were getting ready to see a
merry-go-round of regime changes in SVN, including "Big Minh" who
engineered a coup in '63 to oust Diem, then somehow managed to keep a
position in the Army until eventually rising to the presidency just in
time to oversee the collapse and turn-over in '75.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8