PREVALENT MISCONCEPTIONS BEARING ON THE 'VIETNAMESE SOVEREIGNTY' ISSUE - - THE RESTON TRANSFER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01720R000800020006-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 20, 2006
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: December 15, 1972
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 2006/11/04: CIA-RDP80RO172OR000800020006-2
15 December 1972
MEMORANDUM FOR: Dr. Henry A. Kissinger
Assistant to the President for
National Security Affairs
SUBJECT Prevalent Misconceptions Bearing on the
."Vietnamese Sovereignty" Issue -- the
Reston Transfer
1. As you doubtless know, James Reston of the New York Times
has recently published several reprises or variations of the theme that a
major obstacle to progress in Vietnam negotiations -- and, hence, a major
obstacle to peace via early settlement -- is President Thieu's insistence oal
having acknowledged sovereignty over every square millimeter of South
Vietnamese territory.* Reston seems to think. Thieu is insisting on having
his claims to such sovereignty recognized and sanctioned by explicit
language in the final settlement agreement (or at least in any settlement
agreement that is going to carry his signature), My own knowledge of
the details of the current negotiations is far from complete -- and I an
certainly not trying to pry -- but from my limited perspective, 'it looks
as if Reston has an important issue very badly distorted.
2. To the best of my limited know,vledge, Thieu has never denied
that. the Communists exercise de facto control over certain portions of
South Vietnamese territory, (T.hieu's personal representative, Nguyen
Phu Duc certainly evinced no outward sign of umbrage or heartburn when
we jointly reviewed our control maps in your office on 1 December. )
Nor does it seem to me that Thieu can be fairly charged with trying to
gain at the conference table control over territory his troops have been
unable to win on the battlefield. Thieu's "sovereignty concerns, " instead,
1\-.t. Lie"