Fwd: Vietnamization-era transcript of Kissinger/Brezhnev
Brezhnev: Try this candy. It is very good; it is plums in chocolate….
Kissinger: Peace in the world and progress in the world depends on
the relations between our two countries. Every time there are
conflicts in parts of the world we will remember what unites us
rather than what divides us. That could be the greatest achievement
of the summit. (Mr. Brezhnev then offered the Americans some pie that
had been brought in)…. We have two principal objectives. One is to
bring about an honorable withdrawal of all our forces; secondly, to
put a time interval between our withdrawal and the political process
which would then start. We are prepared to let the real balance of
forces in Vietnam determine the future of Vietnam.
Brezhnev: …You weren’t actually in the war, were you?
Kissinger: First, I was in the infantry, and then I was in intelligence.
Brezhnev: That’s something I experienced from beginning to end. …
It was an awesome thing. …
Kissinger: The deaths of the Soviet people were unbelievable….
Brezhnev: I am sure, God forbid, if your people had had to suffer
anything like the Russian people did, the postwar American foreign
policy would have been different. The average American is just not
familiar with this, has not gone through this, and his mind is
conditioned entirely differently…. Americans find life too dull.
Rock and roll is dull, and there are no domestic problems, so let’s
start a war in Vietnam.
Kissinger: With the most difficult people in the world.
Brezhnev: Now you complain…. I doubt anyone would understand that
the United States is truly defending that country. The war has been
going on eight years, but for what sake? For what sake is money being
squandered, for what sake are so many Americans being killed and
thousands of Vietnamese? Has the war brought the United States
anything positive? Surely nothing.