One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon by Tim Weiner Page B
Authors: Tim Weiner
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Soviets, and a speech to the American people scheduled for Nixon’s new D-day for the war, November 1.
The president met with Kissinger, Rogers, Laird, Mitchell, and Helms at the White House on September 10 to talk about Vietnam. Kissinger had prepared a deeply pessimistic report for Nixon. “The pressure of public opinion on you to resolve the war quickly will increase—and I believe increase greatly—during the coming months,” it read. “The plans for student demonstrations [beginning] in October are well known, and while many Americans will oppose the students’ activities, they will also be reminded of their own opposition to the continuation of the war.” Nixon underlined that sentence.
“I do not believe that with our current plans we can win the war within two years, although our success or failure in hurting the enemy remains very important,” Kissinger continued. “Hanoi’s adoption of a strategy designed to wait us out fits both with its doctrine of how to fight a revolutionary war and with its expectations about increasingly significant problems for the U.S.” The president underlined those words, too.
Kissinger recommended bombing the enemy so hard that they would sue for peace. He and his staff had been drafting an attack plan code-named Duck Hook, with a “sharp escalation” of violence and “sharp military blows” aimed to force Hanoi to capitulate. An unsigned memo of a Duck Hook meeting Kissinger held in the White House Situation Room showed that Soviet perceptions of Nixon’s rage were part of the plan: “If USSR thinks President is a madman, then they’ve driven him to it and they’d better help calm him down.”
Duck Hook included attacks against twenty-nine major targets in North Vietnam: bombing and mining the country’s main port city, Haiphong, and obliterating six central electric power stations, four airfields, the nation’s major factory plants and warehouses, its principal bridges and rail yards, and the levee system in the Red River Delta, which irrigated the rice fields that fed the nation.
Nixon, Kissinger, and Haldeman flew down to the Florida White House in Key Biscayne to weigh the plan on October 3, the day after the president received it. Haldeman’s handwritten diaries recorded four hours of talks, in which “P” is the president and “K” is Kissinger.
[Nixon held] one of those mystic sessions, which he had obviously thought through ahead of time.… Wants large free chunks of schedule time to work on Vietnam decisions.…
Then had session with K, and he is of course very concerned, feels we only have two alternatives, bug out or accelerate, and that we must escalate or P is lost. He is lost anyway if that fails, which it well may. K still feels main question is whether P can hold the government and the people together for the six months it will take. His contingency plans don’t include the domestic factor.…
It’s obvious from the press and dove buildup that trouble is there, whatever we do.
The dove buildup was imminent and immense. Hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country were about to join peaceful antiwar protests in October. A huge march on Washington would follow in mid-November. Nixon set his speechwriters working on his address to the nation set for November 1. He did not know if he would speak about war or peace.
* * *
Three days after the Key Biscayne meeting, on October 6, Kissinger called Secretary of Defense Mel Laird with a highly unusual request: “Could you exercise the DEFCON?” he asked. “The President will appreciate it very much.” The orders went out to the Joint Chiefs on October 9: immediately prepare “an integrated plan of military actions to demonstrate convincingly to the Soviet Union that the United States is getting ready for any eventuality on or about 1 November 1969.”
As often happened when Kissinger issued orders in the president’s name, Laird wondered what the hell was going
The president met with Kissinger, Rogers, Laird, Mitchell, and Helms at the White House on September 10 to talk about Vietnam. Kissinger had prepared a deeply pessimistic report for Nixon. “The pressure of public opinion on you to resolve the war quickly will increase—and I believe increase greatly—during the coming months,” it read. “The plans for student demonstrations [beginning] in October are well known, and while many Americans will oppose the students’ activities, they will also be reminded of their own opposition to the continuation of the war.” Nixon underlined that sentence.
“I do not believe that with our current plans we can win the war within two years, although our success or failure in hurting the enemy remains very important,” Kissinger continued. “Hanoi’s adoption of a strategy designed to wait us out fits both with its doctrine of how to fight a revolutionary war and with its expectations about increasingly significant problems for the U.S.” The president underlined those words, too.
Kissinger recommended bombing the enemy so hard that they would sue for peace. He and his staff had been drafting an attack plan code-named Duck Hook, with a “sharp escalation” of violence and “sharp military blows” aimed to force Hanoi to capitulate. An unsigned memo of a Duck Hook meeting Kissinger held in the White House Situation Room showed that Soviet perceptions of Nixon’s rage were part of the plan: “If USSR thinks President is a madman, then they’ve driven him to it and they’d better help calm him down.”
Duck Hook included attacks against twenty-nine major targets in North Vietnam: bombing and mining the country’s main port city, Haiphong, and obliterating six central electric power stations, four airfields, the nation’s major factory plants and warehouses, its principal bridges and rail yards, and the levee system in the Red River Delta, which irrigated the rice fields that fed the nation.
Nixon, Kissinger, and Haldeman flew down to the Florida White House in Key Biscayne to weigh the plan on October 3, the day after the president received it. Haldeman’s handwritten diaries recorded four hours of talks, in which “P” is the president and “K” is Kissinger.
[Nixon held] one of those mystic sessions, which he had obviously thought through ahead of time.… Wants large free chunks of schedule time to work on Vietnam decisions.…
Then had session with K, and he is of course very concerned, feels we only have two alternatives, bug out or accelerate, and that we must escalate or P is lost. He is lost anyway if that fails, which it well may. K still feels main question is whether P can hold the government and the people together for the six months it will take. His contingency plans don’t include the domestic factor.…
It’s obvious from the press and dove buildup that trouble is there, whatever we do.
The dove buildup was imminent and immense. Hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country were about to join peaceful antiwar protests in October. A huge march on Washington would follow in mid-November. Nixon set his speechwriters working on his address to the nation set for November 1. He did not know if he would speak about war or peace.
* * *
Three days after the Key Biscayne meeting, on October 6, Kissinger called Secretary of Defense Mel Laird with a highly unusual request: “Could you exercise the DEFCON?” he asked. “The President will appreciate it very much.” The orders went out to the Joint Chiefs on October 9: immediately prepare “an integrated plan of military actions to demonstrate convincingly to the Soviet Union that the United States is getting ready for any eventuality on or about 1 November 1969.”
As often happened when Kissinger issued orders in the president’s name, Laird wondered what the hell was going
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