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grey & black 1/2 cloth 8vo hardbound 8vo. dustwrapper in protective plastic. fine cond. binding square & tight. covers clean. edges clean. contents free of all markings. dustwrapper in fine cond. not worn or torn or price clipped. nice clean copy. no library markings, store stamps, stickers, bookplates, no names, inking , underlining, remainder markings etc ~ first edition so stated. first printing ( # 1 in # line). endpaper maps. xiii+542p. 12 appendices. document reproductions. notes. interviews. selected reading. index. approx. 54 glossy b&w photo. illustrations. world history. american history. far east. indochina. vietnam war. politics. diplomacy. fall of south vietnam.nixon. kissinger. nguyen van thieu. assassination. christmas bombing. cambodia. cia. communist china. soviet union. gerald ford. laos. negroponte. big minh. paris agreement. saigon. viet cong. von marbod. watergate. gen wayand. zhou enlai.~ The Palace File tells the story, for the first time from inside the South Vietnamese government, of the last desperate years of the war as seen through the eyes of one of President Nguyen Van Thieu's closest advisers. It includes more than thirty previously unpublished letters from Presidents Nixon and Ford to the South Vietnamese President that document a secret and repeated U.S. commitment to sustain South Vietnam after the Paris Peace Accords~a commitment that was never honored. The book is also supported by extensive research in published and unpublished materials, and by interviews with major American and Vietnamese figures who were involved in the events of the time, including Presidents Ford and Thieu, members of Thieu's cabinet and general staff, Kissinger, Haig, Laird, Schlesinger, Scowcroft and many other U.S. military, diplomatic and CIA personnel. The Palace File is full of such fascinating scenes, revelations and insights as Nixon's and Thieu's first official meeting on Midway in 1969, where the placement of Thieu's chair affected his feelings toward Kissinger ever after; the competition between Humphrey and Nixon for Thieu's support during the 1968 election campaign, and the roles played by John Mitchell and Anna Chennault; the strange fallacy in Nixon's and Kissinger's strategy in negotiating unilaterally with the North Vietnamese without including the South Vietnamese, and what the consequences were; the implications of Nixon's opening to China in 1971 to U.S. relations with South Vietnam; co~author Hung's desperate efforts in 1974 and 1975 to round up support in Washington for saving South Vietnam, and the reception he received from Senator Ted Kennedy, Melvin Laird, James Schlesinger, Robert McNamara, and many others; the tragi~comic visit to South Vietnam of the U.S. Congressional delegation in 1975, and how certain members~Bella Abzug, Paul McCloskey, Millicent Fenwick~were more interested in exposing and investigating the excesses and weaknesses in Thieu's regime than in helping it oppose the North Vietnamese violations of the Peace Accords. The Palace File is not a whitewash of Thieu and his government; it spares neither, citing the faults of both and crediting Thieu mainly for his clear~eyed distrust of North Vietnamese intentions and his tenacious opposition to all concessions in negotiating. What it provides is an intimate, inside account of the South Vietnamese~American relationship, a tale of misplaced trust and self~deception on a personal level, and great power politics and betrayal on the highest plane of statesmanship. It also raises fundamental questions about American promises not only to Thieu, but to twenty~four million Vietnamese who now live under Communist rule, and about the role of secret diplomacy in our democratic system. NGUYEN TIEN HUNG served as Special Assistant to President Nguyen Van Thieu and also as a Cabinet Minister during the last years of the Republic of South Vietnam. Just before the fall of Saigon he was sent to Washington to seek additional U.S. help, taking with h.
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