Vietnam War > Ho Chi Minh > Letter Exchange, 1967
LETTER FROM PRESIDENT JOHNSON TO HO CHI MINH (President of the Democratic Republic of
Vietnam)
February 8, 1967
Dear Mr. President:
I am writing to you in the hope that the conflict in Vietnam can be brought to an end. That
conflict has already taken a heavy toll-in lives lost, in wounds inflicted, in property
destroyed, and in simple human misery. If we fail to find a just and peaceful solution,
history will judge us harshly.
Therefore, I believe that we both have a heavy obligation to seek earnestly the path to
peace. It is in response to that obligation that I am writing directly to you.
We have tried over the past several years, in a variety of ways and through a number of
channels, to convey to you and your colleagues our desire to achieve a peaceful settlement. For
whatever reasons, these efforts have not achieved any results. . . .
In the past two weeks, I have noted public statements by representatives of your government
suggesting that you would be prepared to enter into direct bilateral talks with representatives
of the U.S. Government, provided that we ceased "unconditionally" and permanently our bombing
operations against your country and all military actions against it. In the last day, serious
and responsible parties have assured us indirectly that this is in fact your proposal.
Let me frankly state that I see two great difficulties with this proposal. In view of your
public position, such action on our part would inevitably produce worldwide speculation that
discussions were under way and would impair the privacy and secrecy of those
discussions. Secondly, there would inevitably be grave concern on our part whether your
government would make use of such action by us to improve its military position.
With these problems in mind, I am prepared to move even further towards an ending of
hostilities than your Government has proposed in either public statements or through private
diplomatic channels. I am prepared to order a cessation of bombing against your country and
the stopping of further augmentation of U.S. forces in South Viet-Nam as soon as I am assured
that infiltration into South Viet-Nam by land and by sea has stopped. These acts of restraint
on both sides would, I believe, make it possible for us to conduct serious and private
discussions leading toward an early peace.
I make this proposal to you now with a specific sense of urgency arising from the imminent New
Year holidays in Viet-Nam. If you are able to accept this proposal I see no reason why it
could not take effect at the end of the New Year, or Tet, holidays. The proposal I have made
would be greatly strengthened if your military authorities and those of the Government of
South Viet-Nam could promptly negotiate an extension of the Tet truce.
As to the site of the bilateral discussions I propose, there are several possibilities. We
could, for example, have our representatives meet in Moscow where contacts have already
occurred. They could meet in some other country such as Burma. You may have other arrangements
or sites in mind, and I would try to meet your suggestions.
The important thing is to end a conflict that has brought burdens to both our peoples, and
above all to the people of South Viet-Nam. If you have any thoughts about the actions I
propose , it would be most important that I receive them as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Lyndon B. Johnson
PRESIDENT HO CHI MINH'S REPLY TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S LETTER
February 15, 1967
Excellency, on February 10, 1967, I received your message. Here is my response.
Viet-Nam is situated thousands of miles from the United States. The Vietnamese people have
never done any harm to the United States. But, contrary to the commitments made by its
representative at the Geneva Conference of 1954, the United States Government has constantly
intervened in Viet-Nam, it has launched and intensified the war of aggression in South
Viet-Nam for the purpose of prolonging the division of Viet-Nam and of transforming South
Viet-Nam into an American neo-colony and an American military base. For more than two years
now, the American Government, with its military aviation and its navy, has been waging war
against the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam, an independent and sovereign country.
The United States Government has committed war crimes, crimes against peace and against
humanity. In South Viet-Nam a half-million American soldiers and soldiers from the satellite
countries have resorted to the most inhumane arms and the most barbarous methods of warfare,
such as napalm, chemicals, and poison gases in order to massacre our fellow countrymen,
destroy the crops, and wipe out the villages. In North Viet-Nam thousands of American planes
have rained down hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs, destroying cities, villages, mills,
roads, bridges, dikes, dams and even churches, pagodas, hospitals, and schools. In your
message you appear to deplore the suffering and the destruction in Viet-Nam. Permit me to
ask you: Who perpetrated these monstrous crimes? It was the American soldiers and the
soldiers of the satellite countries. The United States Government is entirely responsible for
the extremely grave situation in Viet-Nam. . . .
The Vietnamese people deeply love independence, liberty, and peace. But in the face of the
American aggression they have risen up as one man, without fearing the sacrifices and the
privations. They are determined to continue their resistance until they have won real
independence and liberty and true peace. Our just cause enjoys the approval and the powerful
support of peoples throughout the world and of large segments of the American people.
The United States Government provoked the war of aggression in Viet-Nam. It must cease that
aggression, it is the only road leading to the re-establishment of peace. The United States
Government must halt definitively and unconditionally the bombings and all other acts of war
against the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam, withdraw from South Viet-Nam all American troops
and all troops from the satellite countries, recognize the National Front of the Liberation of
South Viet-Nam and let the Vietnamese people settle their problems themselves. Such is the
basic content of the four-point position of the Government of the Democratic Republic of
Viet-Nam, such is the statement of the essential principles and essential arrangements of
the Geneva agreements of 1954 on Viet-Nam. It is the basis for a correct political solution
of the Vietnamese problem. In your message you suggested direct talks between the Democratic
Republic of Viet-Nam and the United States. If the United States Government really wants
talks, it must first halt unconditionally the bombings and all other acts of war against
the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam. It is only after the unconditional halting of the
American bombings and of all other American acts of war against the Democratic Republic of
Viet-Nam that the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam and the United States could begin talks
and discuss questions affecting the two parties.
The Vietnamese people will never give way to force, it will never accept conversation under
the clear threat of bombs.
Our cause is absolutely just. It is desirable that the Government of the United States act
in conformity to reason.
Sincerely,
Ho Chi Minh
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