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In the U.S., Kissinger notes, "there had been no consideration of attacking the sanctuaries before April 21. " Yet a fateful decision was made only a week later, on April 28.
The first two weeks of April had seen a wave of Communist attacks on Cambodian towns and communications. On Tuesday, April 21, Communist forces struck the town of Takeo and cut the road between it and Phnom-Penh. The North Vietnamese were systematically expanding their sanctuaries and merging them into a "liberated zone." If these steps were unopposed, the Communist sanctuaries would be organized into a single large base area. By April 21 the basic issue was whether Vietnamization was to be merely an alibi for an American collapse or a serious strategy designed to achieve an honorable peace.
At a major National Security Council meeting on April 22, three tactical options were considered: doing nothing (the preferred course of the State and Defense departments); attacking the sanctuaries with South Vietnamese forces only (my recommendation); and using whatever forces were necessary to neutralize all of the base areas, including American combat forces, recommended by Ellsworth Bunker, our Ambassador in Saigon, General Creighton Abrams, our commander in Viet Nam. and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Two base areas were of special concern. The Parrot's Beak, Cambodia's Svay Rieng province, jutted into Viet Nam to within only 33 miles of Saigon. Farther north was an area code-named the Fishhook. No one around the table questioned the consequences of a Communist takeover of Cambodia. If Cambodia collapsed, we would be even harder pressed to pull out unilaterally; if we accepted any of the other options, we would be charged with "expanding the war." There was no middle ground.
Nixon told his colleagues that he approved attacks on the base areas by South Vietnamese forces with U.S. support. Since the South Vietnamese could handle only one offensive, Wheeler recommended that they go after Parrot's Beak. This led to a debate about American participation; Laird and Rogers sought to confine it to an absolute minimum, opposing even American advisers or tactical air support.
At this point Vice President Spiro Agnew spoke up. He thought the whole debate irrelevant. Either the sanctuaries were a danger or they were not. If it was worth cleaning them out, he did not understand all the pussyfooting about the American role or what we accomplished by attacking only one. Our task was to make Vietnamization succeed. He favored an attack on both Fishhook and Parrot's Beak, including American forces.
If Nixon hated anything more than being presented with a plan he had not considered, it was to be shown up in a group as being less tough than his advisers. I have no doubt that Agnew's intervention accelerated Nixon's ultimate decision to order an attack on all the sanctuaries and use American forces. Agnew was right; we should either neutralize all of the sanctuaries or abandon the project. We were in danger of combining the disadvantages of every course of action. We would be castigated for intervention in Cambodia without accomplishing any strategic purpose.
On Saturday, April 25, Nixon called me to Camp David to review the planning. I walked along at the edge of the swimming pool while he paddled in the water. Nixon began to toy with