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The real breakthrough came on Oct. 8, as Kissinger arrived at a spacious villa used by the North Vietnamese near the town of Rambouillet, 28 miles southwest of Paris, for this 19th meeting with Le Due Tho. The North Vietnamese began the quiet Sunday-morning session with a ritual demand for a political settlement, and then asked for a two-hour break. Kissinger spent the time walking through the surrounding oak and beech forests, pondering what would come next. The setting had the kind of historical cachet that delights Kissinger. It was at Rambouillet, with its 14th century chateau, once a retreat of Mary Queen of Scots, Catherine de Medicis and Henry IV, where Ernest Hemingway set up his headquarters with advance units of the American Army about to retake Paris in 1944. Now Kissinger and Le Due Tho would be added to the guidebooks.
When Kissinger returned to the villa, Le Due Tho offered a cease-fire close to the President's May 8 plan, and the four-year impasse was broken at last. Kissinger sent a summary to the White House by cable, then called ahead to Nixon that something was coming that deserved his "urgent consideration." Next morning Kissinger postponed the Monday session twice so that Washington's answer could be received and digested. From then on, negotiations moved at full speed. By the end of two more 16-hour sessions, the two sides had produced a draft of the nine-point plan. Its title: "Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet Nam."
The North Vietnamese wanted to set deadlines; Oct. 31 was the final date after two postponements. Kissinger did not flatly reject the idea, and over the course of the next few days Nixon sent Hanoi's Premier Pham Van Dong two messages saying that the U.S. would make every effort to conclude the negotiations by that date. But Kissinger insisted repeatedly that the U.S. could not sign unless all parties concerned were agreed. Even so the Administration was eager to move ahead as fast and as far as possible. Though the Oct. 31 deadline meant compressing a three-week process into ten days, Kissinger felt that even if there "were a lot of loose ends" it would be "worth the gamble."
Back in Washington after his unprecedented five-day meeting at Rambouillet, Kissinger and Haig drove straight to the White House. "How are the girls in Paris?" Nixon quipped. Then they got down to work.
Two days later, Kissinger was ready to fly to Saigon via Paris and put the proposition to Thieu. As he boarded the presidential 707 for the flight, Kissinger was given a handwritten letter from Nixon. On two pages of pale green stationery, Nixon had penned some last-minute thoughts for his plenipotentiary for peace. "Do what is right for an honorable peace, without regard to the election," he wrote. A settlement might be "a slight plus for the election," Nixon mused, but more likely it would prove to be "basically a mixed bag for a variety of reasons."
Patriot. In Paris, Kissinger stressed to Xuan Thuy, Le Due Tho's deputy, that there were now three possibilities: All parties would agree to the nine-point plan, or some revisions would have to be made, or there would be a total deadlock. Next day, as Kissinger arrived in Saigon for his four days of talks with Thieu, the trouble began.