State Department Telegram Text of a Letter from Ho Chi Minh to President Johnson

President Johnson proposed peace talks to end the Vietnam War in February 1967. Although Ho Chi Minh had tried to initiate negotiations with the United States through third parties, he was constrained by official party policy. He wrote to President Johnson, in French, regarding the peace negotiations, and his response reflects that policy: “The Vietnamese people will never give way to force, it will never accept conversation under the clear threat of bombs.”