Mission Impossible—Finding a Political Settlement for Cambodia and Devising Ways to Account for Our POW/MIAs

Amb. Quinn describes that almost no one within the U.S. government believed that there could be an agreement achieved to affect a political settlement among the parties in Cambodia. But with sheer determination, Assistant Secretary Solomon and Amb. Quinn would pursue a mechanism involving the Permanent Five members of the United Nations, going through a methodical negotiation to create an agreement that all parties might accept. At the same time, there was strong disagreement within the U.S. government itself about a strategy for dealing with the North Vietnamese government in Hanoi. Amb. Quinn describes meeting retired U.S. Army General Jack Vessey whom he sees as the most important figure and the key to unlocking the negotiating process with Hanoi. Still, he said it seemed like “Mission Impossible.”