‘Peace Is at Hand’ in Vietnam, Kissinger says 40 years ago today (1972)


Video: Oct. 26, 1972 (6:32)

(Thursday, October 26, 1972, 11 days before the U.S. presidential election, during the Vietnam War) — Hours after Radio Hanoi broadcast key details of a draft peace agreement, which the South Vietnamese had adamantly rejected a few days before, American presidential advisor Henry Kissinger went on television today and declared “We believe that peace is at hand.”

As it turned out, peace was not quite at hand and a final agreement was not signed until early 1973.


Video: Oct. 26, 1972 (at 2:29)