University of Virginia Library

Secret Negotiations

When asked if there were any secret
negotiations taking place, Mr. Ogle said that
there appeared to be, but Mr. Bruce told him
that he had made an agreement with Thuy to
keep quiet about any meeting they were or
were not having.

After attending the conference, Mr. Ogle
wrote of his impressions, 'In Vietnam the
United States has distributed over 500 pounds
of explosives for every man, woman and child.
In smaller Laos the U.S. per capita munition
package totals over one ton per person. Even
the exhaustive and sometimes intellectually
numbing sessions in Paris with all four
negotiating teams could not blur the image of
America's massive and ominous power. In fact
the image became part of our painful reality as
the callouses of many years of protest marches,
anti-war speeches, antiseptic body counts and
ceaseless war propaganda were peeled off in the
presence of the war's victims."

Mr. Ogle said that he feels that his
experience should be shared and any group that
would like to hear his story may give him a call.

His final remarks were, "It is tragic that the
American people have been able to accept the
role of being 'good Germans' in the face of
destruction in Indochina equal to the ravages of
Hitler."