Operation Smallbridge: Chester Ronning, the Second Indochina War, and the Challenge to the United States in Asia

Abstract

In 1966 Canadian diplomats and politicians sought to bring the United States and North Vietnam to the negotiating table. Canada's secret search for peace, code-named Operation Smallbridge, was led by retired diplomat Chester Ronning, who twice traveled to North Vietnam. Although Ronning's first mission convinced him that Hanoi was willing to discuss terms, U.S. escalation of the war continued. On his second mission, Ronning discovered that Washington's rejection of Hanoi's overture had hardened the official attitude in North Vietnam. Ronning may have exaggerated the breakthrough from his earlier visit, and his efforts may have unrealistically raised expectations for a settlement. Instead of bringing the adversaries closer together, Operation Smallbridge inadvertently made the Vietnam conflict and its belligerents more intractable and the prospects for a peaceful political solution more unlikely.