The Russians and Vietnam: Strategies of Indirection

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Students of Soviet foreign policy have been struck in recent years by Moscow's deference to Hanoi in all pronouncements relating to a negotiated settlement of the war. Thus the Russians were silent following President Johnson's announcement of a bombing limitation on 31 March 1968 until the North Vietnamese had issued their reply, which then became the basis for Soviet commentaries; as the Paris talks have progressed, coverage of them in the Soviet press has meticulously followed the line fixed by Hanoi's negotiators. It is instructive to consider how this appearance of deference, unusual in the relations between the Soviet Union and other Communist states, has come about.