Editing Lê Đức Thọ (section)

=== 1968 ===
On 26 June 1968, Thọ first met [[Cyrus Vance]] and [[Philip Habib]] of the American delegation at a "safe house" in the Paris suburb of Sceaux.{{sfn|Langguth|2000|pp. 510–511}} On 8 September 1968, Thọ first met [[W. Averell Harriman]], the head of the American delegation, in a villa in the town of Vitry-sur-Seine.{{sfn|Langguth|2000|pp. 518–519}} At the meeting, Harriman conceded that in "serious talks" the National Liberation Front ([[Viet_Cong|NLF]]) might take part in the talks provided that the South Vietnamese were also allowed to join.{{sfn|Langguth|2000|p. 519}} At another meeting with Harriman on 12 September, Thọ made the concession that South Vietnam could continue as an independent state provided the National Liberation Front could join the government, but demanded that the United States had to unconditionally cease bombing all of North Vietnam first.{{sfn|Langguth|2000|p. 518}} After the meeting, Harriman thanked Thọ for his "straight talk", but disputed a number of Thọ's claims, saying that the Vietnam war was not the most costly [[List of wars involving the United States|war in American history]].{{sfn|Langguth|2000|pp. 519–520}} 

Thọ was unhappy when Hanoi demanded that the National Liberation Front take part in the peace talks as the lead negotiating team, instead of the North Vietnamese, which he knew would cause complications. He flew back to Hanoi in an attempt to change the instructions, in which he was successful, but was also told to tell Harriman that an expanded four-party talks involving the Americans, the South Vietnamese, the North Vietnamese and the NLF would begin "as early as possible" without settling a firm date.{{sfn|Langguth|2000|p. 522}} However, the four-party talks did not take place as planned, as South Vietnamese President [[Nguyễn Văn Thiệu]] decided to stall talks after receiving messages from [[Anna Chennault]] that the Republican presidential candidate [[Richard Nixon]] would be more supportive.{{sfn|Langguth|2000|pp. 523–527}} On 18 January 1969, Thọ told Harriman that he regretted the latter's departure, saying: "If you had stopped bombing after two or three months of talks, the situation would have been different now".{{sfn|Langguth|2000|p. 530}}