12/22/04: Le Duc Tho (1985)

Dec. 22, 2004 — -- Almost 20 years ago, on the 10th anniversary of the U.S. pullout from Viet Nam, Nightline's then-executive producer, Rick Kaplan and I, returned to Saigon, now renamed Ho Chi Minh City. For what I remember as perhaps the toughest program we've ever done. On paper it looked great: Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger, co-winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, together again.

Except, I wasn't on paper. I was on the roof of the Caravelle Hotel. It was over 100 degrees without the television lights. And Le Duc Tho, who was in an air-conditioned room nearby, wasn't letting Henry Kissinger ... or me ... get a word in edgewise.

From Nightline, April 29, 1985:

TED KOPPEL : You will have to forgive me Mr. Le Duc Tho. I am sorry to interrupt you at this point but I'm afraid we cannot spend the entire, forgive me I wish the interpreter would interrupt Mr. Le Duc Tho, please (Tho continues), I am afraid we are not going to be able to spend this entire time talking about the Hanoi peace negotiations, we are going to take a break.

And I am trying to get a question in and the only way that I can get a question in is if the interpreter, who is sitting with Le Duc Tho, interrupts his boss.

RICK KAPLAN, former "Nightline" executive producer: But Le Duc Tho has decided you need a history lesson, starting from the birth, I think, of the first Vietnamese person on the planet. And no matter what you ask, he is giving you history. And I remember at one point, I say, I guess, to the interpreter in a rather forceful way, you know would you tell him to be quiet and listen to the questions and the interpreter looked at me and he went "no" (laughs). I work for him.

Right about then, the wind blew over one of our big lights ... we call them brutes ... smashing it on the rooftop. And Henry Kissinger, back in our Washington studio, was so furious he was threatening to walk out.

It was one of the longest hours of my life.