In the Oval Office on August 3, 1972, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger tells President Richard Nixon that there’s a 50-50 chance of reaching a settlement with North Vietnam.

That deal would give Nixon a “decent interval,” a face-saving delay of a year or two between his final withdrawal of American troops and the Communists’ final takeover of South Vietnam. “We’ve got to find some formula that holds the thing together [for] a year or two, after which — after a year, Mr. President, Vietnam will be a backwater. If we settle it, say, this October, by January ’74 no one will give a damn.”