Paris Peace talk table?

Question

I want to know specifics about the table that delayed the Vietnam War-Paris Peace talks for about six months. The conflict was about the shape of the table.
If an article could be found that describesit would be great. I have searched online archives that are available, but no luck.

Answer 1

Suggest you look through the NY Times index for 1968-1969. The table debate went on for a long while, and the various proposals were well documented in the press. The north wanted a big circular table, where all the parties had a seat. The south wanted a big rectangular table, so that north and south were facing. The toughest issue was that Saigon and the Vietcong wouldn't sit at the same table. They ended up with north and south sitting at a circular table, with the other parties (Vietcong, US) having smaller square tables around the periphery.

Answer 2

Here is one:
One of the largest hurdles to effective negotiation was the fact that the DRV and its ally in South Vietnam, the [[National Liberation Front]] (NLF) or Vietcong, refused to recognize the government of South Vietnam; with equal persistence, the government in Saigon refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the NLF. Harriman resolved this dispute by developing a system by which the DRV and U.S. would be the named parties; NLF officials could join the DRV team without being recognized by South Vietnam, while Saigon's representatives joined their U.S. allies. A similar debate concerned the table to be used at the Paris Peace Conference. The North favored a circular table, in which all parties, including NLF (Viet Cong) representatives, would appear to be 'equal' in importance. The South argued that only a rectangular table was acceptable, for only a rectangle could show two distinct sides to the conflict, the North and South. Eventually a compromise was reached, in which representatives of the North and South government would sit at a circular table, with members representing all other parties sitting on individual square tables around them. (Vikpedia)

Here:

http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1968-12/1968-12-13-CBS-15.html

You might try here too

http://caho-test.cc.columbia.edu/dbq/11101.html

Try searching the Time magazine, I found some article about the talks but not about the table, maybe you can do the search yourself.

http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,840114-2,00.html