Quote Originally Posted by Montmorency View Post
Though as pointed out it isn't up to just him, there is an important cautionary tale here.

In 1969, everyone (in power) wanted the Vietnam War to end. However, Nixon and Kissinger escalated military activity and at various points rejected overtures for peace from the North Vietnamese.

Why? Because they wanted to negotiate from a more advantageous strategic position at the inevitable peace conference.

What happened? In 1973, both sides came to the table with basically the same cards as in 1969 - but with hundreds of thousands more in dead.
According to the dating in your tale we still have around a couple of years of the crisis ahead of us.