Arms for Hanoi 

• 1969 
• Morris, John Milt 
• Drawing 
• Historical item 

5841357

Drawings / paintings

Arms for Hanoi

36.5 x 31 cm

1969

Original editorial cartoon on card in ink and crayon for the Associated Press, 1969, shows a Soviet soldier supplying crates of arms to Hanoi (North Vietnam) while North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh looks on with satisfaction. The Soviets had been supplying North Vietnam with arms and other supplies throughout the conflict and, although the Paris Peace Talks had begun in January 1969, the Soviet Union refused to act as an official mediator in the war. The new US president, Nixon, and his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, wanted to end the war in order to move forward with detente - the Vietnam War was the main obstacle to better relations with the Soviet Union and China. They initially tried to tempt the Soviet leaders openly into the negotiation process by offering the Soviet Union progress on cultural, trade and arms agreements in return for assistance in helping the United States get out of the war. What the cartoonist considers to be the hypocrisy of the Soviets, supplying arms to North Vietnam while still having ‘interest in arms limitations’, was seen by the Soviets, who did favour better relations with the United States, as an attempt by Nixon to link detente with Vietnam, and so no better than blackmail. Card size 36.5 x 31 cm (14.5 x 12.5 inch), image size 31 x 29 cm, signed lower left, title lost as the original pasted-on caption is missing, dated 7/14/69 on verso. Tack holes at the four corners, otherwise in very good condition.