Feeling Weak

Last Saturday night, I visited one of the clinics around Tiong Bahru MRT station, which was open. I got my nose blocked and runny at the same time (though my nose cannot even walk) and my throat was quite irritating. I was sneezing too. After half an hour of waiting, I met the doctor, who, after rather cursory questions, temp measurement (“36.9, no fever”) and throat examination, prescribed two kinds of tablets for my blocked and runny nose and lozenges for the throat. It was only a matter of a few minutes. Yesterday, I was not feeling very well still. I decided to reinforce the effect of medication with Panadol FluMax. It might not be a wise decision considering potentially adverse chemical mix, but I couldn’t resist doing so as the tablets given didn’t seem to be working fast enough. Last night with this condition, I had to finish a job and I did. Now my condition seems better though I’m still feeling very weak. 36.9 is a borderline temp as at 37.0 and above one is considered having a fever in my country, but not here where the benchmark is 37.5.

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At around 6:30 am, Friday (or Saturday: memories are going) and after so many interruptions, I came to the last line of the last page of “White House Years.” In January, 1973, Kissinger concluded the negotiations with Hanoi in Paris to end the war in Vietnam, after a breakthrough in October of the previous year, when the Hanoi government demonstrated its willingness to end the war as rapidly as possible. The subsequent stonewalling and cunning tactics of North Vietnam and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu’s resistance to an agreement with Hanoi greatly unnerved the whole US negotiating team and President Nixon, who resorted a B-52 Christmas bombing to force the North to come back to serious negotiations. It is easy to forget the fact that Nixon and Kissinger inherited the US escalated involvement in Vietnam, which was started by Eisenhower whose Vice President was Nixon ironically. The Nixon Administration seems to have wanted to get out of Vietnam soon in a way that could preserve the honour of America. A near certain fund cutoff by the new Congress strengthened the resolve.

In the second volume, “Years of Upheaval,” Kissinger visits Hanoi, a distressing experience for him. It was clear that, only two weeks after the signing of the Agreement, the North was violating its major clauses. The issues of the neutrality of Laos and Cambodia and the troop withdrawals by North Vietnam from these countries remained unresolved.