Former Democratic U.S. Senator and Saturday Night Live alum Al Franken shared on a story on the social media platform X after the death of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (1973-1977).
Franken wrote: “Kissinger called SNL once late on a Friday night looking for tix for his son. The Stones were playing that week. I told him that if it hadn’t been for the Xmas bombing, he’d have the tickets.”
Kissinger called SNL once late on a Friday night looking for tix for his son. The Stones were playing that week. I told him that if it hadn’t been for the Xmas bombing, he’d have the tickets.
— Al Franken (@alfranken) November 30, 2023
Franken is referring to the bombing of North Vietnam on December 18, 1972. After days of failed negotiations between the U.S. and Hanoi in Paris, President Richard Nixon ordered the massive bombing campaign which lasted two weeks.
Note: More than 20,000 tons of bombs were dropped by the U.S. Air Force on the cities of Hanoi and Haiphong. North Vietnam claimed that more than 1,600 civilians were killed.
After the bombing campaign, when North Vietnam agreed to resume peace talks in Paris, Kissinger, Nixon’s national security adviser, said in private: “We bombed the North Vietnamese into accepting our concessions.”
Note: One year later, on December 10, 1973, Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, a member of the North Vietnamese Politburo who signed the 1973 peace treaty with the U.S., were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the cease-fire. Tho did not accept the award, Kissinger did.
