Brezhnev: Try this candy. It is very good; it is plums in chocolate....
Kissinger: Peace in the world and progress in the world depends on the relations between our two countries. Every time there are conflicts in parts of the world we will remember what unites us rather than what divides us. That could be the greatest achievement of the summit. (Mr. Brezhnev then offered the Americans some pie that had been brought in).... We have two principal objectives. One is to bring about an honorable withdrawal of all our forces; secondly, to put a time interval between our withdrawal and the political process which would then start. We are prepared to let the real balance of forces in Vietnam determine the future of Vietnam.
Brezhnev: ...You weren't actually in the war, were you?
Kissinger: First, I was in the infantry, and then I was in intelligence.
Brezhnev: That's something I experienced from beginning to end. ... It was an awesome thing. ...
Kissinger: The deaths of the Soviet people were unbelievable....
Brezhnev: I am sure, God forbid, if your people had had to suffer anything like the Russian people did, the postwar American foreign policy would have been different. The average American is just not familiar with this, has not gone through this, and his mind is conditioned entirely differently.... Americans find life too dull. Rock and roll is dull, and there are no domestic problems, so let's start a war in Vietnam.
Kissinger: With the most difficult people in the world.
Brezhnev: Now you complain.... I doubt anyone would understand that the United States is truly defending that country. The war has been going on eight years, but for what sake? For what sake is money being squandered, for what sake are so many Americans being killed and thousands of Vietnamese? Has the war brought the United States anything positive? Surely nothing.