In 1970, reports reach Washington that the North Vietnamese Army is withdrawing troops across the border with South Vietnam to combat growing unrest in the North Vietnamese countryside resulting from the food and fuel shortages caused by the Operation Linebacker dike bombings. The intel also mentions that the contamination of water supplies by debris, human and animal waste, and vast numbers of human bodies has led to outbreaks of typhus.

United Nations Secretary General U Thant calls for immediate UN aid to the stricken country. At the urging of President Nixon, however, U.S. ambassador Charles W. Yost demands that Hanoi first agree to 'end all hostilities against the legitimate government of South Vietnam and withdraw its support for anti-government insurgents attempting top overthrow that government.' Otherwise, Yost continues, relaying his boss's thinking, 'the United Nations will simply be providing Communist aggressors with the means to continue their aggression against the free people of South Vietnam.' Ambassador Yost makes clear that the United States will 'vigorously oppose' any United Nations disaster relief to North Vietnam unless the Nixon Administration's conditions are met.