Seaborn flew into North Vietnam abroad a rickety Air France Stratoliner whose two pilots had an alarming habit of drinking champagne on the job. On 18 June 1964, Seaborn arrived in Hanoi to meet Premier Phạm Văn Đồng with an offer from Johnson promising billions of American economic aid and diplomatic recognition of North Vietnam in exchange for North Vietnam ending its attempts to overthrow the government of South Vietnam. Seaborn also warned that Johnson had told him that he was considering an strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam if his offer was rejected. Seaborn stated that North Vietnam would suffer the "greatest devastation" from American bombing, stating that Johnson had both the power and willingness to turn North Vietnam into a wasteland. Đồng told Seaborn that the American terms were unacceptable as he demanded the end of American assistance to South Vietnam; South Vietnam to become neutral in the Cold War; and for the National Liberation Front, better known as the Viet Cong, to take part in a coalition government in Saigon. Đồng told Seaborn that his nation did want a war with the United States, saying: "Our people will accept sacrifices whatever they may be. But the DRV [Democratic Republic of Vietnam] will not enter the war...we shall not provoke the U.S." The North Vietnamese did not see Seaborn as a neutral and regarded him as being close to an American spy. Speaking in French, Đồng told Seaborn the war was ""drame, national, fondamental"" to his government. Afterwards, Seaborn reported to Martin "We would be unwise at this stage to count on war weariness or factionalism within the leadership...to cause North Vietnam to jump at the chance of reaching accommodation with USA." On 13 August 1964, Seaborn returned to Hanoi to meet Đồng again. The message that Johnson had asked Seaborn to deliver was felt in Ottawa to be too inflammatory and the mandarins removed some of the blunter passages, through the message that Seaborn delivered was faithful to the spirit that Johnson had drafted it in, through not in content. Seaborn told Đồng that based on his recent meetings with Johnson that he was seriously using the powers he just gained from the Gulf of Tonkin resolution to go to war, but also stated that Johnson was willing to offer "economic and other benefits" if only North Vietnam ceased trying to overthrow the government of South Vietnam.