the u.s. also now began what north vietnamese historians have described as "using devious political and diplomatic schemes...to cut back the amount of aid being supplied to us by socialist nations." on 20 april kissinger met secretly with brezhnev in moscow. unwilling to jeopardize increasingly normalized relations with the west and wary of washington's growing relationship with beijing, brezhnev agreed to apply pressure to hanoi to end the offensive and negotiate seriously.