Peace Negotiation Pressure By U.S.

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30983, 12 February 1966, Page 15

Peace Negotiation Pressure By U.S.

CA’.Z. Press Association —Copyright)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11.

The United States is seeking to put diplomatic pressure on North Vietnam to modify its demand that the National Liberation Front (N.L.F.) must represent South Vietnam in any peace negotiations.

President Johnson has sent word to interested foreign Governments that the demand made by the North Vietnamese President, Mr Ho Chi Minh, is wholly unacceptable and has created an obstacle to efforts to arrange a peace conference.

in Hawaii earlier this week with the leaders of South Vietnam, then sent him back to the United Nations headquarters in New York to renew his efforts with the Sec-retary-General, U Thant, and members of the Security Council, as well as representatives of other countries to find some way to bring the Vietnamese war to a close. While Mr Goldberg was meeting with President Johnson, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard from Mr George F. Kennan, the former State Department Soviet affairs expert, in its inquiry into United States policy in South-east Asia.

tor J. W. Fulbright, the committee chairman, expressed fears that this week’s United States-South Vietnamese declaration in Honolulu may have raised an added obstacle to a negotiated peace. “It seems to me we have further committed ourselves to a point where any sort of a negotiated settlement, short of outright victory, could be called a betrayal of a commitment," Senator Fulbright said

The United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Mr Arthur J. Goldberg, said after a two-hour meeting with President Johnson yesterday that American policy is flexible on the issue of an N.L.F. role in negotiations. The N.L.F. is the political arm of the guerrilla forces. “We will bargain on that at the conference table,” said Mr Goldberg after his meeting with the President. RENEWED EFFORTS

Both men indicated that they feel the South Vietnamese leaders are more interested in military victory than in the economic, social and humane positions stressed by United States officials.

Both Mr Kennan and Sena

He emphasised, however, that the demand which President Ho made public on January 28 is unacceptable to the United States, and he made clear that it would have to be modified if the issue is to be resolved. President Johnson briefed Mr Goldberg on his meeting