PRESIDENTS NOT LIKELY TO MEET

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31152, 31 August 1966, Page 13

PRESIDENTS NOT LIKELY TO MEET

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, August 30,

The chances for a meeting soon between President de Gaulle and President Johnson to discuss the Vietnam war. as urged by a leading Senator, are thought, in Washington, to be remote.

The United States Senate majority leader, Mr Mike Mansfield, yesterday urged such a meeting to assess prospects for ending the war.

Senator Mansfield said President de Gaulle’s forthcoming talks with the Cambodian head of state, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, provided an opportunity to review prospects for peace in Vietnam.

This should be followed by personal talks between President de Gaulle and President Johnson, possibly on the Carribean island of Guadeloupe where the French leader is due on September 11. President Johnson has made it clear he would welcome a meeting with President de Gaulle when the time is ripe. t Relations between Washington and Paris, however, have been such that few people in the Administration believe there is any prospect just now of fruitful talks. However, advance indications from Paris have been that President de Gaulle will use the occasion of his visit to Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, to denounce United States actions in Vietnam.

If so, then relations between the United States and France could be made even more difficult.