Hanoi Rejects Withdrawal

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31162, 12 September 1966, Page 13

Hanoi Rejects Withdrawal

(N Z. Press Association—Copyright) TOKYO, September 10. North Vietnam today rejected President Johnson’s offer to schedule a mutual withdrawal of forces from South Vietnam and denied recent press reports it had asked Russia to help bring the war to an end by peaceful means.

The rejection and denial were contained in two separate formal statements broadcast by Radio Hanoi. The first spurned the American offer to present a schedule for an American withdrawal if North Vietnam agreed to end the infiltration of troops into the south and to withdraw Communist forces already there. It denied there had been any infiltration. The second statement said: “Recently Jugoslavian and Western correspondents reported that the North Vietnamese Premier, Pham Van Dong, and Soviet leaders were discussing peaceful ways of solving the Vietnam problem. “The reports were contrary to the facts and the Vietnamese news agency was authorised today to issue this statement to make it clear that the reports were purely a false rumour, full of bad intentions.”