Viet Cong Lists Conditions

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31177, 29 September 1966, Page 13

Viet Cong Lists Conditions

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) TOKYO, September 28. The chief of the Viet Cong today issued a new and shortened list of conditions for peace in Vietnam, United Press International reported.

Unlike previous lists it contained no demand for prior withdrawal of United States troops or for a settlement based exclusively on the Com-

munist political programme. It did call for eventual United States withdrawal. The new list of conditions was set forth by Nguyen Huu Tho, a lawyer who is president of the National Liberation Front, political arm of the Viet Cong. He made the statements in an interview with an Australian reporter.. Wilfred Burchett, on August 28. The interview was broadcast today by Radio Hanoi.

The new conditions may or may not represent new concessions to the United States, but they differed from the five conditions for a peaceful settlement issued by the National Liberation Front a year ago.

In reply to a direct question to outline the conditions for peace, Mr Tho replied: “The conditions for a real peace in South Vietnam and also the basis for the only correct political solution to the South Vietnam problem is: “1. The United States must end the aggressive war in South Vietnam, withdraw the troops and weapons of the United States and its satellites from South Vietnam, and dissolve all United States military bases there. “2. The United States must respect the national rights of the South Vietnamese people which are independence, democracy, peace and neutrality. The -internal affairs of South Vietnam must be settled by the South Vietnamese people themselves without foreign interference. The reunification of Vietnam must be decided by the neople in both zones of Vietnam. “3. The South Vietnam National Front for Liberation, the sole genuine representative of the South Vietnamese people, must have its decisive place and voice in any political solution concerning South Vietnam.”