ALLIES REDUCE TET TRUCE

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31583, 22 January 1968, Page 11

ALLIES REDUCE TET TRUCE

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SAIGON, January 21. South Vietnam and her allies, in a tough stand, have decided to shorten the Tet Vietnamese lunar New Year ceasefire next week to 36 hours, making it the shortest allied Tet truce ever.

It lasted for 96 hours in 1967. The Foreign Ministry announced on December 15 that South Vietnam had decided “in principle” to observe a 48hour Tet truce, the Viet Cong having anounced one of seven daysThe South Vietnamese Prime Minister (Mr Nguyen Van Loc) announced the curtailed cease-fire in a memorandum yesterday to the Defence Ministry. Informed United States sources say the American concurrence came from the White House, the five other allies having also agreed. “It is in keeping with the principle that you give the enemy as little opportunity to infiltrate men and arms into South Vietnam as possible,” one Saigon observer said.

The toughened stand probably means that the United States does not intend to extend the pause in the bombing of North Vietnam beyond the 36 hour truce. Bombing pauses have always accompanied the holiday cease-fires, and on occasions have been extended beyond them. Various representatives, including the United Nations Secretary-General (U Thant) and a group of American clergymen and laymen who left South Vietnam yesterday, have urged an extended bombing pause to test Hanoi’s intentions about negotiations for peace. The abbreviated allied truce will run from 6 p.m. local time on January 29 to 6 a m. on January 31. The Viet Cong truce begins at 1 a.m. on January 27 and 1 ends at 1 a.m. on February 3.