KREMLIN COOL TO U.S. PEACE BID

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31645, 3 April 1968, Page 15

KREMLIN COOL TO U.S. PEACE BID

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) MOSCOW, April 2. The Kremlin has reacted coolly and with deep suspicion to President Johnson’s limited halt to the bombing of North Vietnam and his decision not to stand for re-election.

The official Soviet news agency, Tass, transmitted a fourpage report under a Washington dateline and headed “Johnson is Manoeuvring,” which said the President had refused to order a full halt to the bombing and, by announcing troop reinforcements for South Vietnam, had made it clear he intended to escalate United States aggression.

“As before, his refusal to stop the bombing completely ignores the lawful demands of the D.R.V. (North Vietnam Government) and all the world for a full and unconditional halt to the bombing and all other acts of war against the Vietnamese people,” the Tass report said.

Political observers in Moscow question whether the Kremlin would have reacted so sharply without prior consultations with Hanoi. But some feel there has not been enough time for anything like full consultations with the North Vietnamese.

Of President Johnson’s announcement that he would not seek renomination for this year’s Presidential elections, Tass asked: “Does he mean it?” It went on: “It is so far difficult to say whether this step is a public recognition of the failure of the Vietnamese policy or a pre-elec-tion manoeuvre. There have been cases in the history of political campaigning when challengers refused to advance their own candidacy and subsequently re-entered the struggle for election with intensified energy.” The coolness of the Soviet reaction did not augur well for Britain’s announced intention today to persuade Moscow to join it in new Vietnam peace moves. The Soviet Government, while formally maintaining

its position as co-chairman with Britain of the 1954 Geneva Conference on Peace in Indo-China, has consistently refused to join Britain in sponsoring Vietnam peace talks.

It holds that a settlement Is the responsibility of Washington and Hanoi alone. From London, the Associated Press says the British Foreign Secretary (Mr Michael Stewart) will report to his Cabinet amid gathering gloom that initial British feelers with Moscow about the new peace bid have failed. Mr Stewart told the Soviet Ambassador (Mr Mikhail Smirnovsky) in a 45-minute meeting last night that he was ready to fly to Moscow for talks with the Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Andrei Gromyko), but Mr Smirnovsky told reporters later he regarded President Johnson's limitation of the bombing of North Vietnam as “incomplete and not unconditiopal.”

While there was still no official reply from Hanoi, British officials privately feared that the North Vietnamese would demand at least an unconditional bombing ban. Mr Stewart admitted in a 8.8. C. television interview that his approaches to Russia had yielded no immediate results. But he added: “This move will not have been wasted. It will prove in time to be part of the process that, in the end, will get peace.”

Wilson Move In another British peace move, the Prime Minister (Mr Harold Wilson) has sent a

personal message to Soviet Prime Minister

Alexei Kosygin), who is visit-' ing Iran. No response has so far been received. While Mr Wilson’s Government warmly welcomed Mr Johnson’s peace move, some British officials fear the President may have made a major tactical blunder by suggesting to Hanoi that he now wanted peace at virtually any price. It is felt that instead of being hastened to the peace table, the Communist leaders in Hanoi will not budge an inch and may even escalate the war on their side.

Some British political analysts say the Communists are almost certain to keep the war going, anyway, until a new United States President is elected.

“Grave For West” The Opposition spokesman on foreign affairs (Sir Alec Douglas-Home) is understood to have told a meeting of the Shadow Cabinet last night that President Johnson's move could be seen as a grave development for the West. Political sources say he made the point that the announcement came at a time when Hanoi might think it had achieved a victory, and that the prospects for a peace settlement could therefore be even less than before. Conservative leaders were also said to be baffled by President Johnson’s decision not to stand for re-election They took the view that it left the West without strong leadership during d vital period, and also seemed to undermine the position of the American commanders in South Vietnam In Tokyo, the Japanese For-

the eign Minister (Mr Takeo (MrMiki) called on Britain and

Russia to make good use of their positions as Geneva cochairmen in an attempt to reach a settlement. The Japanese Cabinet had discussed whether Japan should now follow a more flexible foreign policy in Asia, a spokesman said later. Some Ministers noted that the decision to seek peace in Vietnam brought the China problem into sharper focus, but the Prime Minister (Mr Eisaku Sato) had declared that there was no need for a change in Japanese policy, and that Japan would continue to seek peace and security in Asia on the basis of friendship with the United Stages. There would be no change in the friendly relations between Japan and'the United States, no matter who was the next President, Mr Sato told the Cabinet. In Rome, the Italian Foreign Minister (Mr Amintbre Fanfani) met the United States and Soviet Charge d’Affaires in separate talks. Later, official sources said “There is ground to believe that the Italian Foreign Ministry, which has long-estab lished contacts with the parties concerned, is workinr to define and use for the pur pose, of peace in Vietnam the elements offered by the speech of President Johnson." “Out Of Question” North Vietnamese sources in Peking have branded President Johnson’s new peace overture as “out of the question” as a basis for solv ing the Vietnam crisis, accord ing to the Peking correspond ence of the Japanese news agency, Kyodo. His sources described theii view as "informal”, but added that it was the feeling of the Vietnamese people. President Johnson had failed to comply with Hanoi’s four conditions, and the Viet Cong’s five conditions for peace, the sources said. And the Peking correspon dent of the Japanese daily newspaper, “Asahi,” reported that most informed sources in the Chinese capital saw no possibility at all of the Viet nam issue being resolved with out the withdrawal of United States troops from Vietnam They considered that the battle in South Vietnam would intensify, rather than become reduced. In view o< the announced American nlans to send more troops to Vietnam and add to war ex penditure, the correspondent said.

There was, however, con cem in Peking that the Soviet Union might bring pressure to bear on North Vietnam in order to get peace talks started.