First Face-to-Face Peace Talks Begin

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31676, 11 May 1968, Page 13

First Face-to-Face Peace Talks Begin

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright)

PARIS, May 10.

United States and North Vietnamese negotiators will hold their first meeting in Paris in a few hours in what is generally expected to be a long and arduous search for peace in Vietnam.

Both the chief delegates, Mr W. Averell Harriman, of the United States, and Mr Xuan Thuy, of North Vietnam, made it clear on arrival yesterday that they would do their best, and the 76-year-old American negotiator told reporters there was no time limit to the long-sought talks.

Mr Harriman, who said he did not think he was hired to be a prophet, said his delegation was determined to stay for the duration whatever that might be.

The press statements of both the 55-year-old North Vietnamese poet-diplomat, Mr Thuy, and Mr Harriman, who has been the “trouble-shooter” for four American Presidents, expressed guarded hones, and Western diplomatic observers felt that Mr Thur’s statement was relatively mild in its

attacks on American “aggression” in Vietnam: that it was a repetition of Hanoi’s known negotiating position.

Mr Thuy reiterated Hanoi’s insistence that the Paris discussions must first be aimed ' at determining with the United States the uncondi-, tional cessation of American bombing raids and all other acts of war against the North. Then there should be talks on other problems. But the United States has made it repeatedly clear that ' it expects some indication of 1 Hanoi’s willingness to scale 1 down the war before Wash- i ington can contemplate the i total cessation of American air raids. Since March 31 the Ameri- ' can bombing has been limited ' to 22 per cent of North Viet- i namese territory—up to the I 20th Parallel Mr Harriman told reporters i last night that Communist in- ] filtration of men and supplies ]

into South Vietnam was among the subjects that would undoubtedly be considered.

Courtesy Calls The American delegation late last night was still awaiting word from the French Government of the precise arrangements for today’s confrontation between Mr Harriman and Mr Thuy. French sources say their first meeting is expected to be Held at about 2 a.m. New Zealand time at the International Conference Centre,

near the Arc de Triomphe, in the heart of Paris. Final plans are expected to be agreed only when Mr Harriman and Mr Thuy. a former North Vietnamese Foreign Minister, have paid separate courtesy calls this

morning on the French For- . eign Minister (Mr Maurice Couve de Murville). ' When they meet this after- . noon, Mr Harriman and Mr Thuy will sit on opposite sides of a simple rectangular hardwood table, 15 feet apart The otherwise austere meeting room is decorated with a Louis XIV Gobelin tapestry dating from 1669. It covers one whole wall and depicts one of the four elements, air, showing birds and swans in a natural setting. French security men will guard the Conference Centre, which was the Gestapo headquarters during the German occupation of Paris in the Second World War. A demonstration by students today will add to the problems facing the Paris police, already called on to

provide a massive security force for the peace talks. The French Govemtaent, as host, has been giving equal facilities and treatment to the two delegations, which will be left undisturbed in their historic task. Mr Couve de Murville, contrary to earlier reports, is not expected to be present at the start of the first meeting to welcome the delegates. President Johnson yesterday reaffirmed the pledge of the United States and its allies to withdraw all their troops from Vietnam within six months “after the war ends and the level of violence subsides”—an imprecise definition contained in the October, 1966, Manila support conference communique. North Vietnam, at the same time, is restating its demands for the complete withdrawal of American forces, to be followed by a political settlement based on the principles of the National Liberation Front, the political arm of the Viet Cong. The differences of the two sides, thus, have narrowed not one iota in 18 months, but the hope is that their desire to end the bloodshed may lead to some compromise.