Hanoi Appeals To Americans

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31769, 28 August 1968, Page 17

Hanoi Appeals To Americans

(N.Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

PARIS, August 27.

Hanoi’s chief spokesman at the Paris peace talks (Mr Nguyen Thanh Le) has made a direct appeal to American public opinion to press for an end to the war.

In a statement coinciding with the Democratic Party’s national convention in Chicago, Mr Le attacked President Johnson’s policy and praised those American politicians opposed to it

He recalled that several public figures who had appeared before the party’s platform committee urged an end to the bombing of the North, recognition of the National Liberation Front (the political arm of the Viet Cong) and the withdrawal of United States troops. “All honest men, all the men attached to United States honour, oppose the Johnson Administration's present policy,” he said, rebutting President Johnson’s frequent assertion that he sought “peace with honour.” “It is certain that the American people, whose attachment to honour is well known, will demand of their present and future leaders a negotiated end to the war,” he said, asking whether the bombing of schools, churches and hospitals was consistent with honour. The North Vietnamese, he said, had never threatened American interests. Hanoi’s delegation to the talks today distributed the political programme of a new anti-Govemment alliance in South Vietnam. It closely resembles that of the Viet Cong, except for an offer to talk to the United States and an emphasis apparently aimed more at the middle classes. American officials described the new alliance of national, democratic and peace forces as a cover for the National Liberation Front, political arm of the Viet Cong. But some observers see it

as an attempt to establish a group which might be more acceptable to the United States in negotiations, and as a further stage in Communist plans for a national coalition to assume power in the South.