Appointment Welcomed

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31880, 7 January 1969, Page 11

Appointment Welcomed

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) | PARIS, Jan. 6. I South Vietnamese sources in Paris have welcomed the appointment of Mr Henry Cabot Lodge, the United States Ambassador to West Germany, as the new chief of the United States negotiating team at the Vietnam peace talks under the Administration of President Nixon. They regard Mr Lodge as “a hardliner, who will not sell Saigon short.” Mr Lawrence Walsh, a former deputy United States Attorney-General, has been appointed deputy negotiator, [replacing Mr Cyrus Vance.

North Vietnamese and Viet] Cong spokesmen have made no .comment on the appoint-] ments, but the Communists have said repeatedly it makes no difference who heads the American team, because they believe time is on their side. Diplomatic sources say it will be many months before the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong delegations estab, lish the working relations with Mr Lodge that have existed with the outgoing American team, headed by Mr Averell Harriman. Mr Lodge, who is 66, has twice served as United States] Ambassador to South Viet-] nam. President-elect Nixon's lat-| est diplomatic appointments indicate a continuity of the present American policy in Vietnam. But his choice of Mr Lodge as his chief peace negotiator must be balanced against his earlier choice of

“Mr Henry Kissinger, a clear > advocate of disengagement, • as his national security affairs ([adviser. ;! In any event, it is Mr Nixon, ■ not Mr Lodge who will be - calling the tune at the Paris . negotiating table if the pat- . tern of the administration of ; President Johnson continues. ; Mr Lodge, who is still in West Germany, said in a ! statement released by Mr J Nixon’s New York headquart- ; ers yesterday that he re-| I garded a settlement of the; Vietnam conflict as being of supreme importance. ' A satisfactory outcome to ’ the Paris talks required “a • precise perception and recog-] nition of the vital interests! -lof all concerned,” he said. > He added: “The meetings ! underway in Paris offer ai i hopeful forum for the defini- • tion of the interests of all • parties involved, and for the! I design of agreements to meet ' those interests." |