Reactions In Vietnam

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31989, 16 May 1969, Page 11

Reactions In Vietnam

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) SAIGON, May 15. Several South Vietnamese officials today privately welcomed President Nixon’s Vietnam peace proposals as a pledge of continued support for their country, N.Z.P.A.-Reuter reported.

Mr Nixon's address was broadcast live over the United States Armed Forces radio network.

Some politicians, however, expressed reservations about the proposed establishment of an international supervisory body to “verify” the troop withdrawals.

They pointed to the failure of a similar body, the International Control Commission comprising India, Poland and Canada, which was set up to supervise implementation of the 1954 Geneva Accords on Indo-China.

A journalist, Mr Thanh Thuong Hoang, secretarygeneral of the South Vietnamese Journalists' Union, asked: “How can anyone guarantee the withdrawal of all North Vietnamese troops from South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia? In the daytime they pretend to be farmers, but at night they are soldiers.” Mr Hoang said President Nixon had agreed that the National Liberation Front should take part in politics, but he had not asked them to throw away their weapons.

Some politicians had reservations about the President’s suggestion that a cease-fire should be followed by immediate elections. A staff colonel at South Vietnamese Army Headquarters reacted favourably. “Mr Nixon seems to understand the Communists better than President Johnson,” be said. Official reaction to Mr Nixon’s proposals was not expected, since they had been made with the approval of

President Nguyen Van Thieu, South Vietnamese sources said. The Associated Press said United States troops in the field appeared to feel that while Mr Nixon’s troops withdrawal proposal was good, the likelihood of its acceptance by the Hanoi Government was questionable. There was also scepticism that Nixon's policies would result in a genuine withdrawal by North Vietnamese forces.

A divisional officer called the speech “outstanding,” and a ranking officer at United States headquarters in Saigon expressed the hope that it would “either get the public behind him or at least silence some of the irresponsible bickering.” Few of those interviewed in a random sampling had specific criticism, although some expressed the view that any mutual troop withdrawal would be violated by the North Vietnamese at the first opportunity.