NIXON STUDIES AID OPTIONS

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32336, 30 June 1970, Page 13

NIXON STUDIES AID OPTIONS

Cambodia Abandons Three Provinces (N Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SAN CLEMENTE (California), June 29. President Nixon called in the Secretary of State (Mr William Rogers) today for last-minute policyforming talks on how to help keep Cambodia from being completely overrun by Communist forces without committing ground troops. The discussions at the Western White House in San Clemente came as President Nixon was putting final touches to a written report on the United States thrust into Cambodia’s border areas which he is to issue tomorrow—the deadline set for the withdrawal of ail American troops used in the twomonth operation.

The decision of the Cambodian Government virtually to abandon three north-western provinces to Communist forces added a note of urgency to the President’s study of how to aid the Lon Nol regime after the United States withdrawal.

Mr Rogers arrived last night to hold a conference with the President before leaving for Asia for meetings with South-East Asian Treaty Organisation allies and envoys of countries contributing troops to the Vietnam war. He will also go to London before returning to Washington. Diplomatic observers assumed that Mr Nixon and Mr Rogers were reviewing plans to keep American ground forces out of Cambodia but to supply United States air support and troops from Thailand and South Vietnam in an attempt to break the Communists’ tightening grip

Nixon’s Emphasis But the emphasis in the Western White House is aimed at Indo-China, with the President ready to tell the American people on Tuesday that the lunge into Cambodia, far from widening United States involvement in the war, has helped him to pursue his troop withdrawal programme from Vietnam. Informed sources said that Mr Nixon would call for a new peace thrust with the hope that Hanoi and the Viet Cong would agree to end the deadlock at the Paris peace: talks.

There was press speculation that he might offer new proposals or name a top-level envoy to take over from a career diplomat, Mr Philip Habib, who has been in charge of the United States delegation in Paris since the resignation of Mr Henry Cabot Lodge last November. But diplomatic observers believed that the President would appoint a new negotiator only if he thought Hanoi was ready to move ahead—and the feeling appeared to be one of doubt that the Communists would act unless Washington accepted their demands for a total withdrawal from Vietnam. The White House press secretary (Mr Ronald Ziegler)

said that Mr Nixon had been working steadily on his Cambodian report and prepar-

ing himself for a full-scale foreign policy review he would give during a live televised interview on Wednesday night. After meeting Mr Rogers, the President planned to break away from Indo-China developments briefly for talks on European security problems with the Rumanian Foreign Minister (Mr Cornelius Manescu). Mr Manescu, a former president of the United Nations General Assembly, is in the United States to take part in ceremonies connected with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the world organisation. Tour By Rogers The Secretary of State (Mr Rogers) is making his Asian trip mainly to consult United States allies about the IndoChina war and ways to protect the sovereignty and neutrality of Cambodia after United States forces are withdrawn. He will attend a S.E.A.T.O. Ministerial conference in Manila on July 2 and 3, and will visit Saigon on July 4 to 6. While there he will confei

with President Nguyen Van Thieu and representatives of countries fighting in Vietnam.

In addition to the United States and South Vietnam, troop contributing countries are Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Rogers will visit Japan on July 8 and 9 to meet Japanese officials and to attend a conference of United States ambassadors in South-East Asia.

From Tokyo he will go to London on July 11 and 12 to confer with Mr Heath, the new British Prime Minister, whose Conservative Party ousted Mr Harold Wilson’s Labour Government from power in the June 18 General Election.

Early in the morning, the President accompanied Mrs Nixon to the nearby El Toro Marine air station to see her off on a mercy mission to earthquake-ravaged Peru. Back Hom e

General and Mrs de Gaulle have returned home after a three-week holiday in Spain. Colombey-Les-Deux-Eglises, France, June 29.