Town retaken in Binh Dinh

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32975, 22 July 1972, Page 15

Town retaken in Binh Dinh

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

SAIGON, July 21.

South Vietnamese troops reoccupied Hoai Nhon town, Binh Dinh province, without a fight at midday today, military sources said.

The town was the first objective in a new front of the South’s counter-offensive to recapture territory wrested from Government control by Communist forces. Military sources said the forward assault troops of the Government force pushed across the Lai River bridge into the centre of the town and raised the Government flag at midday, after meeting virtually no resistance. Communist forces swept down from the jungled inland mountains in late April to capture Hoai Nhon and Hoai An towns in the central coastal province of Binh Dinh during an attempt to slice the country in two at its centre.

American sources reported last night that heavy concentrations of Communist troops had been detected moving west and north away from Hoai Nhon as a Government task force nearly 10,000 strong advanced on the town. Four waves of 852 bombers were called in against them by the United States command during the night. North Vietnam insisted yesterday that no cease-fire could be applied in Vietnam until agreement was reached on military and political aspects of the problem. Mr Xuan Thuy told the 151st session of the Vietnam peace conference that agreement on all political and

military questions should precede a cease-fire. “Only such a ceasefire can be lasting and really end the hostilities,” he added. The North’s unmoving stance indicated to observers that the new round of secret talks between President Nixon’s special envoy, Dr Henry Kissinger, and the Hanoi Politburo member, Mr Le Due Tho, failed to break the deadlock in the search for a negotiated settlement to the Vietnam war.

It was evident yesterday that the United States efforts to secure a cease-fire to permit discussion of a political settlement were being thwarted by North Vietnam. The crucial question has been and remains who shall rule in Saigon after the United States pulls out its troops from South Vietnam. The Viet Cong, backed by its Hanoi ally, is still pressing for a three-segment interim Government in Saigon, while President Thieu’s administration insists that the Viet Congsponsored National Liberation Front should take part in internationally-supervised elections to determine the future of South Vietnam. But observers believe that the American and North Vietnamese envoys involved in the secret talks would seek a way out of the present impasse by settling on a compromise somewhere between these two positions.