Kissinger in Saigon

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33051, 19 October 1972, Page 17

Kissinger in Saigon

(N.Z.P. A. -Reuter — Copyright)

SAIGON, October 18. President Nixon’s special adviser, Dr Henry Kissinger, has arrived in Saigon from Paris, further stimulating the already strong speculation that a Vietnam peace settlement may not be far away.

American officials in Saigon, say that Dr Kissinger* is expected to meet President Thieu tomorrow, but they have given no other details. General Creighton Abrams, the former American military commander in Vietnam who is now Army Chief of Staff, arrived in Saigon from Washington this morning, “to assess the battlefield situation." The presence in the South Vietnamese capital of Mr Nixon’s principal diplomatic and military advisers has naturally increased speculation that some form of agreement with the North Vietnamese is close, and Washington reports hint that an election-eve settlement is possibly being worked out—with terms not fully in accord with President Thieu’s wishes. In several public statements recently, during the surge in the secret peace

negotiations in Paris, Mr Thieu denounced the idea of a tripartite government, as suggested by the Communists, and warned other Powers against trying to impose a settlement on South Vietnam. Diplomatic sources say that he is obviously worried about the nature of a possible United States-North Vietnamese agreement to end the war. Since last Thursday, Mr Thieu’s own envoys at the peace talks, and officials in Washington, have been briefing him on the latest moves in the negotiations, and yesterday his Cabinet and the National Security Council were again in session under his chairmanship. Dr Kissinger flew to Saigon direct from Paris, where he had had more talks with Mr Xuan Thuy, Hanoi’s principal peace negotiator. The White House describes Dr Kissinger’s latest visit to Saigon as a regular consultation. General Abrams is in Vietnam to report on Mr Nixon’s Vietnamisation policy of withdrawing American troops and handing over the fighting to the South Vietnamese, according to United States officials in Saigon. The general was met at Tan Son Nhut Airport by the United States Ambassador (Mr Ellsworth Bunker) and the United States military commander in Vietnam, General Frederick Weyand.