Early peace hopes fade

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33064, 3 November 1972, Page 1

Early peace hopes fade

(N.Z.P.A.-Reilter —Copyright)

WASHINGTON, November 2. Hopes of a speedy end to the Vietnam war were fading today as Hanoi, Saigon and Washington kept up their manoeuvring on the draft cease-fire accord disclosed a week ago.

The North Vietnamese negotiator, Xuan Thuy, demanded in ah interview last night that the United States guarantee the terms of the nine-point draft agreement he helped to hammer out in a series of secret meetings with the White House aide, Dr Henry Kissinger.

Earlier, the South Vietnamese President, Nguyen Van Thieu, angrily denounced the agreement—disclosed by Hanoi last Thursday—as a sell-out,. widening his split with the United States.

And in Washington the Administration continued to insist that it would not be stampeded into signing a settlement that sowed the seeds of another war and denied the South Vietnamese people a chance to determine their future. Not travelling

Private contacts between Washington and Hanoi since the North Vietnamese set last Tuesday as the deadline for signing of the accord have not apparently raised hopes that a meeting to iron out remaining issues is imminent. Dr Kissinger has no travel

plans at least until this weekend.

Dr Kissinger said last Thursday that the six or seven issues could be negotiated at one final meeting but diplomats are now saying that two meetings are more likely, plus a trip to Saigon to relay the results to President Thieu. This would virtually rule out any agreement before the American Presidential election next Thursday. In a Paris interview with N.B.C. television, Xuan Thuy questioned American "seriousness” over the agreement and asked: “If each time it is agreed upon and then is changed again, how can the agreement be concluded and the war ended?” Troop withdrawal President Thieu’s denunciation of the draft agreement is aimed principally at the absence of any clause requiring the removal of 145,000 North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam. Although no withdrawal is specified observers believe that the United States is seeking a partial withdrawal —that of the 35,000 troops in the most northerly area of the country’. In Peking the Chinese Premier, Chou En-lai, said he; still hoped for early signing of the agreement; but he told British reporters that “the news is not so good” now that Hanoi’s October 31 deadline has passed.