NIXON NOT TO SIGN UNTIL ALL ISSUES RESOLVED

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33065, 4 November 1972, Page 1

NIXON NOT TO SIGN UNTIL ALL ISSUES RESOLVED

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, November 3. The draft agreement for an Indo-China settlement would not be signed until all remaining issues were resolved, said President Nixon last night, according to the New York Times News Service. Mr Nixon, in his first televised political broadcast of the election campaign, said that he was determined that “the central points be clearly settled, so that there will be no misunderstanding which could lead to a breakdown of the settlement and a resumption of the war.”

Repeating in essence w’hat his spokesmen have been saying for the last week, Mr Nixon said he was confident that the settlement would be achieved soon.

But, he emphasised, “we are not going to allow an election deadline or any other kind of deadline to force us into an agreement which would be only a temporary peace, not a lasting one.”

Final settlement of the nine-point draft agreement worked out with Hanoi last month has become a major

polemical issue, ever since Hanoi made public the terms of the accord last week and insisted that it be signed by October 31. “NOT DISENGAGEMENT” The Administration has asserted that another negotiating session was needed to put the accord into final form. Dr Henry Kissinger, Mr Nixon’s chief foreign policy adviser, has said he is ready to meet North Vietnamese officials whenever they set the date to resolve questions and ambiguities which have arisen.

It was learned earlier yesterday that Mr Nixon has told recent visitors that they should not view the projected Indo-China settlement as an American disengagement from that part of the world. South Vietnam, which stands to lose the most from an American military withdrawal as contemplated by the draft agreement, has complicated the negotiations by raising its own objections.

Referring both to Hanoi’s insistence on a prompt signing without further discussion, and to Saigon’s efforts to block a signing, Mr Nixon said in his broadcast:

“We are going to sign the agreement when the agreement is right, not one day before—and when the agreement is right, we are going to sign, without one day’s delay.” In his paid political address, which lasted half an hour, Mr Nixon compared his careful efforts to work out an unambiguous agreement and

the bombing halt announced by the Administration of President Johnson one week before election day in 1968. He said the Johnson Administration “rushed into it

just before an election without pinning down the details.” PEOPLE WATCHING

People all round the world would be watching the results of next Tuesday’s election, and “the leaders in Hanoi will be watching,” President Nixon said. “They will be watching for the answer of the American people; for your answer, to this question: shall we have peace with honour or peace with surrender?” In conversations in recent days with the Prime Minister of Laos (Prince Souvanna Phouma) and others, Mr Nixon has emphasised that he will seek to continue American economic and other assistance to Laos, Cambodia, and South Vietnam because he believes it is important to maintain nonCommunist governments in South-East Asia.

United Press International reported that United States negotiators to the Paris peace conference, saying they believed peace was near, again have asked for one more private negotiating session—but the Communists insisted it was not necessary, and that they would Washington and Hanoi. Mr Nixon, in his television speech, said that history had shown him that agreements did not hold up unless there was “a clear understanding” by the parties involved of all details in them, U.P.I. said. Before taping the speech, Mr Nixon met Dr Kissinger for 40 minutes.