MORE PARIS TALKS DESPITE GLOOM

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33095, 9 December 1972, Page 15

MORE PARIS TALKS DESPITE GLOOM

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) PARIS, December 8. The United States negotiator, Dr Henry Kissinger, and the Hanoi envoy, Mr Le Due Tho, will meet once more for secret talks today despite dampening noises from the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong delegations to the Paris Peace conference.

The two men have been together for more than 14 hours this week in their battle for peace. Until yesterday, diplomatic sources had been cautiously optimistic about a cease-fire agreement being reached and one Paris paper forecast that it would be signed within 48 hours.

Then Mrs Nguyen Thi Binh, the Viet Cong delegate to the peace conference, threw cold water on the signature rumours by announcing before yesterday’s weekly session, "I regret to disappoint you.” The .Hanoi delegate, Mr Nguyen Minh Vy charged in a press statement that the South Vietnamese were engaged in the “odious task” of sabotaging the basic agreement reached between the United States and North Vietnam in October.

All this was a far cry from the secret Kissinger-Tho talks where the two men were seen to shake hands warmly after a four-hour meeting to hammer out peace details.

Observers noted the increasing ■warmth between them at their fourth meeting which began almost immediately after the 169th session of the peace conference had ended in a pessimistic mood. Today’s session of the peace conference highlighted what has become the main stumbling block to peace in Tndo-China—Saigon’s demand that Hanoi must withdraw all its troops in South Vietnam. The Saigon delegate, Mr Nguyen Xuan Phuong, went even further yesterday when he said that Hanoi must not only withdraw all its troops in South Vietnam but also those in Laos and Cambodia as well.

The Saigon delegation press spokesman said that no progress could be made towards peace until the Communists solved this problem. The South Vietnamese say that 300,000 Northern troops are still in the South. But, in contrast to the gloom on the part of the other three delegations, a United States spokesman said that an agreement would be reached “relatively soon.” In Saigon, South Vietnam’s Foreign Minister (Mr Tran Van Lam), says that the Saigon Government “would not refuse to do whatever can be done to' free the American prisoners of war,” and could

even agree to release politi- 1 cal prisoners in its gaols to < help bring about an accep- I table cease-fire accord. i Such a concession would l be significant if the South I Vietnamese empowered Dr > Kissinger to offer it in Paris I this week. i

Mr Lam made it clear in an interview yesterday that he was resigned to the emergence of an accord less than fully acceptable to his Government, but expressed hope that Dr Kissinger would succeed in negotiating some concessions from the North Vietnamese in the current round of talks. If the cease-fire agreement, now in draft form, were not substantially modified, he said, “it would be very difficult,” for Saigon to join in signing it But he did not rule that out or say that President Nguyen Van Thieu would refuse to give an accord his approval, indirectly, if not by signing. Mr Lam expressed personal sadness at the terms of the accord. “As it stands, it’s the end,” he said. “The Communists will pretend that the North Vietnamese troops are Viet Cong and they will be standing behind us, over our shoulders, and it would amount to delivering 17 million people over to communism.” Mr Lam said that the

Nixon Administration had indirectly and discreetly let the South Vietnamese know that it would be difficult to get the United States Congress to continue economic and military aid to Saigon if it baulked at a cease-fire agreement. But Mr Lam added that

President Thieu did not seek a rupture between the two countries. United States 852 bombers kept up their attacks on North Vietnamese troop concentrations around the northern battlefront at Quang Tri as Communist-initiated attacks stayed above 80 for a third successive day. The United States Military Command today reported 11 strikes by the eight-engined jets against North Vietnamese positions around Quang Tri city. South Vietnamese marines and airborne troops, making a drive to recapture North Vietnamese held territory towards the demilitarised zone, have been bogged down by bad weather and North Vietnamese artillery fire for over a week around Quang Tri. The command also reported six missions, involving up to 18 aircraft, against supply targets in North Vietnam. The South Vietnamese Military Command said that Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops had made 82 assaults. 70 of them shelling attacks, throughout South Vietnam in the last 24 hours.