U.S. ‘forces pace' on both sides

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33106, 22 December 1972, Page 11

U.S. ‘forces pace' on both sides

GV .2.P. A.-Reuter— Copyright)

WASHINGTON, December 21. President Nixon may be ready to increase economic pressure on Saigon, as well as military pressure on Hanoi, to force the pace towards a final peace in Vietnam, according to reports in Washington.

But the Presidential press spokesman had no comment on reports from Saigon that Mr Nixon had asked both South and North Vietnam to make concessions for a settlement.

The speculation coincides with massive bombing of North Vietnam. with repercussions at the Paris peace talks, and talk of a rift between the President and his advisers. The Republican leader in the Senate, Senator Hugh Scott, said yesterday that Mr Nixon knew “it wifi be next to impossible to get any funds, military or economic, for the Thieu Government unless something is worked out.” Senator Scott, who spoke to reporters after talks with Dr Henry Kissinger, Mr Nixon's special negotiator, said Hanoi would also have problems in obtaining United States money for post-war reconstruction unless concessions were made. “I don’t think North Viet-i nam would want to cut itself off from the possibility of money for restoration," he said. His statement added to speculation that the Nixon Administration had been threatening to cut off aid!

(from the Thieu Government I unless concessions were ' made. Divergent views There has been some published speculation—denied by the White House—that President Nixon is unhappy with Dr Kissinger for failing to come up with an airtight agreement after Kissinger

said on October 26 that “peace is at hand.” Administration figures have leaked the view of American officials in Paris that they believed earlier this month that White House pressure

(should be placed on Saigon rather than on Hanoi. Dr Kissinger appears much less inclined than his master to allow the opinions of Saigon to influence United States tactics. Analysts note that last Saturday Dr Kissinger constantly quoted the President in outlining the United States position. During his “peace is at hand” press conference on October 26 he made only passing reference to the President when setting out how matters stood. Meanwhile, Mr Nixon seems ready to ride out a storm of protest at home and abroad over the resumption of massive United States bombing throughout North Vietnam. There have been expressions of alarm from Pope Paul, the United Nations Secretary-General, members of the United States Congress and from Communist countries, including China and the Soviet Union. President Nixon, apparently confident that the air offensive would not have lasting international repercussions, left Washington last night to spend Christmas in Florida. He was accompanied by Dr Kissinger. They will be joined by General Alexander Haig, Dr Kissinger’s deputy at the secret talks with the North Vietnamese.

The general has been holding urgent talks with Government leaders in South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.

Paris walk-out Hanoi has put off, until further notice, peace meetings m Paris between North Vietnamese and American technical experts, because of "the extremely serious present situation provoked by the United States.” Although both sides said that the regular weekly meeting of the four-sided semipublic peace talks would go ahead on schedule today, the Communist delegations walked out, protesting against the bombing. The chief Viet Cong delegate to the talks, Madame Binh, left for home yesterday to seek new instructions on the deteriorating situation. She flew first to Moscow, to attend celebrations of the Soviet Union’s fiftieth anniversary, and will also stop in Peking and Hanoi on her way back to “somewhere in South Vietnam.”