RADIO - TV
DEFENSE DIALOG

RADIO TV REPORTS INC. WASH., D.C., SUMMARIES NOT TO BE QUOTED.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1972 (BROADCASTS OF OCT 23)

PART I

SUMMARY OF NETWORK NEWS IN THIS ISSUE

WALTER CRONKITE, CBS: Worldwide optimism and rumors of an impending cease fire and ensuing settlement of the VN War are flying higher than Henry Kissinger's plane enroute from Saigon to Washington tonight, but the realities of the NVNese capital are more down to earth. FOSTER DAVIS, CBS: President Thieu and Henry Kissinger have reached almost complete agreement on a cease fire plan to be offered the NVNese, according to usually realiable palace sources. But that agreement, we are told, is in principle and four major difficulties remain.

JOHN CHANCELLOR, NBC: In a Paris suburb the NVNese and the VC took a pessimistic line on the chances for a settlement. Bernard Kaplan thinks this hard line may involve a threat. The threat may be that if President Thieu blocks an agreement for too long, the NVNese may decide not to agree with a settlement. BERNARD KAPLAN, NBC: It's worth noting that the NVNese put the blame for lack of agreement so far, not on SVN's President Thieu, but on President Nixon. This doesn't seem to be a mere propaganda exercise nor an attempt to cover up what's really been going on. More likely there's a practical reason behind this relative pessimism that the NVNese have been showing here. It seems to be a warning that no further concessions to appease President Thieu will be considered. RICHARD VALERIANI, NBC: Sources said the White House is not putting a great deal of pressure on Thieu to accept the coalition, and they made clear there will be no effort to dump Thieu. Nevertheless, the sources described the meetings between Thieu and Kissinger as not notably harmonious.

HARRY REASONER, ABC: There are continuing reports that a cease fire may be near in the VN War. The rumors have it that it could come into effect around the time of the US presidential election on November 7. JIM GIGGANS, ABC: Henry Kissinger arrived at Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Airport, showing none of the fatigue of long negotiations. TED KOPPEL, ABC: As one high-ranking NVNese told me, you must understand how the events of the past few days look to the SVNese people. No one has any illusions about why Mr. Kissinger and Generals Haig and Abrams came to Saigon. They came to twist arms.

CHANCELLOR, NBC: Enemy troops reoccupied a hamlet 15 miles north of Saigon. In the air war the US Command reported that American jets shot down three NVNese Migs west of Hanoi, eight days ago. Navy abandons Frisbie tests after $375,000.

HOWARD K. SMITH, ABC: American war planes launched their heaviest attacks in the area around Saigon in almost two months. Thirteen waves of B-52s hit suspected communist positions 25 miles from Saigon, rattling windows in the capital.

CRONKITE, CBS: NATO has taken a cautious first step toward mutual East-West troop cuts. NATO Ambassadors agreed to participate in preliminary talks with the Soviet block next month in Helsinki. At the UN the Soviet Union made a strong bid for convening a worldwide disarmament conference in 1974, but the US rejected the proposal. ERIC SEVAREID, CBS: Compares aspects of VN War and Revolutionary War.

JEFF WILLIAMS, CBS: Even in VN where GIs, black and white, faced a common enemy, racial tensions ran deep. To counter what blacks considered widespread racism, they formed a variety of organizations in the service, De Mau Mau was one of them.

NELSON BENTON, CBS: Michael McClear is in Tokyo after leaving Hanoi this weekend. Last night he filed this assessment to CTV. MICHAEL McCLEAR, CTV: The scenario I got in Hanoi is this. An early peace treaty is now more likely than not, but not until after the US presidential election. (Comprehensive report by McClear)

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PART I

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS NBC-TV 6:30 OCT 23

Kissinger Arrives in Washington

JOHN CHANCELLOR: Henry Kissinger, the President's negotiator, arrived back in Washington tonight after five days of talks in Saigon.

American sources in Saigon and Washington are saying that while there was progress in the talks Kissinger had with SVN's President Thieu, there has been no agreement on how to move toward a settlement of the war, or to a cease fire.

It looks as though Thieu has rejected all temporary peace formulas.

The NVNese and the VC said today that while the conditions for a settlement are at hand, the basic problems have not been settled so far.

The Saigon newspaper controlled by President Thieu and the radio and television stations controlled by him are sticking to the line that a coalition including the communists is unacceptable.

Thieu himself hasn't been seen.

Our correspondent in Saigon, Tom Streithorst, thinks that is in itself significant.

Here is a report from Streithorst beamed to us today on the Pacific satellite.

TOM STREITHORST: Journalists in Saigon have got a rule of thumb about SVN's President Thieu. When the news is good he's relatively accessible for interviews.

When the new is so-so, he likes to have his pictures taken but answers no questions.

When the news is bad he goes into a shell and becomes completely incommunicado.

In the five days that Henry Kissinger was in Saigon, reporters did not see President Thieu once. He did not want to be seen, and especially he did not want to be seen with Henry Kissinger. He also did not show up at the airport to say goodbye to President Nixon's national security advisor.

Mostly, it was Americans saying goodbye to other Americans.

There's now little question that Henry Kissinger's mission here basically was to put the muscle on President Thieu to get him to accept the tripartite peace solution.

Thieu resisted. He's always argued that a coalition with the communists would lead to a communist takeover.

What remains now is to see how long and how hard Thieu will continue to resist.

Still, Kissinger kept on smiling. Asked by a reporter if his trip was productive, Kissinger replied, "It always is when I come here."

Tom Streithorst, NBC News, Saigon.

NVNese and VC Take Hard Line

CHANCELLOR: In a Paris suburb today the NVNese and the VC took a pessimistic line on the chances for a settlement.

Our correspondent in Paris, Bernard Kaplan thinks this hard line may involve a threat. The threat may be that if President Thieu blocks an agreement for too long, the NVNese may decide not to agree with a settlement.

Here now are two more reports on this story.

The first from Kaplan sent by the Atlantic satellite today.

BERNARD KAPLAN: NVN's peace delegation here today continued its recent role as the deflator of hope that peace is about to be declared.

In a curt communique, NVN said the VNese problem has not been resolved.

This was an obvious reference to the argument over the composition of a postwar government in Saigon.

It's worth noting that the NVNese put the blame for lack of agreement so far, not on SVN's President Thieu, but on President Nixon. This doesn't seem to be a mere propaganda exercise nor an attempt to cover up what's really been going on. More likely there's a practical reason behind this relative pessimism that the NVNese have been showing here. It seems to be a warning that no further concessions to appease President Thieu will be considered, and that Hanoi will blame the US alone if Thieu refuses to accept the cease fire terms reportedly negotiated here by Henry Kissinger.

Some observers see in the NVNese words, an implied threat that if Thieu holds out too long the whole deal may be thrown into jeopardy.

Bernard Kaplan, NBC News.

2 Tuesday, October 24, 1972

PART I

RICHARD VALERIANI: Usually reliable administration sources say the reports of an agreement between Washington and Hanoi are not correct.

They acknowledge that the private peace talks in Paris have produced the basic outlines of a settlement, but, they said, a lot of pieces still have to fall into place before it becomes a reality.

The Administration feels that NVN is now waging an intensive propaganda campaign in an effort to focus on President Thieu as the sole remaining obstacle to peace. But, they said, the situation is much more complex than that. However, they decline to elaborate.

The sources said the White House is not putting a great deal of pressure on Thieu to accept the coaliion, and they made clear there will be no effort to dump Thieu.

Nevertheless, the sources described the meetings between Thieu and Kissinger as not notably harmonious. That seems to suggest that Thieu remains unwilling to make any concessions in the political area.

The sources also indicated there probably will not be a cease fire in VN until a political solution is virtually nailed down. And at this point, they said, it's impossible to forecast when that might be.

Richard Valeriani, NBC News, at the White House.

CHANCELLOR: What Valeriani learned at the White House and what Bernard Kaplan learned in Paris, is that both NVN and the US are saying pretty much the same thing, that the elements of a settlement are there but that no agreement no settlement has yet been made.

Despite this other people are taking a more optimistic line.

The Russians are giving a lot of prominence to a Tass report from Paris which says that all the conditions now exist for a speedy settlement.

And the Premier of Laos, Souvannabhouma, said today, he expects some form of cease fire by the end of the month.

## A Touch of Politics At Arlington

CHANCELLOR: Veterans Day was observed today around the country with parades and memorial services.

In New York anti-war demonstrators were present at an American Legion parade and three of them were arrested.

In Washington a ceremony was held at Arlington National Cemetery, and this year there was a touch of politics in it.

JOHN COCHRAN: Veterans Administrator Donald Johnson was the President's stand-in for the traditional wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknown.

When the war ends a VN Veteran will probably be buried here alongside the Unknowns from both WVs and Korea.

In the nearby amphitheatre flags were distributed and waved in honor of all veterans.

President Nixon in an unusual recorded message, as he did in two other speeches in the past week, the President took a political swipe at draft evaders and their supporters.

PRESIDENT NIXON: At a time when a small minority has tried to make heroes of the few who have refused to serve, it is more important than ever that we honor the example of the millions of men and women who have loyally stood by their country.

Speaking for the American people, I say today that the vast majority of us have never been prouder of our country's nearly 29 million veterans whether they are the survivors of WWI or the outstanding young men who have served in VN.

To all of them I say that our respect has never been stronger, nor our gratitude greater than on this Veterans' Day 1972.

SINGER: This is my country. Land of my birth.

John Cochran, NBC News, Arlington National Cemetery.

## Enemy Reoccupies Hamlet Near Saigon

CHANCELLOR: In VN today enemy troops reoccupied a hamlet 15 miles north of Saigon.

## Navy Tests Frisbies For Four Years

CHANCELLOR: The latest in the saga of the Defense Department and

3 Tuesday, October 24, 1972

PART I

the advancement of American science.

Four years ago the Navy got interested in a scheme to put flares in the air using a gyroscopically stabilized disc. That's what the Navy called it. The rest of us call it Frisbie.

The Navy tested Frisbies for four years, hurling them off cliffs and using them in wind tunnels, and in the end the Frisbie project was abandoned.

The cost: $375,000.

ABC EVENING NEWS ABC-TV 7 PM OCT 23

Cease Fire May Come Into Effect
Around Presidential Election Time

HARRY REASONER: There are continuing reports that a cease fire may be near in the VN War. The rumors have it that it could come into effect around the time of the US presidential election on November 7.

President Nixon's chief foreign policy advisor, Henry Kissinger, has been negotiating with both VNs on a settlement, and today he ended five days of talk with President Nguyen Van Thieu of SVN.

We have a report from ABC's Jim Giggans in Saigon.

JIM GIGGANS: Henry Kissinger arrived at Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Airport, showing none of the fatigue of long negotiations. He smiled and joked and patted his stomach for his VNese host, as if to say he had too much good VNese food.

US Ambassador to VN Ellsworth Bunker was at Kissinger's side as were other top Embassy and Presidential Palace officials. Everyone was all smiles, but there was not a word as to the progress of negotiations.

For this trip, at least, Henry Kissinger's long days and nights of negotiations in Saigon are over. But now the world's waiting in anticipation begin in earnest. For despite the progress reportedly made here, a definitive peace settlement has yet to be written.

Just how much progress did Henry Kissinger make with President Thieu? That's the question being pondered here by much of the American Embassy and indeed by most of SVN.

Informed sources who were close to the Kissinger-Thieu meetings, say

the President found the North's latest proposals more palatable than he's letting on.

Reportedly, one of these proposals includes a parliamentary form of government for SVN, with elections from hamlet level all the way up to those who would serve in parliament.

Parliament would then choose a prime minister.

In another proposal, relayed by Kissinger to Thieu, the North reportedly insisted on a cease fire tied to a three-party government in the South, one part anti-communist, one part VC and the other neutral.

It's this last form of coalition that is reportedly the most unacceptable to the President.

Jim Giggans, ABC News, Saigon.

HOWARD K. SMITH: That issue of a coalition government may well develop into the crucial sticking point in efforts to arrive at an overall settlement in VN.

ABC diplomatic correspondent Ted Koppel reports that prospects that President Thieu will change his mind on that point are not good.

TED KOPPEL: If the issue of a coalition government were not so closely tied to every other aspect of a potential settlement, President Thieu's opposition might not be so critical.

But it is precisely on this point that Thieu reserves his most veheMENT objections.

As one high-ranking VNese told me, you must understand how the events of the past few days look to the VNese people. No one has any illusions about why Mr. Kissinger and Generals Haig and Abrams came to Saigon. They came to twist arms.

If President Thieu agrees to a coalition government, even one in which he heads the Saigon faction, he will have lost all credibility with the VNese people. He will, my source concluded, look like nothing more than an American puppet.

At this point, there is no evidence to suggest that President Thieu is willing to take on that role, and as long as he continues to adamantly oppose any kind of coalition government, the rumors of a VN settlement seem to reflect more a condition of wishful thinking than political reality.

This is Ted Koppel ABC News, at

4 Tuesday, October 24, 1972

PART I

the State Department.

US Planes Attack Near Saigon

SMITH: In VN today, American war planes launched their heaviest attacks in the area around Saigon in almost two months.

Communist troops captured the village of Phu Hoa Dong, 15 miles north of Saigon for the second time in a week.

The government said an attempt to push the communists out again was repulsed with light government casualties.

US Fighters Down Three NVNese Migs

SMITH: The US Command disclosed that American fighters downed three NVNese Mig 21s near Hanoi October the 15th.

The report was delayed, a spokesman said, until the kills could be confirmed.

CBS EVENING NEWS CBS-TV 7 PM OCT 23

Peace Rumors Fly High

WALTER CRONKITE: World wide optimism and rumors of an impending cease fire and ensuing settlement of the VN War are flying higher than Henry Kissinger's plane, enroute from Saigon to Washington tonight, but the realities of the SVNese capital are more down to earth.

FOSTER DAVIS: President Thieu and Henry Kissinger have reached almost complete agreement on a cease fire plan to be offered the NVNese, according to usually reliable palace sources. But that agreement, we're told, is in principle and four major difficulties remain.

First, coalition government. We are told that Mr. Kissinger wants Thieu to accept some form of coalition government with the communists. Thieu has refused. Kissinger asked Thieu to consider a coalition committee. Thieu replied, what's the difference.

Second, the aftermath of a cease

fire. Thieu's soldiers along the northern front struggle continually to choke off communist war supplies brought into SVN. Thieu is convinced those supplies would continue to flow south after a cease fire. He wants a written White House guarantee that his arms flow would continue also. Without it, he argues, SVN is lost.

Third, Thieu wants the NVNese to withdraw entirely from SVN. He told Kissinger in the five days of talks that if the NVNese do not pull out of SVN before a cease fire, Washington is tacitly recognizing that SVN is part of NVN.

Finally, VNization. Life for the people in the streets and in the market depends heavily upon American bullets and dollars. Thieu reminded Kissinger of Nixon's public pledge not to abandon an ally.

If the Nixon Administration will not continue economic and military aid indefinitely, argued Thieu, cease fire or no cease fire, it will in fact have abandoned an ally.

We are told Thieu asked Kissinger if Nixon still stands by that pledge, and that Kissinger avoided answering.

As Kissinger prepared to leave VN, Thieu was said to be conceding nothing on these points, aware that SVN just might have to go it alone, that the US could conceivably cut off aid, and that the SVNese would run through their two-week stockpile of bullets very quickly.

It is the last throw of the dice for President Thieu.

But Kissinger is also under heavy pressure to produce results. At one point in the talks, informants told us, Kissinger said to Thieu, "I have succeeded in China, in Moscow, in Paris. How can I fail in Saigon?"

Foster Davis, CBS News, Saigon.

CRONKITE: In Paris Premier Souvannah Phouma of Laos predicted announcement of a cease fire in IC before the end of the month, but he cautions that a real peace would take longer to work out.

The Prince is due in Washington Wednesday for talks with State Department officials.

Communist delegates to the Paris Peace Talks were less than enthusiastic about all the talk of peace.

In the words of a VC spokesman, "Rumors and rumors, bombs and bombs. So far the basic problems have not been solved."

5 Tuesday, October 24, 1972

PART I

NATO Takes Step For Troop Cuts

CRONKITE: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has taken a cautious first step toward mutual East-West troop cuts.

NATO Ambassadors agreed today to participate in preliminary talks with the Soviet block next month in Helsinki.

Should all go well, a full security conference would be held next summer.

Soviets Bid For Worldwide

Disarmament Conference

CRONKITE: At the UN today the Soviet Union made a strong bid for convening a worldwide disarmament conference in 1974, but the US rejected the proposal, Ambassador George Bush saying that such a large unwieldy gathering could do more harm than good.

Anger Among Returning Black Veterans

CRONKITE: Last week in Chicago, nine members of a black group called the Mau Mau were arrested and charged with the murder of nine whites. The murders and the fact that some of the accused are VN Veterans, once again has focused attention on the special quality of anger among returning black veterans.

JEFF WILLIAMS: Even in VN where Gls, black and white, faced a common enemy, racial tensions ran deep.

To counter what blacks considered widespread racism, they formed a variety of organizations in the service. The Mau Mau was one of them.

Blacks in these groups argue that they pulled their share or more of combat duty. The feeling grew that while blacks were welcome to help fight an American war, they were not welcome in the American society.

Blacks, once again in their ghetto considered themselves a forgotten people, unless they were involved in violence. And then they say white fingers began pointing.

Fingers began pointing here in Chicago after nine blacks were arrested and charged in connection with the execution style murders of nine whites, including seven in two separate families.

Police said those arrested belong

De Mau Mau, that loose organization which includes black veterans. But despite widespread assumption that all were veterans, only four of the nine had been in the service.

Claims by police that those arrested were racist oriented and sought their white victims at random sent a shudder through Chicago's white suburbs.

Defense lawyer Richard Halpern rejected many notions about De Mau Mau.

RICHARD HALPERN: There has been no evidence of a worldwide, nationwide or even statewide organization that is dedicated to the purposes of killing white people. The existence of any such organization isn't even a fact yet, and assuming that it is, what is it -- is something that perhaps should be the subject of some sort of an inquiry, a reasoned inquiry in which we get facts and not headlines about the 3000 or alleged 3000 membership ring going around slaughtering white people.

If you're looking to start a race war, I suggest that you keep it up, and that's precisely what you may have in this kind of situation.

WILLIAMS: One of the deepest resentments among returning veterans black, white, De Mau Mau, anybody, is the difficulty in getting a job. Some of the frustration exploded at a job fair held last May here in Chicago.

Veterans largely demolished the fair on grounds there weren't any real jobs available, that it was just an establishment put-on.

Black vets said jobs were available only to those with the highest education and the right social background.

De Mau Mau members were seen at the trashing, but there was no evidence they organized it.

BLACK VETERAN: I have a lot of trouble finding a job because I've been in the war. I got all these medals showing that I've been a fighter, killed innocent people, come back here to get a (unintelligible). I've got to walk around here with (unintelligible) got a bomb. I need a job immediately.

WILLIAMS: Jobs are scarce for all veterans, but worse for the

6 Tuesday, October 24, 1972

PART I

black vet. In 1971 the national unemployment figure averaged 5.9 percent, 8.3 percent of white VN Vets were jobless, compared to 13.7 percent for black vets.

**SAM CAMPBELL:** With the black vet most employers are white. You constantly see a white face turning you down. All doors seem to be shutting in front of you. This builds up a hatred inside of you that if rationally thought about, you shouldn't hate say the white man, but if it's not rationally thought about this can lead to violence.

**WILLIAMS:** This year the situation improved for white vets but worsened for blacks. Between July and September 5.7 percent of white vets were unemployed, but the jobless rate among black vets rose to 14.5 percent.

If a black vet is released from service with an other than honorable discharge his employment chances are virtually nil.

Some blacks claim that with a professional army in the making, blacks are quietly being eased out of the service.

US Army figures show that between July 1970 and July '71, five percent of black discharges were other than honorable. By July this year that figure had jumped three times to 16.5 percent.

Further the NAACP presented figures to the Black Congressional Caucus claiming that fully 45 percent of black discharges from all services are other than honorable.

The Defense Department says it's investigating these figures.

The frustration and bitterness that's evident among thousands of black vets who return expecting the best, finding the worst. The ghetto pool halls are filled with angry young blacks.

**BLACK VET:** When I went to the hospital I had a job when I left, and when I came back to the job they gave me the worst job they had to do because the man figures, when you leave and go to VN when you come back you are a junkie. They figure you're on dope and you're not good for nothing. That's what the man figures when you -- you be on the street if you're driving or you're walking, the man -- police stops you and they tell you to get on the wall and they search you. They ask you, have you

ever been in the service. You tell them yes. They ask you if you've been in Nam. You tell them yes, you're automatically a pusher.

**WILLIAMS:** The frustration and rage among black veterans who have no job, and nowhere to turn, is increasing. Perhaps their anger was summed up by a young man who said, "We don't want to rip off the whites, we want jobs, we want our dignity." Jeff Williams, CBS News, Chicago.

## Analysis of Veterans Day

**ERIC SEVAREID:** It is Veterans Day once again.

War is the one thing most Americans want to think about last. They only hope numbly day to day.

This present war has lasted longer than the fighting in the American Revolution. Only in its secondary characteristics does VN resemble the war between George III and Washington.

But if one looks at the American Revolution from the British perspective, those characteristics are striking.

The British generals like American generals now went out and returned and were elevated.

What has the American war produced asked Edmund Burke, but peerages and calamity. Victories gave us hope, he said, defeats made us desperate and both instigated us to go on.

Four years after Lexington and Concord, Horace Walpole lamented, "Everything has miscarried that has been undertaken and the worse we succeed the more is writ, yet the nation is not angry."

The British people, too, just hoped day to day, benumbed and helpless. Then the end came with a climactic decisive battle.

If the end is now near in VN it is not coming that way. No glorious victory for one side, ignominious defeat for the other.

It has been from the beginning an exercise in stalemate and it will end in stalemate.

All wars must end sometime, and this one apparently is just petering out. Not so strange, after all, it petered in.

If there is now a negotiated cease fire all sides are going to make it sound like some kind of victory for them.

7 Tuesday, October 24, 1972

PART I

The speeches and communiques announcing cease fire, if indeed one is coming, will be most skillfully crafted. It will be called peace with honor, and that will be a dishonoring of the word, honor.

There is no honor left save for brave enduring individuals, so many of whom have done heroic things however unsung.

After all these years of the frightful slaughter of innocents along with competence, there is no honor left for any government concerned.

In this context honor has to be translated. It means government face-saving, no more.

This kind of outcome is alien to the American experience and spirit. It is painfully hard to accept, especially for all those who themselves fought well and honorably.

But this is one of the pains that has always gone with world power. When a big power makes a big mistake, it cannot avoid paying a big price, unless it chooses to lie to itself, perhaps the worst mistake of all.

## CBS MORNING NEWS CBS-TV 7 AM OCT 23

### McClear's Assessment of Peace Talks

NELSON BENTON: Michael McClear, a correspondent for the independent CTV Canadian Network, is in Tokyo after leaving Hanoi this weekend.

MICHAEL McCLEAR: The scenario I got in Hanoi is this.

An early peace treaty is now more likely than not, but not until after the US presidential election. And there's two reasons for this.

The first and most important is that Washington, to quote Hanoi only two days ago, shows no positive signs of wanting to settle right now. Impecably, because of Washington's alleged hesitation, Hanoi has become highly suspicious that any pre-election agreement might prove shortlived.

It's not that Hanoi thinks Nixon might lose, indeed the leadership is convinced Nixon will win, but it badly wants reassurance that the tentative peace package isn't election acrobatics, to quote Prime Minister Pham Van Dong. Therefore, until

Nixon is reelected his intentions and his peace terms remain under question, as Hanoi sees it.

To quote the NVNese Premier again, if the talks are intended for any other purpose it will be incredible.

Such a blunt remark, and it was said on record, reflects very real doubt. And such remarks clearly indicate that Washington has either rejected or is avoiding a pre-election deal, which Hanoi wanted, because as a Central Committee Member said to me, after the election, Nixon would have four more years in which to negotiate.

So, there's still considerable distrust, and about the only way it will be resolved, the only way a pre-election settlement now seems possible is for the US to dictate the terms to Saigon's President Thieu.

Thieu's opposition is still the major difficulty, though not in Hanoi's opinion. For Hanoi's simplified position is that if a servant disobeys the master has only to stop his salary.

Hanoi for its part feels it has compromised a great deal. It no longer insists that President Thieu has to go. He can remain as leader of the Saigon faction in the coalition also comprising communists and neutralists.

Thus Thieu has to agree, I was told, as a condition of the settlement or he has to go, and Hanoi right now seems to believe it will be the latter. Thieu, said Premier Pham Van Dong, is out of date, for him perhaps and he expects Thieu will soon disappear.

Either way, in Hanoi's view, there is a peace package if the US wants to tie it up. Then the military and political aspects, once held to be inseparable, could be separated. That would mean an immediate cease fire and bombing halt followed by at least a part release of prisoners. Then elections next year, arranged by the coalition, to choose a government of national union.

Evidently international supervision isn't in the deal, or isn't yet agreed to, nor is a reunification of VN in the timetable. But extensive US war reparations, disguised as economic aid, is included, and this shows that much of the fine detail is being settled in principle. ****

8 Tuesday, October 24, 1972

RUMORS ON TRUCE
PERSIST-Continued

ership, but would probably be
forced out of office eventually.
The result of this government
would be establishment of an
independent, neutral govern-
ment.

Mr. Thieu has on many occa-
sions—and he reportedly re-
peated it to Mr. Kissinger last
week—rejected any sharing of
power with the Vietcong. He
has, however, apparently ex-
pressed willingness to enter
into a cease-fire that would be
properly policed and that would
extend to Laos and Cambodia.

U.S. Position Unclear

The current American posi-
tion is unclear because of the
refusal of the Administration to
allow its spokesmen to make
any comments on Vietnam in
recent weeks.

But in the past, Mr. Nixon
has pressed for two points that
were included in the Hanoi
"package": a cease-fire as the
first step, and allowing the
South Vietnamese to choose
their own government, without
a Communist government be-
ing "imposed."

Thus, experts on Vietnam in
the State Department, while
uninformed on the actual nego-
tiations, have speculated that
Mr. Kissinger had found the
latest Hanoi terms acceptable
in many respects, and was sent
by Mr. Nixon to Saigon to per-
suade Mr. Thieu to show more
flexibility in his attitude toward
a final Vietnam settlement.

What is not known is
whether Mr. Kissinger was told
to threaten Mr. Thieu with an
end to American aid, or any
other extreme measure, such as
a threat to end American
bombing. Those familiar with
Mr. Nixon in the Administra-
tion said they doubted that he
would permit Mr. Thieu to be
so humiliated.

Thieu Seen Adamant

Thus, there was a tendency
among State Department offi-
cials to speculate that Mr. Kiss-
inger was returning to Wash-
ington without having obtained
Mr. Thieu's agreement to the
political elements in the North
Vietnamese plan.

The North Vietnamese, mean-
while, have taken advantage of
the secrecy imposed by Wash-
ington to begin a well-coordinated
propaganda campaign to
gain popular support in the
United States and to bring ad-
ditional pressure on Mr. Thieu.

Mr. Dong seemed unusually
conciliatory in his interview
with his Government, had
done everything "humanly pos-
sible" to reach a settlement.
The implication of his remarks
was that it was up to Wash-
ington and Saigon, particularly
Saigon, to make concessions.

This point was made more
explicit today by the North
Vietnamese and Vietcong del-
egations in Paris. Both issued
statements that said "All de-
pends on Nixon" and that the
remarks of Mr. Thieu "makes

THE NEW YORK TIMES 24 OCTOBER 1972 P-3
Hanoi Said to See Difficult Talks Ahead

PEKING, Oct. 23 (Agence
France-Presse) — Prince Noro-
mon Sihanouk, the deposed
head of state of Cambodia, said
here today that Le Duc Tho had
told him a week ago that "the
most difficult and delicate"
part of the Vietnam peace talks
still remained to be held.

US ADMITS BOMB HIT
FRENCH OFFICE-Cont'd
lating rules are needed, he
said, and there was no evi-
dence that the pilots mistook
the French property for a le-
gitimate target.

If it is thought militarily
necessary to strike the rail
yard and transshipment point
across the Red River from the
French property again, he
said, "We will do so."

He said the airplane that did
the damage—both F-4 Phan-
toms and A-7 Crusaders were
involved in the strike—had not
been identified.

The explanation accepted as
most plausible by airmen and
others questioned is that there
was a "hung bomb" on one of
the Navy planes as they pulled
away from their targets and
prepared to fly back, over
Hanoi, to the Midway. A hung
bomb is one that has not re-
leased properly from the plane
on the intended target. It can
shake loose and veer off on its
own course as the plane pulls
up and away.

Mr. Friedheim said the Pen-
tagon's conclusions were based
on aerial photography, pilot in-
terviews and "other sources"
not identified.

us doubt that peace is immi-
nent."

It is assumed in Washington
that Mr. Nixon must decide
how much pressure to apply to
Mr. Thieu in Saigon, if in
fact, only his opposition is
blocking an agreement.

What is not known is
whether in private, Mr. Thieu
has been more conciliatory in
his attitude toward the Viet-
cong than his spokesmen have
been in public. It is also not
known whether the North
Vietnamese in private have
expressed any interest in
divesting the political aspects
of a settlement from the mili-
tary ones.

In other words, would Hanoi,
lacking a political accord with
Mr. Thieu, be willing to imple-
ment a cease-fire with the
United States and South Viet-
nam, allowing the United States
to withdraw its forces and
reorbey its prisoners, without
its being assured of a change
in the political alignment in
Saigon?

One-fifth of "the road toward
negotiated peace in Vietnam"
is still to be traversed, Mr. Tho,
a member of the North Viet-
namek Politburo, was quoted
as having said.

Mr. Tho spoke with the
Prince during a stopover on his
way home from four days of
private talks with Henry A.
Kissinger in Paris. The stopover
came just before President Nix-
on's national security adviser
arrived in Saigon for five days
of meetings with President
Nguyen Van Thieu of South
Vietnam.

Prince Sihanouk declared in
an interview that Mr. Tho had
said that he expected to con-
tinue his conversations with
Mr. Kissinger but that he would
be "intransient" on the North
Vietnamese demand for a three-
part interim coalition in Saigon
and for recognition of the ex-
istence of "two armies" in the
South. The reason, Mr. Tho
was said to have explained, was
to avoid falling into "the trap
of elections controlled by
Thieu's police machinery."

According to the Prince,
agreement appears to have been
reached on the principle of in-
national control of a cease-fire,
with the details still to be set-
tled.

The Prince quoted Mr. Tho
as having told him that the
North Vietnamese Government
had softened its position on
the future of President Thieu
"in order to achieve peace that
permits reconstruction of Viet-
nam."

But Hanoi's "flexibility,"
Prince Sihanouk said, merely
concerns "points of detail," and
there has been a change in its
"fundamental position" regard-
ing Mr. Thieu. That has been
that the South Vietnamese Pres-
ident must give up his seat of
power.

Prince Sihanouk said he had
been told that if the political

discussions failed, the Viet-
namese Communist forces were
"absolutely prepared to launch
a terrible offensive during the
dry season now about to start."

He also said it was "quite
possible" that Mr. Kissinger
might go to Hanoi and Peking
in the coming days. But the
Prince added that thus far he
had received "no indication"
from Chinese authorities of any
such development.

He also said Mr. Tho had
reiterated to Kissinger in
Paris and to Premier Chou En-
lai here in Peking that the
Cambodian problem could be
settled only with Prince
Sihanouk.

The Prince, who left Cambo-
dia after he had been deposed
by Lon Nol in March, 1970, said
that in the event of an early
cease-fire in Vietnam and Laos,
he would be able to return to
what he described as the liber-
ated zone of his country to
head his resistance fighters.

He indicated that he thought
this might be before Christmas.

The Prince said that a cease-
fire in Vietnam and Laos would
not automatically mean the end
of the fighting in Cambodia he-
cause "we are not ruled by
Hanoi and the North Viet-
namese are not empowered to
negotiate in our name."

The Prince said several times
that he would refuse any cease-
fire that "would permit the
traitors in Phnom Penh to sur-
vive."

He said that if he returned,
he would play the "very con-
stitutional" role of head of
state and "will leave the reins
free to the resisters and the
Red Khmers" in accordance
with the promise he made to
them.

"The power is yours," he said
he had promised. "Even if you
are left wing, you are above all
Cambodians."

WASHINGTON POST 24 OCTOBER 1972 P-16

Communists Retake
Hamlet Near Saigon

From News Dispatches

Communist troops recaptured the hamlet of Phuhao-
dong 15 miles north of Saigon on Monday for the second
time in a week, military sources said in Saigon. The ham-
let is one in a string around the Saigon perimeter that
has been under Communist attack since Oct. 5.

In other action in South Vietnam, Communist troops
launched new attacks in the central highlands and coastal
provinces, cutting the main highway between Kontum and
Pleiku and tying down South Vietnamese troops in three
mountain provinces, the South Vietnamese command re-
ported Monday.

The U.S. command reported that between Sunday morn-
ing and dawn Monday 60 B-52 fighter-bombers struck sus-
panted Communist troop concentrations within 25 miles of
Saigon, in the heaviest air strikes by U.S. planes in the
area since Aug. 27.

In a delayed report, the U.S. command said three of
four attacking North Vietnamese M11-21s were downed by
American F-4 Phantoms near Hanoi on Oct. 15 in one of
the biggest aerial battles of the war.

In Cambodia, meanwhile, a heavy 107 mm rocket struck
near the Cambodian army general staff headquarters re-
porting Phnom Penh on Monday, killing two civilians and wound-
ing about 10 persons.

3

EDITORIALS

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER - 24 OCTOBER 1972

BALTIMORE SUN
24 OCTOBER 1972

## Peace Is a
Regional Question

As peace negotiations between the United States and North Vietnam move from the stage of sensitivity toward decision, American diplomats are confronted with delicate missions in Saigon, Vientiane, Phnom Penh and Bangkok. Governments dependent on American military and economic support exist in all four capitals. Their concern over the arrangements being worked out between Hanoi and Washington reflects not only the dimensions of the U.S. overinvolvement in Southeast Asia but the difficulties of trying to disengage. The responsibilities we have incurred were unwise, but they are real and they must be reconciled with the overwhelming desire in this country to be rid of the whole tragic mess. We have deep obligations to help rebuild a region we have helped to destroy. We have political debts, too, especially to peoples who have suffered from our follies, to try to make the transition to comparative peace something less of a nightmare than war itself has been.

These considerations present a common backdrop for diplomatic arrangements that will have to be fashioned to reflect the different situations in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In Saigon, Henry A. Kissinger reportedly has learned that President Thieu's instinct for self-preservation is currently an even greater obstacle to a settlement than Hanoi's terms, which have softened considerably in recent weeks. It is likely Mr. Kissinger heard similar noises in Phnom Penh, where the U.S.-supported regime of Lon Nol has weakened steadily in the face of pressure from the Khmer Rouge movement. However, the civil war in Cambodia is not quite as entrenched a phenomenon as it is in Vietnam and the prospect of negotiations is to be welcomed. Neighboring Laos has long been an unwilling hostage to the bigger war in Vietnam. Now its rival leaders are preparing to make their country a willing hostage to an Indo-China peace settlement. Prince Souvanna Phouma, head of the

## The gap narrows in Vietnam,
but it is time, not distance

If we boil down everything that has been said and written in the last few days about Vietnam, a heady essence rises from the pot: An end to large-scale war seems more probable than at any time in 10 years or so.

If that essence turns to substance, it will be cause for unreserved jubilation. The whys, the hows and the whos will be rightly passed over, for a time, in favor of celebrating a merciful if dreadfully overdue event. Relief will be found for Americans, bloodied, sacrificed and internally torn by a war of elusive meaning. It will be greater for the people of Indochina, all of them, whose lives, lands and fundamental existences have been blighted by endless conflict.

We are tempted, as is natural enough for everyone, to seek the judgments now that only can be made long hence in the full perspective of history and in full knowledge of the facts of the negotiations and internal processes in Washington, Hanoi, Saigon, Paris and elsewhere.

We shall put that temptation aside, to turn to a pair of immediacies. It is easy to lose sight of both in the present mood. Yet they are important.

Foremost is that for all the encouraging signs, the whole thing can fall flat. More than once, the Johnson Administration seemed almost as close as now to "honorable settlement." Time and again wise and patient men, both inside the principal parties to the war and outside, have sensed the nearing of peace.

That hope has never become reality, for a single reason. Call it the gap. The gap separates the most conciliatory positions ever taken, at any given time, by an American administration and by the government in Hanoi. It has been often narrowed, and seems today to be narrower than ever before — but so far it has never been bridged.

"neutralist" government in Vientiane, has described himself as encouraged by the first negotiations in eight years with the Pathet Lao movement headed by his half-brother, Prince Souphanouvong. A deft American touch is needed here to bring peace and recovery to an exhausted, disrupted country.

In Thailand, the military regime has reason to be concerned by Washington-Hanoi negotiations even though the Communist insurgency is not strong enough to gain a coalition government arrangement.

That is the second immediacy: What is the gap today? What does it mean to American interests?

The Nixon Administration's position appears to be that the United States cannot agree to terms which will quickly lead to Hanoi's taking over effective control of South Vietnam, that the U.S. will not "abandon" President Thieu, in the sense of actively destroying the foundations of what passes for a national administration in Saigon.

The North Vietnamese position appears to be that it cannot agree to terms which will permanently prohibit an alliance of its own agents and what it regards as indigenous nationalists in South Vietnam from exercising significant influence against what it views as an American puppet regime.

Ultimately then, we believe that the gap is a matter of time, not distance. The question to be solved if the present negotiations are to bear the fruit of cease-fire is one of how long — not whether — the Thieu regime is to remain propped up. It is a question of transition from the present state of two externally supported fictitious "democracies" to an internal dispute — or balance.

There is one lesson to be found in the last 10 years, indeed from the last 25, in Indochina. Neither the United States nor France nor any other outside force can resolve that dispute or achieve that balance.

Because of the moments of big-power politics, the Vietnamese themselves have never really had a try at doing it themselves, by themselves.

There is no knowing what, if they had that chance, it would yield. But we believe it is more the business — by far — of the Vietnamese to find out than it is of the United States or Hanoi's sponsors.

Since the U.S. began to draw down its land forces in South Vietnam, Thailand has become the base for more and more U.S. Air Force personnel. Thus, the U.S. involvement in Thailand has been growing despite the Nixon Doctrine espousal of a lower American profile in Asia. If there is to be a settlement, Bangkok and Washington officials should try to begin a disengagement process before the United States again is entrapped in another Asian war.

1-E

LOS ANGELES TIMES - 24 OCTOBER 1972

Cheating on Military Pensions

The Pentagon is now conducting a special study of the military retirement system, with particular attention to payments for alleged service-connect-ed disabilities granted officers when they leave the service. The investigation is another outgrowth of the case involving Maj. Gen. John D. Lavelle, who was demoted and retired from the Air Force for conducting unauthorized bombing raids against North Vietnam.

A Senate committee that looked into the Lavelle case was surprised to learn that the general was declared 70% disabled by a medical rating board when he left the service. That entitled him to receive most of his pension tax-free. In fact, Lavelle will pay taxes on less than $2,000 of his $25,000 pension.

What prompted the senators to question the extent of Lavelle's disability were records showing that, up until the month before his retirement, Lavelle was still receiving flight pay for piloting aircraft a specified number of hours a month. If he was well enough to bear the stress and responsibili-

ty of flying, some senators wondered, how could he truly be 70% disabled?

It subsequently came out that nearly 80% of the Air Force officers who have retired with alleged physical disabilities within the last eight years were on flight status within six months of their retirement. There are indications that a large number of Army and Navy officers also are found by examining boards to be in curiously poor health when they leave the service, ratings that entitle them to special pension rights. The suspicion grew that the disability pension system is perhaps being abused by the services in a clubby sort of way to provide added and unmerited benefits for ranking retirees.

It is not the necessity or legitimacy of fairly awarded disability pensions that is being questioned, but the possibility that the system in some cases is being manipulated for favoritism, that medical boards are being overgenerous in granting serious disability ratings. If this is the case, then it is a matter of corruption—fairly petty, perhaps, but corruption nonetheless—and it should be stopped.

Movement Toward a Cease-Fire

The delicate balance may yet be upset, but everything now points to an early agreement on a cease-fire for Indochina.

It will not be a simple matter to implement whatever is agreed to in the negotiations. The venn of the struggle will not be easily dissipated. But there will be a receptivity to peace born of the terrible weariness with the war.

Nothing is neat and clear. Nothing resembles the dreams that once inspired policy planners in Hanoi and Washington. Vietnam remains divided not only between north and south but, within the south itself, between Communists and non-Communists. Cambodia also is divided, Communists controlling the east, Marshal Lon Nol the west. And in Laos there remains a three-way division of power so that central rule depends on a formula of covert American intervention and overt Communist restraint.

At the center of the negotiations is Henry Kissinger, President Nixon's national security adviser. His prolonged meetings with the North Vietnamese in Paris have now led to prolonged meetings with the South Vietnamese in Saigon and a short contact with the Cambodians in Phnom Penh. If we know anything of these conversations, it is what others have said and done, for the principals have maintained a secrecy that in itself encourages the impression of progress.

There seems to be movement. Prime Minister Pham Van Dong of North Vietnam, in an interview

in Newsweek, indicated a softening of the terms. Hanoi is ready for a cease-fire, and now is willing to leave political details to subsequent negotiations between the Viet Cong and Saigon officials, he suggested. And he appeared willing to allow the return of American prisoners even before the American troops have left.

Kissinger himself, so the Saigon leaks suggest, has come around to accepting what had for so long appeared unacceptable—a coalition government in Saigon with the Communists as one of three elements. There were contradictions, however, in reports that the Americans were also constructing guarantees against a Communist takeover, something that almost certainly would involve more promise than performance.

The final irony of this futile quarter-century may be that the government of South Vietnam, created by the United States to fight what became an American war, may block an American peace. President Nguyen Van Thieu can hardly be expected to enter enthusiastically into any plan in which he appears the odd man out. Americans contrived the destruction of their own creation in South Vietnam once before, that time in the name of war. It can reasonably be argued that the interests of a cease-fire take priority over the interests of a political power.

But the most persuasive argument for a cease-fire is the awful evident futility of continuing the fighting even for another day.

2-E

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

21 OCTOBER 1972 (24)

The too long war

In one sense Pierre Susini is just one more human life claimed in the longest war the human race has suffered in over 300 years. No one can say how many have been swallowed up. Is the total toll now around a million? What is one more, or one fewer? No one except his nearest kin would have noticed the passing of Pierre Susini had he been another Vietnamese, northern or southern.

He happened to be the chief diplomatic representative of the Republic of France in Hanoi. He happened to have been injured fatally during an air attack by American bombers on targets in and around Hanoi on Oct. 11. Whether his legislation was hit directly by an American bomb or indirectly by an antiaircraft object fired at an American bomber is unimportant. [The Pentagon admits it was an American bomb.] His mission building was wrecked and his life taken in an American bombing attack on Hanoi — and so made headline news everywhere in the world and particularly in Western Europe whose future relationship to the United States is vital to stability in the world.

That bombing attack now stands out as a classic example of how dangerous weapons are. The bombers sent against Hanoi were of course supposed to help the United States and injure its presumed enemies. Oct. 11 goes down in the books now as a day when American bombers served the "enemies" to the serious disadvantage of the United States.

It is also just one more reminder of something we have all known for a long time now. This war has gone on too long. If there ever was any reason behind it, that reason has long since been washed away by the tides of history. It began in 1946 when the French insisted on trying to regain colonial control over Indonesia. It has been going on ever since. It has caused more human misery and more concentrated loss of human life over a longer time than anything since the Thirty Years War (1618-1648).

We are profoundly thankful that as we write this Henry Kissinger is in conversations in Saigon which appear to mean that the final terms for a settlement of this too long war are at last being worked out. We of course hope that before this issue of this newspaper can reach its readers Mr. Kissinger's efforts will have been successful. He is, we understand, reaching for an interim truce including a cease-fire in place.

Obviously, no compromise formula is going to be entirely satisfactory to anyone, except to the plain people whose lives will be spared. For their sake, and humanity's, we hope Mr. Kissinger soon succeeds. And let us all help him by recognizing that any reasonable compromise would be better than more of this too, too long war.

NEW YORK POST - 20 OCTOBER 1972 (24)

Protective Reaction on the Home Front

From time to time, in the interest of sparing itself embarrassment, the U. S. government has felt obliged to issue a "cover story," but there is a special quality to the variation offered yesterday by Secretary of Defense Laird. It seems to be a story calculated to cover everything, including its own inconsistencies.

Laird notified Chairman Stennis (D-Miss.) of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which had been investigating the Lavelle case involving "unauthorized" bombing of North Vietnam, that a new inspector-general program was being activated. This command system, the Secretary claimed, would probably have detected the Lavelle raids.

In other words, the Secretary appeared to be responding to the committee's requests for information as to how civilian control of the military was being reassessed. Then, however, he declared: "My analysis indicates that the operational reporting system, from the standpoint of timeliness, format, content and procedures, is adequate."

The meaning of that, if there is one, seems to be that there is no real problem to worry about and that the Administration has nevertheless devised a wise and prudent solution to it. It seems doubtful that the more informed members of the committee will be deterred in their inquiries by this form of political protective reaction.

BALTIMORE SUN - 23 OCTOBER 1972 (24)

Lessons from the Lavelle Case

Defense Secretary Laird is to be commended for strengthening the inspector general system as a safeguard against the defiance of orders by operational commanders in time of war. Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on former Gen. John D. Lavelle's unauthorized and falsely reported air raids over North Vietnam last winter demonstrated that a tightening in the lines of authority and control was well overdue. As a result of this inquiry, the Pentagon has taken the kind of action that had been recommended to no avail by one of its own blue ribbon commissions in 1970. The department now is willing to concede that General Lavelle's transgressions might have been detected more promptly had independent inspectors been reporting directly to Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, then head of the Saigon command and currently the new Army chief of staff. Instead, operational and inspection authority was fused (a bad practice on any count) in a chain of reporting that bypassed General Abrams. The result was a breakdown of military control of the military.

Secretary Laird contends that because General Abrams and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were not implicated in the unauthorized air raids there was "no evidence of a breakdown in or a threat to civilian control of the military." This is a fine point, perhaps a correct point, but it will not satisfy Senate critics who are worried deeply over the

dangers inherent in a top officer's defiance of the rules of engagement. Nor are the critics likely to be convinced that improvements in the inspector general system and tighter controls on the flow of reports and orders obviate the need for the kind of "thorough and professional inquiry" recommended by Senator John C. Stennis, chairman of the Armed Services committee.

Regardless of his own reaction to Mr. Laird's measures, the committee chairman is going to be under heavy pressure to dig further into the conduct of the air war over Vietnam. Thanks to the efforts of Senator Harold Hughes, illegal raids by the Air Force have been exposed but the public still has grounds for asking if sufficient disciplinary measures have been taken and if Navy raids over North Vietnam have been adequately investigated. Mr. Laird has taken the position that a special inquiry is unnecessary, that he has the investigative machinery to deal with the problems raised by the Lavelle case. This is hardly a surprising judgment, coming as it does from a department that habitually turns protective when it feels heat from Capitol Hill. But Mr. Laird would be well advised to think again. A visible display in the Pentagon of a zeal for self-examination during the three-month congressional hiatus could lighten the burdens Mr. Laird will be passing on to his successor in January.

3-E

FEATURES COLUMNISTS

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR 24 OCTOBER 1972

Hanoi envoys say peace far off

By Takashi Oka
Staff correspondent of
The Christian Science Monitor

Paris

Hard on the heels of reports from Washington, Saigon, and Hanoi of an imminent ceasefire in Vietnam, the North Vietnamese delegation to the Paris peace talks has put out a statement accusing the United States of prolonging and intensifying the war and asking whether the Nixon administration "really desires serious negotiations or is it indulging in maneuvers aimed at deceiving public opinion?"

Diplomatic sources here believe that while Washington and Hanoi are in fact at a delicate and possibly climactic stage in their long negotiations to end the Vietnam conflict, the key question of power in South Vietnam and the allied question of what to do about North Vietnamese troops in the South remain to be solved.

Premier's statement

It is noted here that North Vietnamese Premier Pham Van Dong did not unambiguously promise a cease-fire first, followed by a political settlement, in his interview with Newsweek released Sunday.

The proposal was put in the form of a question by Newsweek senior editor Arnaud de Borchgrave.

"What about the idea of two administrations in the South — the National Liberation Front's and Saigon's — each administering the areas under its control, a ceasefire, American military withdrawal, and direct negotiations between the two principal Vietnamese adversaries?" Mr. de Borchgrave asked.

"Yes," answered Mr. Dong, "here I can say something useful. All your questions reflect the present evolution. One must accept that there are two administrations each in control of their own zones. It's an undeniable fact. Everyone must respect this state of affairs."

Question pursued

"Then a cease-fire followed by American withdrawal will take place first and then direct negotiations between the Provisional Revolutionary Government and the Saigon regime?" pursued Mr. de Borchgrave.

"This is the present evolution," Mr. Dong repeated, "and it is a positive one. The situation will then be two armies and two administrations in the South and given that new situation they will have to work out their own arrangements that will promote democracy and speed national concord in the South because without this there will be no peace. Now is the time for both sides to dare and forge ahead."

Nowhere in the interview did Mr. Dong suggest that the withdrawal of North Vietnamese troops from the South was contemplated. Nor did he say that North Vietnam had withdrawn its demand for the removal of South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu. He merely commented that "Thieu has been overtaken by events."

Demands, not pact

These facts, combined with the North Vietnamese blast here against the Nixon

Thieu rallying Saigon
against U.S. peace bid

By Daniel Southerland
Staff correspondent of
The Christian Science Monitor

Saigon

South Vietnamese President Thieu has intensified his efforts to rally political support, apparently in order to oppose American moves toward compromise with Hanoi.

Mr. Thieu invited 40-odd key senators and deputies to the presidential palace Thursday night to ask their support in opposing the Communist proposal for a tri-partite government. Opposition deputies refused to attend.

Mr. Thieu's attempt to get the South Vietnamese National Assembly behind him reminded some observers of the moves he made after the bombing halt of 1968 when he initially refused to send a delegation to the Paris peace talks.

Secret talks continue

In the meantime, secrecy continued to shroud Mr. Thieu's talks with U.S. presidential adviser Henry A. Kissinger. But the length of the talks — 8½ hours in only two days — indicated that the American negotiator is having difficulty getting Mr. Thieu to agree to the U.S. approaches to a compromise with the North Vietnamese.

Mr. Thieu and his government have indicated as much through repeated reminders in progovernment newspapers that "the South Vietnamese are determined to decide their own fate" without outside interference.

These reminders may be partly intended to reassure members of the South Vietnamese armed forces and to encourage them to keep fighting. Analysts here say that all the rumors of a possible peace settlement and an imminent cease-fire are causing many South Vietnamese units to be much less aggressive than usual.

As one analyst put it, "If a cease-fire is just around the corner, who wants to be the last man to die in this war?"

administration, have suggested to observers here that Mr. Dong's statements reflect continuing North Vietnamese demands rather than an agreement all but signed and sealed.

The scenario for peace, therefore, as contemplated by Hanoi, would include the following:

A standstill cease-fire between the United States and Saigon on the one hand, and Hanoi and the Viet Cong on the other. The Viet Cong army, which today is largely North Vietnamese, would remain in place — a formidable

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

1-F

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

24 OCTOBER 1972

Washington
hopeful on
cease-fire

By Dana Adams Schmidt
Staff correspondent of
The Christian Science Monitor

Washington

With Henry Kissinger's return to Washington from Saigon indications are mounting that a cease-fire in Vietnam — possibly also in Laos and Cambodia — is closer.

Although President Thieu's personal position remains veiled, South Vietnamese officials say that he has asked them to make plans for a cease-fire.

Statements made in Hanoi indicate, meanwhile, that the North Vietnamese have backed down from an earlier demand that a political settlement precede the cease-fire.

Obstacles ahead

While a cease-fire in which there is no continuous front but scattered islands of Communists and Saigon government forces, presents difficult problems, the feeling here is that these can undoubtedly be overcome. Few here who have studied the war for the past few years, however, are optimistic about how the situation will develop after a cease-fire.

(The Monitor's Vietnam correspondent, Daniel Southerland, reports that "major difficulties still seem to remain in the way of a settlement." He cables that Saigon foreign ministry officials say a cease-fire is unlikely before the American election.)

The real obstacles to settlement remain the differences over the shape of the interim political regime that would precede elections and Mr. Thieu's role in that regime.

The impression in Washington is that President Nixon, who has hitherto insisted on upholding Mr. Thieu personally, has in effect said to him through Mr. Kissinger the following:

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

RADIO - TV
DEFENSE DIALOG

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1972

(BROADCASTS OF OCTOBER 20 and 21)

PART
II

JOHN CHANCELLOR, NBC-TV, Howard SMITH, ABC-TV, and Walter CRONKITE, CBS-TV, all reported that Henry KISSINGER met again with officials in Saigon to talk about the peace proposal that supposedly was tentatively agreed upon between the US and Hanoi. There is much speculation on what the proposal contains and several different reports are circulating from news men around the world.

JOHN CHANCELLOR, NBC-TV, Roger PETERSON, ABC-TV, and Walter CRONKITE, CBS-TV, all report that the French mission that was hit earlier this month by a bomb was the work of the US military. The French diplomat injured in that bombing has died in Paris. The Pentagon says there was a faulty mechanism in the bomb drop that released the bomb too early or too late.

JOHN CHANCELLOR, NBC-TV, Harry REASONER, ABC-TV, and Walter CRONKITE, CBS-TV, all report on the ground fighting near Saigon and in the central highlands. The pace has picked up somewhat, reports CRONKITE, but there appears to be no real threat to Saigon.

MARVIN KALB, CBS-TV, reports on some of the stories out on the peace talks. Hanoi has invited several US reporters to Hanoi, apparently for an announcement they expected to make on the peace movements. Hanoi obviously wants to take advantage of the pre-election turmoil in the US to pressure NIXON into dumping THIEU.

MARVIN KALB, CBS-TV, Dennis TROUT, NBC-TV, both report on Henry KISSINGER's meetings in SVN. There are reports President THIEU is the only block against peace now. The book is still open on who will prevail in the test of wills between US policy and the strong man it created, THIEU, reports TROUT.

ROGER MUDD, CBS-TV, and Tom STREITHORST, NBC-TV, both report on the fighting outside Saigon. Both Routes Thirteen and One are under enemy fire, both being key links between the crop producing country-side and Saigon.

GARRICK UTLEY, NBC-TV, reports there was a significant statement from NVN about the peace talks. In an interview with Newsweek Magazine, NVNese spokesmen said that all American prisoners of war will be released as soon as a general agreement has been reached to end the war, without waiting for the complete withdrawal of all American forces from Indo-China.

GARRICK UTLEY, NBC-TV, reports B-52 bombers hit near Saigon and also made one hundred ninety strikes into NVN. The reason for the low number of raids in the north was due to weather.

PREPARED BY THE AIR FORCE (SAFAA) AS EXECUTIVE AGENT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE TO BRING TO THE ATTENTION OF KEY DOD PERSONNEL MATTERS WITHIN THEIR OFFICIAL RESPONSIBILITIES.

PART II

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS NBC-TV 6:30 PM

OCT 20

Kissinger Meets With Thieu Again

JOHN CHANCELLOR: Henry KISSINGER met again in a long session with President THIEU but there was no indication that anything solid was being accomplished.

In Paris, the French diplomat Pierre SUSINAE (?) died of burns and injuries suffered when American bombs struck the French mission in Hanoi nine days ago.

Defense Department Agrees US Bomb

Hit French Mission In Hanoi

CHANCELLOR: In Washington the
Defense Department said for the
first time that it was in fact an
American bomb which fell on the mis-
sion.

The mission is located in the
diplomatic quarter of Hanoi where
there are no military targets.

The Pentagon said a faulty bomb
release mechanism may have caused
the accident.

This is what the French mission
in Hanoi looked like a couple of
days after the bomb fell and this is
the damage caused by one American
five hundred pound bomb.

The Pentagon said today that the
bomb was either released too early
or what was a "hung bomb", one that
released too late.

The Pentagon said that only mil-
itary facilities are targeted in
NVN but that the flight patterns of
the planes which drop the bombs are
based in part on the location of
anti-aircraft batteries.

The planes try to avoid anti-
aircraft fire and in this case,
they flew over central Hanoi and an
accident took place.

The mission was badly damaged and
six people died because of that
accident.

Various Reports About Peace Progress

CHANCELLOR: There were various
reports today about progress toward
a settlement of the VN war but noth-
ing which could be confirmed.

The Paris newspaper, France
Swa (?) carried a dispatch from Sai-
gon detailing a peace plan which
would include elements of a cease

fire before the first of November.

That report sent the stock mar-
ket up but it was quickly and em-
phatically denied by officials in
Washington.

We do know that Henry KISSINGER
is spending the night in Saigon
which means that he could meet
again with THIEU, possibly tomor-
row.

Some Fighting Not Far From Saigon

CHANCELLOR: In the war itself,
there was some fighting not far
from Saigon and more in the central
highlands with American air power
involved in both areas.

ABC EVENING NEWS ABC-TV 7:00 PM

OCT 20

Unconfirmed Reports On Peace

HOWARD SMITH: There were a
number of unconfirmed reports today
on the status of VN peace negotia-
tions, but the only official word
was that Henry KISSINGER held a
second day of talks with SVN's
President THIEU in Saigon.

Here are some of the straws in
the wind:

A Saigon official said that a
partial cease fire in VN is being
discussed.

A French correspondent in Saigon
said that he has learned that ele-
ments of a cease fire throughout
Indo-China will be announced within
ten days.

A SVNese legislator said that
President THIEU told a group of
national assembly members last night
that President NIXON has turned down
a Hanoi offer of cease fire before
the US elections linked to esta-
blishment of a coalition govern-
ment.

In that meeting THIEU is said to
have restated his own position, a
cease fire followed by free elec-
tions but no coalition.

And ABC's Jim GIGGINS reports
from Saigon that President THIEU
plans to make an address to his
nation within five days and make
public his feelings on the latest
Hanoi proposals.

Meanwhile, a French diplomat
died during the night in Paris from

2

Tuesday, October 24, 1972

PART II

injuries suffered when the French
mission in Hanoi was destroyed in a
US bombing raid.

Pentagon Confirms US Bombs Hit French Mission In Hanoi

SMITH: And the Pentagon for the
first time today admitted that a
faulty bomb drop was responsible for
that incident.

ROGER PETERSON: There were about
two dozen Navy planes hitting a rail
yard in Hanoi when the French dip-
lomatic mission was hit October 11.

The Pentagon says its investiga-
tion shows one five hundred pound
bomb did the damage.

JERRY FRIEDHEIM: We have about
a ninety-five percent certainty
that this accident was caused by
the accidental drop of a US bomb
and we feel that that is about the
best assurance that we will ever
get.

We have not had this sort of an
accident ever before and we think
it is extremely unlikely that it
would occur again.

We do have a continuing need to
strike some military targets in NVN
and of course, we will do that if
necessary.

PETERSON: The probe was unable
to determine which plane actually
dropped the bomb.

Perhaps to balance this mistake
the Pentagon also announced one of
its successes today. They released
film of a Mig 21 being shot down
over NVN.

The film shows two sparrow mis-
siles being fired at the Mig. Of-
ficials say the film was shot from
the gun camera of an F-4 phantom.

The Mig is that small white
blob in the upper right hand corner.
The action took place about forty
miles west of Hanoi last Friday.

SVNese Claim To Have Recaptured Town

HARRY REASONER: In VN fighting,
SVNese troops claim to have recap-
tured a small town eight miles north
of Saigon, but enemy forces were
reported to have again cut off High-
way One, which links the SVNese
capital to the important vegetable
farm land northeast of the city.

CBS EVENING NEWS CBS-TV 7:00 PM

OCT 20

VN War Won't Be Over By Elections

WALTER CRONKITE: There is
strong indication tonight that there
will not be a settlement of the VN
war before next month's presidential
election.

In Saigon, where Henry KISSINGER
met again today with President THIEU
there are reports of rejection of
two main communist proposals.

One is THIEU's adamant stand
against a coalition government with
communist participation and on a
second point, SVNese legislators
quote THIEU as saying today that
President NIXON has turned down a
proposal for a cease fire before
the election.

From Hanoi, Canadian independent
television correspondent Michael
MCCLEAR (?) reports that he's learn-
ed on the highest authority there
will be no big peace announcement
before the election.

The only optimistic note came
from a French correspondent in Sai-
gon. He claims to have information
that Hanoi and Washington have
all but agreed on the details of a
general cease fire.

And he reports the announcement
of this agreement will come within
the next ten days.

Officials in Washington say that
report is completely untrue.

While KISSINGER and THIEU con-
centrate on working out an allied
position toward a VN settlement,
there was also a movement today on
the communist side.

Hanoi May Be Encouraged By Talks

MARVIN KALB: There are strong
signs tonight Hanoi will soon go
public on the secret KISSINGER
talks.

Perhaps within a matter of days.

In Prague, Belgrade, Bucharest,
(?), Berlin and Warsaw today, NVNese
diplomats gave communist leaders
there a run down on these talks,
suggesting major progress toward a
deal.

Several days ago, Hanoi invited a
few American reporters to NVN pre-
sumably to file stories from there
on Hanoi's version of the negotia-

3

Tuesday, October 24, 1972

PART II

tions.

The communist purpose appears to be two fold. To suggest that a deal if very close to completion and to finger Saigon's president THIEU as the major obstacle to the war's end.

In rough terms, the deal between Washington and Hanoi, now requiring THIEU's approval, is for a quick cease fire and a return of American prisoners in exchange for the promise of a coalition government in Saigon.

Hanoi obviously wants to take advantage of the pre-election turmoil in this country to pressure President NIXON into dumping THIEU.

And replacing his Saigon regime with a coalition.

## French Diplomat Killed By US Bombs

CRONKITE: This past week when the French diplomatic mission in Hanoi was damaged during an American bombing attack, the legations chief envoy, Piere SUSINAE suffered severe burns and other injuries.

Today, the fifty-two year old diplomat died of those injuries.

At the time of that Hanoi incident, some US officials were quick to suggest that the damage to the French mission may have been caused by a NVNese missile.

But today the Defense Department said its week long investigation points to an American bomb as the cause.

Pentagon spokesman said a faulty mechanism apparently caused its premature release.

## Pace Of Ground War Picks Up In VN

CRONKITE: The pace of the ground war accelerated today both in the area around Saigon and in the central highlands.

Northeast of the capital, communist troops again cut Highway One which links Saigon with one of the country's main food producing regions.

As a result, there was a shortage of vegetables in the city's market places today and prices were three times their normal rate.

Heavy bombing also was reported in other areas close to Saigon but allied officials insist that these enemy forays pose no serious threat to the capital itself.

CBS EVENING NEWS CBS-TV 6:30 PM

OCT 21

## Kissinger Talks More In Saigon

ROGER MUDD: Presidential advisor Henry KISSINGER spent a fourth day of conferences in Saigon trying to find a peace settlement for Indo-China.

Following up meetings with SVN's President THIEU the past two days, KISSINGER held a three hour meeting today with the foreign minister Tran Van LAN (?).

There were no announcements on the sessions. There never are after KISSINGER's meetings.

But there is one hopeful sign for a peace formula tonight outlined by NVNese prime minister, Fan Van DOM (?) in an interview with Newsweek Magazine.

MARVIN KALB: Hanoi's plan for peace as outlined in this interview starts with a cease fire in the south and an end to American bombing and blockading of the north.

In SVN there would then be two governments. President THIEU's and the communists. Together they would agree to form a three-sided coalition government who's first job would be to organize nationwide elections under international supervision.

This entire process, from cease fire to elections would take six months.

In the same time frame, the US would withdraw totally and there would be an exchange of all prisoners of war.

The NVNese prime minister promises there would be no blood bath and no quick communist take over of SVN.

The hang up at the moment is THIEU's adamant opposition to any coalition with the communists.

Hardly by coincidence, Saigon's semi-official press today blasted the idea of a coalition and indirectly criticized KISSINGER for supposedly trying to pursuade THIEU to accept one.

There is no official comment here on the statements from Hanoi and Saigon. Nor is there any guidance on whether the president now will yank the rug out from under THIEU and strike a deal with Hanoi

4

Tuesday, October 24, 1972

PART II

or stick with THIEU and possibly
lose his chance for a quick settle-
ment of the war.

## Enemy Hits Less Than Twenty Miles
From Where Kissinger Holds Meetings

MUDD: Less than twenty miles
from where KISSINGER held his meet-
ings today, enemy troops carried
out a number of small offensives
north of Saigon.

In one of them, a VNese officer
claimed his men turned back an ef-
fort to cut another chunk out of
Highway Thirteen, one of the main
roads from the capital.

In the air war over NVN, the US
command reported one hundred ninety
strikes, an unusually low number.

Officers said this was a conces-
sion to bad weather, not to the NVN-
ese.

## NBC SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS NBC-TV
6:30 PM OCT 21

More Speculation On War's Ending

GARRICK UTLEY: Henry KISSINGER
held his fourth day of talks in Sai-
gon today. He did not meet with
President THIEU but did with SVN's
foreign minister.

And while that was going on there
were these other developments.

A Saigon newspaper which usually
reflects President THIEU's position
said today that President THIEU has
turned down a temporary peace solu-
tion.

It gave no details but it left
the impression that the US and NVN
had agreed to a partial cease fire
now, possibly before election day,
with the rest of the settlement to
be worked out later.

THIEU was also reported still
adamantly opposed to a three part
coalition government including
communists.

Also today, there is a report
from Peking. It said that NVNese
diplomats there had been talking a-
bout a major peace development in the
next few days.

The Reuter's News Agency says the
NVNese told other foreign diplomats
at a reception last night in Peking
that Henry KISSINGER had gone to

Saigon to pursuade President THIEU
to step down.

According to the NVNese in Pek-
ing, THIEU could remain as a member
of a new coalition government but
not as President.

DENNIS TROUT: VNese sources
confirm that President THIEU is the
only bar to a complete and detailed
peace settlement arranged in Paris.

The sources say that during four
days of intensive meetings, Wash-
ington and Hanoi agreed on most
terms of a cease fire and coalition
government.

Henry KISSINGER's mission in
Saigon has been to pursuade Presi-
dent THIEU to step down in favor of
that tripartate government.

The members of the coalition,
pro-THIEU, communists and neutra-
lists, were named specifically in
the agreement.

At this point, THIEU and his
backers have not given in.

Strongly worded official commun-
iques have denounced all notions of
a coalition. THIEU has tried to
demonstrate wide-spread support
with announcements over the mili-
tary radio saying the armed forces
oppose American coalition plans.

The book is still open on who
will prevail in the test of wills
between US policy and the strong
man it created, THIEU.

TOM STREITHORST: Just twelve
miles from Saigon, and the KISSING-
ER-THIEU conferences, troops from
the twenty-fifth division were en-
gaged in combat.

Off Route Thirteen, at the vil-
lage of Bien Kau (?).

The fighting was close in,
bitter, and intense. The SVNese
twenty-fifth division, Saigon's
primary defense force, is not re-
garded as one of this country's
best divisions.

Moreover, the state of peace
rumors cannot be helping the men's
fighting spirits.

To die or to be wounded in a
country rumored to be on the brink
of peace, seems to many, to be the
height of futility.

Still, their enemy was fighting
hard. Government troops had no
alternatives but to reply in kind.

The fighting to the north of Sai-
gon has been going on for two weeks.

Peace may be edging closer in
the conference room, but you would

5

Tuesday, October 24, 1972

PART II

never know it out here just twelve
miles from the capital.

Significant Statement Comes From
NVN About Peace

UTLEY: Amid all the peace efforts
comes this significant statement
from NVN. From its prime minister,
Phon Phon Don (?).

In an interview with Newsweek
Magazine released today, DON said
that all American prisoners of war
will be released as soon as a gen-
eral agreement has been reached to
end the war.

Without waiting for the complete
withdrawal of American forces.

Up till now it had been assumed
that prisoners would not be released
until all American troops had left
NVN.

B-52's Bomb Just North Of Saigon

UTLEY: In the war today, there
were scattered incidents of fighting
around Saigon and in the central
highlands of SVN.

The US command said B-52's hit
targets north of Saigon.

In NVN, American fighter bombers
made an unusually low number of
raids, just one hundred ninety be-
cause of bad weather there.

Father John MCLAUGHLIN was inter-
viewed on the Today Show, October
12, 1972. Complete transcript is
available.

John Paton DAVIES, Jr., and Harold
HINTON, were both interviewed on
Martin Agronsky: Evening Edition,
October 19, 1972. Complete trans-
cript is available.

Philip GEYELIN, Congressman Charles
WHALEN, and Ralph de TOLEDANO, all
were interviewed on Martin Agronsky:
Evening Edition, October 17, 1972.
Complete transcript is available.

6

Tuesday, October 24, 1972

# Market soars with every Kissinger flight

By Martin Skala

Business and financial writer correspondent of
The Christian Science Monitor

New York

The heightened pace of Vietnam peace negotiations is keeping the stock market boiling these days. "Each time Henry Kissinger hops on a jet," said one broker half-jokingly, "we get flooded with buy orders."

That President Nixon's national-security adviser's secret peace talks are the center of Wall Street attention, was demonstrated anew last week when the market erupted with peace rallies on two occasions.

The first spurt occurred when Mr. Kissinger surprised Wall Street by returning to Paris to confer briefly with Hanoi negotiators before flying to Saigon. This rally, which saw many oversold glamour stocks rebound briskly, petered out late Thursday.

## Friday rebound

But Friday afternoon, following a French news report suggesting that the United States and North Vietnam had virtually reached agreement on a cease-fire plan, the market was off to the races again. The Dow shot up 10.69 to 942.81.

Much of the volatile action in the glamour group, brokers said, could be attributed to traders rushing to cover short positions. These arise when traders, anticipating a bearish trend in certain stocks, sell borrowed securities in hopes of buying stocks more cheaply later on.

As signs of a peace breakthrough increase, however, traders have become increasingly uncomfortable with large short positions. In an explosive market turnaround, these could quickly produce large capital losses.

## What cease-fire would do

Brokers have no doubts that a cease-fire in Vietnam would have a pronounced bullish impact, especially on smaller investors. An Indo-China settlement, observes Harris, Upham & Co., would "initiate a spontaneous, euphoric, and meteoric response," with the Dow industrials quickly rallying back to this year's high.

Also lending support to the market was a strong rebound in International Business Machines. The stock, which took a severe 14-point spill after the Justice Department said last Monday it would seek to break up the company in an anti-trust action, closed the week with an 8-point gain.

After the initial shock, wore off, investors with a longer-term perspective realized that the government suit could take three or more

years, and might wind up with an out-of-court settlement not too unfavorable to the company.

## Separated value

Even if IBM were split up, some analysts noted, it was possible that the sum of the parts would total a more valuable package to shareholders than the existing entity. Bache & Co., which holds this view, says that IBM shares "are attractively valued for long-term investors regardless of the outcome of the Justice Department suit." On the other hand White, Weld & Co., another big brokerage firm, has advised customers to avoid the stock for the time being.

Although the market responded favorably to peace news, many high-multiple glamour issues failed to share in the gains. Levitz Furniture and Bausch & Lomb, the Big Board's two volume leaders, both suffered sharp drops. In the case of Bausch and Lomb, disappointing third-quarter earnings triggered the selloff, with the soft lens producer falling 13-1 8 to 273 8. Many glamour stocks, brokers say, are vunerable to sudden down-drafts if high price-earnings ratios aren't validated by continued big earnings improvements.

## Confidence still lagging

The economic news didn't do much to shore up investor confidence. The consumer price index climbed at a high 6 percent annual rate in September, making it a "bad month," according to the Council of Economic Advisers.

Continuing net redemptions by mutual funds, with new sales dropping to their lowest level of the year, was another bearish news item. Lagging fund sales are an indication that the investing public remains skeptical about stock-market prospects.

Wall Street was also disappointed in Congress's rejection of a bill that would put a $250 billion lid on federal spending. Without a tight rein on the government budget, the financial community is worried that inflation may get out of control again and interest rates will shoot up as they did in 1969-70.

Offsetting this, however, was news that the third-quarter gross national product grew at a healthy 8.3 percent annual rate compared with 11.4 percent in the second quarter.

Robert Parks, economist with Blyth Eastman Dillon, stated that the more moderate growth rate, a little less than 6 percent in real terms, was a "welcome development."

"There isn't any evidence of major imbalances in the economy," Mr. Parks added. Unlike some Wall Street economists, Mr.

Parks does not forsee any major problems in the 1973 business outlook. Investor concern about a credit squeeze or a resurgence in inflation is largely unjustified, he believes.

The Vietnam issue makes short-term forecasting particularly hazardous. But a growing number of technical analysts have become more bullish, and some see the possibility of a sprightly rally, sometime around election day.

## Hard forecasting

"Trying to get a fix on 1973 values right now is a little like skeet shooting," says the Stockmap Investment Bulletin published by Quantigraphics, Inc. "Due largely to the current political situation, the investment community is left aiming at a moving target." Nevertheless Stockmap says the market's internal strength is improving and considerable base-building has been taking place.

"While everybody is still muttering and fussing over his aim," Stockmap says, "somebody with perspective is going to stop puttering and start shooting."

It won't be long, Stockmap reckons, before investors will recognize there are many good values around and do some concerted bargain hunting.

league action previously to lose their rookie eligibility.

Anderson deserves NL honor

**Manager-of-the-year.** In the National League, where nothing much unexpected happened, I'll give the nod to Sparky Anderson for keeping Cincinnati's Big Red Machine in gear all the way. The only other contender is Bill Virdon, who took over on the spot with the world champion Pittsburgh Pirates and guided them to another Eastern

of whom took teams nobody thought would in the race and had them fighting for first place until the last days of the season?

Any of these five would be a reasonable choice, but just because he did finally win his division title — and with an old, patched-up team that wasn't supposed to — I'll vote for Martin.

Carlton a shoo-in

**Cy Young Award.** Again the only real battle shapes up in the American League. You can make a case for Mickey Lolich, Catfish Hunter, Jim Palmer, or even super reliever Sparky Lyle, but it probably boils down to

every day.

There's also a tendency among some writers to favor players on championship-winning teams for this award — the reasoning for which has always escaped me.

Those who go for pennant winners will probably lean toward Johnny Bench, who hit 40 homers and drove in 125 runs. My choice, however is Billy Williams, who just about matched Bench's slugging totals with 37 homers and 122 RBI and outhur the Cincinnati superstar by more than 60 points with a league-leading .333 average. I can't believe he was less valuable to the Cubs than Bench

Helped, too

Herkin

early off Jackson during the World Series, there were times when he was able to assert his normal leadership role.

For example, roughly an hour before the World Series opened in Cincinnati, Reggie stood in the outfield with his replacement, George Hendrick. He was obviously telling Hendrick how to

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["2", "Tuesday, October 24, 1972", "THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR", "The news\n—briefly", "Hijack deadline passed", "Istanbul, Turkey", "Four Turkish guerrillas holding 65 passengers and crew as hostages aboard a hijacked Turkish airliner failed to carry out their threat to blow up the plane. A Monday noon deadline set by the guerrillas for meeting their demands passed without incident, Bulgarian radio reported.", "New REA offer weighed", "New York", "Union negotiators for 15,000 striking REA Express employees Monday weighed a new five-point contract offer that company officials said included pay hikes of up to 24 percent. The company made the new offer late Sunday as the nationwide walkout went through its third day. The union, the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks, made no immediate comment on the package.", "Yemen peace talks start", "Cairo", "Peace talks aimed at settling the dispute between North and South Yemen have opened with Arab League conciliation officials hopeful they will be successful.", "Delegations from the two sides — the Yemen Arab Republic (north) and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (south) — are meeting in an attempt to settle long-standing differences in their frontier war.", "Search continues in Alaska", "Anchorage, Alaska", "Searchers aboard military aircraft and Coast Guard cutters continued the week-long hunt for a missing light plane carrying House Democratic Leader Fogarty and three others. They combed a 100-mile wide band extending some 560 miles from Anchorage to Juneau in an effort to find the twin-engine aircraft.", "Uganda President in hospital", "Kampala, Uganda", "President Idi Amin was admitted to a hospital Monday, and his doctors ordered him to take \"a complete rest,\" Radio Uganda announced. The hospital bulletin gave no further details.", "More wheat to Peking?", "Washington", "China may be in the market for more U.S. wheat, the Department of Agriculture says. China recently made its first purchase of U.S. wheat since 1948. Wheat production in China has not kept pace with the demand of its growing population and was further hampered by drought this year, a government report says.", "Korean talks to continue", "Seoul", "North and South Korea have agreed to continue their official dialogue through the Joint Coordinating Committee despite the recent proclamation of martial law in the South.", "The two countries, in a joint announcement, said the coordinating committee, which opened its formal session at the border village of Panmumjon on Oct. 12, would hold the second session in the northern capital of Pyongyang on Nov. 2, and the third in Seoul on Nov. 30.", "News of Oct. 22 and 23 compiled from wire reports.", "CLASSIFIED, 4\nENGLAND, 2, 3", "State and City Directory\nPage14", "# Heath gains time to build inflation dam", "> 'Showdown week' still requires achievement of policy accord between unions and industry", "By Joan Forbes, staff artist", "Edward Heath, in sight of his European goal", "By John Allan May", "Staff correspondent of\nThe Christian Science Monitor", "London", "Had it not been for Prime Minister Edward Heath's success at the Paris summit of the enlarged European Communities, this would have been \"showdown week\" for Britain in no uncertain manner.", "It would have been the case not only that \"the buck stops here\" but that \"the buck stops now.\"", "But what Mr. Heath brought back from this summit was not merely an olive branch for the trade unions — he proved that there is dry land out there by getting agreement on help for Britain's regions of high unemployment — but, above all, time.", "He has time now for any new anti-inflationary policy to work.", "However, it still remains \"showdown week\" in one sense. The firm outline of a voluntary anti-inflationary policy has to be achieved at talks between the government,", "the Trades Union Congress (TUC), and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) on Thursday, or a compulsory prices-and-wages plan will become virtually inevitable.", "A major confrontation with the trade unions also would become inevitable.", "A fresh British general election would become a possibility.", "Time extended", "If there is time now to fill in the outline, this is because it no longer is imperative for Britain to cease floating the pound sterling and to fix its parity again by Jan. 1.", "Fixing a new parity requires, in the first place, fixing the internal value of the pound or, at least, moderating the present rate of inflation.", "And that would have meant achieving a complete \"incomes policy\" now, on Thursday afternoon, ready to roll the next day.", "But, following the Paris summit, while it is hoped that the pound can be brought back to a fixed parity by Jan. 1, that is not absolutely essential.", "It will be possible to delay the fixing, if necessary, until April when the new European monetary cooperation fund sets up in business.", "And, such is the wording of the agreement reached in Paris on monetary cooperation, it will also be possible, if necessary, to devalue the pound sterling later if the British anti-inflationary policy is not fully and immediately successful.", "Nevertheless Thursday remains a significant day for Britain.", "## ★'The Nine' target 1980 political union", "Continued from Page 1", "The Netherlands' Barend Biesheuvel dug in his heels on this issue. The Dutch expected support from newcomers with strong parlia-", "mentary traditions, like the British and the Danes, they did not get it.", "Finally, the Belgians proposed a compromise, calling for a report by \"the in-", "stitutions of the community\" on the nature of European union, to be submitted by the end of 1976. The Dutch gave in.", "The chiefs of government have set themselves a busy calendar. Besides the dates already mentioned, they have set the following deadlines:", "June 30, 1973, for a report by foreign ministers on how to improve foreign-policy coordination.", "July 1, 1973, to agree on an action program for environmental policy and a common mandate for international trade negotiations within the framework of GATT.", "Sept. 30, 1973, for a report on strengthening machinery for short-term monetary support.", "Dec. 31, 1973, a report on progressive pooling of central bank reserves.", "Jan. 1, 1974, an action program on science and technology and definition of a common industrial policy.", "On this date, also, the community is to move to the \"second stage\" of economic and monetary union.", "## ★Nixon's advantages", "Continued from Page 1", "France or an expanded International Control Commission could have a supervisory role. Up till this point President Nixon has demanded a hard and firm agreement which would guarantee the life of an anti-Communist government in Saigon for at least a respectable period. He wanted a peace package to embrace all of Indo China.", "The North Vietnamese, for their part, had demanded a wider entry into Saigon affairs than they apparently would get under terms now being discussed, and they also are said to be ready to relinquish American POWs before they get a political deal in South Vietnam.", "In Laos and Cambodia, separate agreements could be reached with the Communists at later dates.", "The President enters the stretch drive toward election day as if very little is absolutely predictable — including his own re-election.", "To the Republicans there are some signs of caution in the autumn leaves. Mr. Nixon is taking no chances.", "Comfort for McGovern", "Simultaneous with the headlines on the Kissinger mission to Indo-China there were isolated reports of comfort to Sen. George McGovern.", "The South Dakota Senator gained another two percentage points in the Harris Poll. It wasn't much, considering the remaining 27 percent gap between the two candidates.", "Yet it did hint of the kind of forward movement that both the White House and Senator McGovern have been expecting in the final weeks.", "This, coupled with the Harris Poll estimate that \"McGovern has recently been scoring some in his attacks on Mr. Nixon over the purported profits made in the wheat deal with Russia, the Watergate bugging disclosures, and the claimed ties of the Nixon administration with big business\" are taken soberly", "exposure which buoy Mr. Nixon even if they do not add such substance to the debate.", "Mr. Nixon's speeches, even those he appears to give extemporaneously, are thought out at length.", "The Democrats accuse Mr. Nixon of setting up straw horses and then unctuously slaying them with words. Mr. Nixon, for his part, is getting his message through to the voters he is mostly concerned with — the centrists and the conservatives.", "What a Vietnam solution before Nov. 7 would do to Senator McGovern's candidacy is not a certainty. The conventional wisdom, is that it would all but destroy it.", "Campaign end denied", "\"I don't think it would end my campaign. The settlement being proposed is one I have been advocating for many years,\" the Senator told a nationwide TV audience.", "Not enough details are known of the Nixon-Kissinger negotiating position at this moment to make a judgment on the Senator's assertion.", "It does appear that Mr. Nixon is making concessions beyond those the war hawks would like. Senator McGovern says that, in the last analysis, President Thieu of South Vietnam will block Mr. Nixon's path.", "For Senator McGovern there is no solution short of jettisoning Mr. Thieu, and, the Senator says, Mr. Nixon will be unwilling to do this.", "The rumored peace, Senator McGovern claims, is \"just like four years ago\" when President Johnson failed to get out of

Tuesday, October 24, 1972

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

★Hanoi envoys say peace far off

Continued from Page 1

Question pursued

"Then a cease-fire followed by American withdrawal will take place first and then direct negotiations between the Provisional Revolutionary Government and the Saigon regime?" pursued Mr. de Brochgrave.

Demands, not pact

These facts, combined with the North Vietnamese blast here against the Nixon administration, have suggested to observers here that Mr. Dong's statements reflect continuing North Vietnamese demands rather than an agreement all but signed and sealed.

A standstill cease-fire between the United States and Saigon on the one hand, and Hanoi and the Viet Cong on the other. The Viet Cong army, which today is largely North Vietnamese, would remain in place — a formidable military force. The United States would stop bombing and other acts of war in North and South Vietnam and remaining American forces in the South would withdraw.

$350 million for insecticides

By the Associated Press

To help farmers produce the largest possible yields of food and fiber per acre, U.S. manufacturers turn out about $350 million worth of chemical insecticides a year, Arthur D. Little, Inc. reports.

Greek tourism up

Athens

Greece entertained almost 2 million tourists in the first eight months of this year.

American prisoners of war would be released, according to Mr. Dong, before completion of American troop withdrawal. But the North Vietnamese leader requires in exchange that Saigon shall release all its military and civilian detainees, a figure which may run into the hundreds of thousands.

Scenario rejected

President Thieu has made clear that he utterly rejects this scenario. For him there is no halfway house between victory and defeat. Either the Communists must in effect accept defeat, lay down their arms, and agree to shift to a political struggle inside the existing institutions of the Saigon regime. Or the fight must go on.

Washington obviously does not go this far

— otherwise there would be no need for Henry A. Kissinger to spend five days in Saigon talking to the embattled President.

But it is equally clear that Washington has not totally accepted Hanoi's scenario, for if it had the North Vietnamese would not need to be putting on such a concerted propaganda campaign to convince world opinion of the logic, correctness, and reasonableness of their proposals.

The gap between these two positions is fundamental, not one of degree. It is not the kind of gap that can be averaged out. Short of a major new Communist military offensive that might totally change the existing relationship of forces, it is difficult to see how Washington and Hanoi can move closer to each other's positions without having in fact capitulated to one or the other side.

★U.S. hopeful on cease-fire

Continued from Page 1

"You now have the best possible chance to stand on your own and we advise you to take it. We have put North Vietnam under great pressure from our bombing and blockade and it is in fact the North Vietnamese who have introduced the note of urgency into the current negotiations. We will go on supplying you, but we cannot stay in Vietnam militarily much longer."

Two major questions

Assuming that President Thieu takes this advice and a cease-fire ensues, there will be two big questions:

1. What would the United States do if the cease-fire is breached and the Saigon government gets into real trouble militarily?

2. What would the United States do if the cease-fire holds and Saigon government gets into real political trouble as a result of disaffection in the provinces, Buddhist agitation, or an Army coup d'état?

Would the United States under either of these situations resume bombing or otherwise intervene? The North Vietnamese have presumably been insisting on some form of guarantee against an American return.

POW release likely

One of the most insistent U.S. demands — the release of prisoners — will probably be fullfilled, Hanoi officials have indicated, after agreement has been reached on a cease-fire and the United States has promised to withdraw. In other words, the actual release might precede the completion of American withdrawal.

If that should occur before the Nov. 7

election it would be for Mr. Nixon a resounding success for which he would presumably be willing to pay a high price. For him this would be a major ingredient in the "peace with honor" he seeks.

While it is just possible that both sides are sufficiently confident to move toward real elections under some neutral international supervision, a more likely eventuality foreseen by some experts here is the de facto partition of South Vietnam between the populous centers controlled by Saigon and the sparsely settled north and south controlled by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese.

The President's foreign policy adviser just before his return here, flew for a four-hour visit to Phnom Penh where the Cambodian Government has been quietly parleying with the Communist guerrillas who control half the country including the borderlands with South Vietnam. Meanwhile, William H. Sullivan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, who was accompanying Mr. Kissinger, flew to Laos and Thailand.

AP photo

South Vietnam; war goes on

Co

Tuesday, October 24, 1972

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

# Bermuda lifts charter ban

## Collegians offered special spring welcome

By Ralph Hubley
Travel editor of *The Christian Science Monitor*

Hamilton, Bermuda

For the first time in nine years, the Bermuda Government will lift its ban on incoming charter flights next spring.

A gradual decline in numbers of students visiting the islands during College Weeks and the increased number of hotel rooms now available are listed as the chief reasons for relaxing the restrictions.

Recent estimates indicate that student totals for the six-week period from March 18 to April 28 next year would account for only 17 percent of the business where spring-vacation students between 1966 and 1969 amounted to between 36 and 40 percent of the total visitors at that time.

College Weeks began almost 40 years ago when American Rugby teams used to go to the islands to play Bermuda teams. These games have long since been overshadowed by such things as band contests and, recently, kite flying. The world kite-flying endurance record was set this year by Vincent Tuzo when he kept his kite up 49½ hours.

Students are not the only ones who can take advantage of the new charter plans. Other

types of affinity groups, such as sporting, hobby, or industrial concerns, may wish to use the Easter vacation period for a Bermuda holiday.

The nonstudent groups may prefer to stay clear of the Elbow Bay area which has traditionally been the center of the young crowds, unless, of course they wish to watch the activities.

Bermuda has long experience in the care and handling of their student guests. Unlike some other areas, the Bermudians enjoy and want the youths. Their simple solution for keeping them out of trouble is to have plenty of planned activities. Most are free — even free hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, and soft drinks on the beach.

In contrast, many other areas have been turned off by young visitors. They filled so many planes across the Atlantic this summer that hotels in the major tourist capitals had vacant rooms for the first time. They are usually overbooked during the busy summer season. The students stayed at hostels, in parks, or with friends, adding little to the economy.

The special North Atlantic youth fares, which encourage so many to tour Europe, will increase $20 to $30 beginning Dec. 1, if U.S. Government approval is received. No stopovers would be allowed on flights to

Europe, but one stopover would be permitted for travel to the Middle East and Africa.

From December through March, youths are defined as those from the ages of 12 to 23. The maximum age limit after March would be reduced to those aged 12 through 21.

Bermuda air fares have remained the same year round with special package rates for golfers and honeymooners, the savings being made up from land arrangements. Thus the new charter plans will be somewhat of a breakthrough.

Among the favored student activities are snorkeling and skin diving. The coral reefs around the islands still hold treasures from sunken ships. Nearly 350 shipwrecks occurred on these reefs over a 400-year period. The island chain itself was colonized by the survivors of one of the wrecks in 1609.

Although the youths seldom reach these treasure areas, this past summer was an exceptional one for 25 students of marine archaeology. Under the auspices and organizing of the Education Expeditions Institute and the Smithsonian Institution, they were able to spend three weeks diving around an unidentified 16th-century wreck.

According to government surveys of departing visitors, Bermuda's greatest lure is not the treasure in the sea or on the sandy beaches, but in "the friendliness and hospitality of the people."

By Kenneth H. McKelvie

Band contest sponsor

# Event-filled Bermuda

Special to *The Christian Science Monitor*

Hamilton, Bermuda

Nearly every week in Bermuda special events are planned for resident and visitor alike. One of the nicest things about the islands is that everyone is welcome to take part in these activities but also that there are enough hideaways so the visitor's privacy also can be maintained.

The following events scheduled for November and December are samples of the variety of events offered:

* Guy Fawkes Day, island-wide fireworks displays, Nov. 5; Bermuda Invitation Tennis Championships, Coral Beach Club, Nov. 5-18; Bermuda Invitational Four-Ball

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NEWS SUMMARY

Monday, A. M., Oct. 23, 1972

1. **ROCKETS FIRED INTO BIEN HOA:** Saigon -- Communist gunners fired more than 60 Russian-made 122mm rockets into the Bien Hoa Air Base only 14 miles from Saigon just before dawn Sunday killing two South Vietnamese civilians, wounding 13 Government soldiers and two Americans.

Sixteen other Americans were injured scrambling for cover.

2. **KISSINGER SEEKS THIEU SUPPORT FOR INDOCHINA CEASE-FIRE:** Saigon -- Vietnamese sources said Sunday the purpose of Presidential Adviser Henry Kissinger's trip to Saigon is to seek President Nguyen Van Thieu's support for a cease-fire in the Indochina war that could be announced before the U.S. presidential elections.

The Vietnamese sources said it was not known if Thieu had agreed to the cease-fire. If Kissinger does receive Thieu's backing, the plan still would need the approval of the North Vietnamese before taking effect.

While Kissinger was in Saigon to talk to Government officials about Vietnam, William Sullivan, Deputy Secretary of State for East Asia Affairs, conferred with political leaders in Laos and Thailand Friday, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.

3. **KISSINGER CONFERS WITH THIEU AND LON NOL:** Saigon -- U.S. Presidential Adviser Henry A. Kissinger broadened the United States' quest for an Indochina peace settlement Sunday in a whirlwind round of commuter conferences with Presidents Nguyen Van Thieu of South Vietnam and Lon Nol of Cambodia.

Kissinger conferred with Thieu for two hours Sunday morning, flew to Phnom Penh to consult with Lon Nol, then commuted the 20 minutes back to Saigon for a second meeting with Thieu.

4. **NEGOTIATIONS IN 'IMPORTANT STAGE':** Washington--North Vietnamese Premier Pham Van Dong believes efforts to obtain a cease-fire in Vietnam are porgressing and that the peace negotiations "are in an extremely important phase," it was reported Saturday.

5. **LAO PM: NEWSPAPERS WELL-INFORMED:** Paris -- Prime Minister Prince Souvanna Phouma of Laos flew in under overcast skies Sunday and said newspapers reporting an imminent settlement of the Indochina war are generally well-informed.

(Summarized from Associated Press and United Press International. Complete stories are available in the office of the Special Assistant for Press Affairs, Room 325, New Embassy, telephone 7408/7463.)

-2-

As for negotiations toward peace in Laos, Souvanna said, "We have put the train on the rails. I hope that soon all will be settled,"

He said talks with the opposition Pathet Lao had "started well" and the Pathet Lao no longer demanded an end to bombing as a condition for the negotiations.

### 6. THIEU TURNS DOWN TEMPORARY SOLUTION: Saigon
President Nguyen Van Thieu and the South Vietnamese National Security Council turned down a "temporary peace solution" discussed during talks with President Nixon's Special Adviser Henry A. Kissinger, the newspaper Tin Song reported Saturday.

### 7. CAMBODIA GOVERNMENT CONFERS WITH KHMER ROUGE
Phnom Penh -- Members of the Cambodian government and leaders of the rebel Khmer Rouge guerrilla force have held a series of meetings on ending the war in Cambodia, a high-ranking official said Sunday.

The discussions which have taken place in Cambodia recently were undertaken without the knowledge of Sihanouk, the Government official said.

### 8. U.S. -DRV TO HAVE 'AGREED IN PRINCIPLE'
New York -- An "agreement in principle" leading to a settlement of the Vietnam war has been reached by the United States and North Vietnam, Newsweek Magazine said Sunday.

"On the political side," Newsweek said, "Kissinger made a major compromise by accepting Hanoi's long-standing demand for a coalition Government in Saigon. In turn, Hanoi made a significant concession-agreeing to deal directly with Saigon on Vietnam's political future."

The magazine said that France is mentioned probably to act as a neutral supervisory power, and guarantee an honest national election in South Vietnam following a cease-fire and a short-lived interim government.

### 9. FIRST PATHET LAO ENVOY PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
Tokyo -- Khamphay Boupan, described by Vietnam News Agency as the first Pathet Lao chief representative in Hanoi, presented his credentials to North Vietnam's Vice President Nguyen Luong Bang saturday, VNA reported Sunday.

### 10. SHRIVER: VIETNAM TALKS POLITICALLY SIGNIFICANT
Washington -- Sargent Shriver said Sunday President Nixon is putting far more energy into seeking peace in Vietnam two weeks before election day than during the past three and a half years-and that this is politically significant.

"What I'm telling you is that the terms we can get now will not be substantially any different or better than the terms we could have gotten four years ago," Shriver said, denouncing what he called the determination of the Nixon administration to be "so beholden to an Asiatic military dictator," as he termed South Vietnamese President Thieu.

-3-

11. BABY USED TO TRAP ARVN SOLDIERS: Phu Nhon, Vietnam -- North Vietnamese troops ambushed a crowded three-wheeled civilian mini-bus and then laid a live baby on the road for three days as a trap to lure South Vietnamese soldiers, an American adviser said Sunday.

In the Central Highlands Oct. 1st Communist troops attacked and occupied a string of hamlets along Highway 14, 20 miles south of Pleiku, a province capital near Phu Nhon district capital.

12. AIR FORCE A7D CORSAIRS COMMITTED IN WAR: Saigon -- "The U.S. Air Force has quietly committed another of its new planes to the Indochina conflict--the A7D Corsair attack bomber--military spokesmen said Sunday.

13. VIETNAMESE PEOPLE WOULD ELECT NIXON: Saigon -- If South Vietnamese could vote in the U.S. presidential election Nov. 7 President Nixon would be elected with 92 per cent of the vote, the semi-official Vietnam Press said Sunday.

14. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT DENIES RUMORS: Washington -- The U.S. Defense Department denied reports Saturday night that some military bases were on special alert in preparation for possible evacuation of American prisoners of war from North Vietnam.

15. KHMER PREMIER ESCAPES ATTEMPT: Phnom Penh-- Newly elected Premier Hang Thun Hak escaped assassins' bullets Friday in the second attempt on the life of a Cambodian premier within two months, the local press reported Saturday.

Tin Song

lead story for October 22, 1972

After 8 hours of Discussions with the US delegation led by Dr. Kissinger
THE REPUBLIC OF VIET-NAM DEFINITIVELY REJECTS ANY TEMPORARY PEACE SETTLEMENT

President Thieu continues meetings with national groups and speaks about
the political background of the national situation politics

Kissinger delegation meets with President Thieu and the National Security Council for a block third time

The Republic of Viet-Nam has definitively rejected any temporary peace
solution, unreasonable proposals by the Communists, and has affirmed
that the peace stand of the RVN has the goal of restoring peace with
honor and of long duration to the nation.

The above are the points that President Thieu and the National Security
Council made to the American delegation led by Dr. Kissinger during the
discussions between the Vietnamese and US VIP's.

According to information from the Presidency, General President Thieu
and the National Security Council have so far held a total of 8 hours of
discussions with Dr. Kissinger. A special feature of the meeting during
the afternoon of October 20 was the added presence of General Cao Van Vien.

Although the Presidency has not revealed what transpired in the meetings,
obervers believe that it was an examination of the situation between the
Government of the RVN and the US in regard to political and military
aspects.

Worth noting is that while carrying on meetings with the US delegation,
the President has appeared held a number of meetings to explain the political
background of the present situation national situation to various responsible
leadership elements including the National Assembly, the Supreme Court and the Judiciary
representatives (the Supreme Court and the Lawyers' Group) and to
political parties.

Also during the morning of October 20, President Thieu convened a meeting of
the Cabinet.

It is also believed that yesterday prior to the meeting with Mr. Kissinger the President had a working session with the National Security Council consisting of the Vice President, the Prime Minister, General Vien, the Foreign Minister, the Special Assistant for Foreign Affairs, Ambassadors Lam and Phuong, and Mr. Hoang Duc Nha, Private Secretary to the President.

In other developments, at 3:30 pm, after the meeting at Independence Palace Dr. Kissinger and other members of the US delegation went to the US Embassy for a working session, and, it appears, to telephone the White House.

(The remainder of this article deals with Dr. Kissinger's dining schedule at the residence, and suggests that if he completes his tasks in Saigon he may depart in the afternoon of the 21st or the morning of the 22nd.)

Translated by POL:JNach 10/22/72

PHAM 10-21

ADV FOR 2230 GMT SAT. OCT. 21

WASHINGTON, OCT. 22 (UPI) -- NORTH VQETNAMESE PREMIER PHAM VAN DONG BELIEVES EFFORTS TO OBTAIN A CEASE-FIRE IN VIETNAM ARE PROGRESSING AND THAT THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS "ARE IN AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT PHASE," IT WAS REPORTED SATURDAY.

IN AN INTZRVIEW WITH NEWKWZEK MAGAZINE, THE NORTH VIETNAMESZMLLEADER GAVE WHAT IT APPEAZX TM BE HIS GENERAL APPROVAL OF NUMBER OF IMPORTANT ELEMENTS IN PRESIDENT NIXON'S MAY 8 AND JAN. 25 PROPOSALS FOR SETILING THE WAR.

THE QPOZRVIEW WAS HZ/18, #-, 98 235233, ,32 2330 3$8594 -4,-7$ $3 BORCHGRAVE AND PHAM VAN DONG. THE NORTH VIETNAMESE PREMIER APPROVED THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE INTZRVIEW BEFORE PUBLICATION.

THE VAGAZINE'S WASHINGTON BUREAU, WHICH RELEASED THE TEXT OF THE INTERVIEW, SAID THAT THE MEETING TOOK PLACE WEDNESDAY OCT. 18, AFTNH NOR TH QZONAMESE POLITBURO MEMBER LE DUC THO RETURNED FROM SECRET TALKS IN PARIS WITH PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR HENRY A. KISSINGER.

"NEGOTIATIONS ARE IN AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT PHASE," PHAM SAID. "WE HAVE DONE EVERYTHING HUMANLY POSSIBLE FOR A SUCCESSFUL CONCLUSION AND THAT MEANS PEACE WITH INDEPENDENCE AND FREEDOM. THIS IS THAT WE HAVE FOUGHT FOR ALMOST THREE DECADES."

AFTER AN ALLUSION TO ELEMENTS OF PRESIDENT NIXON'S MAY 8 PROPOSAL, PHAM WAS ASKED: "THEN A CEASE-FIRE FOLLOWED BY AMERICAN WITHDRAWAL WILL TAKE PLACE FIRST AND THEN DIRECT NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE PROVISIONAL REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT AND THE SAIGON REGIME?"

ADV FOR 2230 GMOPQWO. OCT. 21

UPI 10-21 03:58 PED NNNN

2C2C HRX038 212012 NHA045

UU HCA HVA HLB LZZ

PHAM 10-21

ADV FOR 2230 GMT SAT. OCT. 21

1ST ADD PHAM WASHINGTON X X X REGIME?

PHAM REPLIED:

"THAT IS THE PRESENT EVOLUTION, AND IT
B W )-1$?98;3 9,3. THE

SITUATION WILL THEN BE TWO ARMIES AND TWO ADMINISTRATIONS IN THEOBKMUOH AND, GIVEN A NEW SITUATION, THEY WILL HAVE TO WORK OUT THEIR OWN ARRANGEMENTS FOR A THREE-SIDED COALITION OF TRANSITION, AND DEFUSE THE SITUATION IN THE WAKE OF THE AMERICAN WITHDRAWAL. &" "THEY MAST WORK OUT ARRANGEMENTS THAT WILL PROMOTE DEMOCRACY AND SPEED NATIONAL CONCORD IN THE SOUTH BECAUSE WITHOUT THIS THERE WILL BE NO PEACE. NOW IS THE TIME FOR BOTH SIDES TO DARE AND FORGE AHEAD."

NIXON IN HIS MAY 8 AND JAN. 25 PROPOSALS STATED THAT THE U.S. BLOCKADE OF NORTH VIETNAM WOULD BE ENDED WITH THE RETURN OF AMERICAN PRISONERS OF WAR AND A SUPERVISED CEASE-FIRE THROUGHOUT INDOCHINA.

HE SAID THE UNITED STATES WOULD WITHDRAW ITS FORCES COMPLETELY FOUR MONTHS AFTER THE AGREEMENT, A?.;-$ 5#3 975#;835,-.3 3 59 NEGOTIATE POLITICAL ARRANGEMENTS WITH THE COMMUNISTS.

IN THE INTERVIEW, PHAM SAID NIXON'S PROPOSAL FOR FREE AND DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS WITHIN SIX MONTHS OF A PEACE AGREEMENT "SEEMS REASONABLE TO US."

IN OTHER POINTS, PHAM:

-- SAID THE COMMUNISTS SOUGHT A RECONCILIATION OF THE POLITICAL ELEMENTS IN SOUTH VIETNAM AND WOULD ENGAGE IN NO REPRISALS.

-- INSISTED THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HELP RECONSTRUCT NORTH VIETNAM.

-- GAVE ONLY SPARSE DETAILS HOW NORTH AND SOUTH VIETNAM MIGHT BE REUNIFIED AND SAID HANOI DID NOT SEEK TO COMMUNIZE SOUTH VIETNAM.

ADV FOR 2230 GMT SAT. OCT. 21

QVPH-Q 04:02 PED NNNN

ZCZC HRX039 212017 XHB026

NEWS SUMMARY

Saturday, A. M., Oct. 21, 1972

1. **NIXON REJECTED CEASE-FIRE PROPOSITION:** Saigon--
President Nixon rejected a Communist offer to call a Vietnam cease-fire,
apparently because the offer was tied to a package that included the imposition
of a coalition government in Saigon, South Vietnamese legislators said
Friday.

The legislators spoke to newsmen Friday following a
Thursday night meeting with Thieu at the downtown Saigon Independence
Palace. Thieu said he vetoed the coalition with the Communists and Nixon
turned down the cease-fire, the lawmakers said.

2. **KISSINGER MEETS THIEU FOR THIRD TIME:** Saigon--
United States and South Vietnamese officials held separate conferences
Friday morning in intensified diplomatic maneuvering aimed at finding a
solution to the Indochina war.

U.S. Presidential Adviser Henry Kissinger met with
President Nguyen Van Thieu Friday for the third time in two days amidst
reports that a proposed partial cease-fire is figuring in the current talks.

3. **HIGHWAY 1 CUT AGAIN:** Saigon -- South Vietnamese troops Friday reoccupied a hamlet eight miles north of Saigon but Communist forces again cut Highway 1 and sealed the capital from rich farmlands in the lower highlands, military sources said.

The sources said Government units this afternoon un-
covered a one-ton cache of TNT from which terrorist bombs are fashioned
near the wreckage of a Communist camp 30 miles north of Saigon which had
been struck by allied warplanes.

4. **HEAVY AIR STRIKES AROUND SAIGON:** Saigon --
U.S. warplanes Friday bombed in 15-minute relays to save a crucial Govern-
ment base in the Central Highlands from being overrun by North Vietnamese
troops, field reports said.

Other American jet fighter-bombers struck around
Saigon in their heaviest raids in almost one month as South Vietnamese
forces battled the Communists as close as eight miles from the capital,
the U.S. Command said.

At the highlands town of My Thach, 20 miles south of
Pleiku province capital and 210 miles north of Saigon early Friday, about 500
North Vietnamese troops struck from three directions in an attempt to over-
run the province's tactical command post in the center of town, UPI said.

-2-

5. SUSINI DIES IN PARIS: Paris -- Pierre Susini, French Delegate General in Hanoi who was severely burned during an American bombing raid on the center of Hanoi Oct. 11, died in a Paris hospital Thursday night.

6. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT ACKNOWLEDGES FRENCH MISSION BOMBING: Washington -- The U.S. Defense Department acknowledged Friday that a U.S. Navy bomb "inadvertently struck" the French Mission in Hanoi and killed the mission chief.

It blamed "Failure of the ordnance to release properly."

7. RENEWED DEMANDS ON THIEU RESIGNATION: Paris-- The North Vietnamese Friday renewed their demand that South Vietnam's President Nguyen Van Thieu step down in favor of a coalition regime which would include Viet Cong elements.

8. FIGHT CONTINUES IN QUANG NGAI: Saigon -- South Vietnamese forces skirmished with infiltrating Communist units in a defense belt around Saigon Friday while Government rangers fell back before a determined counterattack in the northern province of Quang Ngai, military sources reported.

9. SAYS NORTH RUNNING OUT OF MANPOWER: Saigon-- The average age of North Vietnamese prisoners of war captured this year shows the Communists are running out of manpower, a South Vietnamese Corps Commander told Government officials Thursday.

Lt. Gen. Ngo Quang Truong, Commander of South Vietnam's I Military Region said that North Vietnamese prisoners captured in 1968 ranged in age from 27 to 35. In 1971, he said, the age range dropped to 20 to 25 and this year from 17 to 22 years old. "Ninety percent are new recruits."

10. LAO TALKS TO BRING PEACE NEXT YEAR: Bangkok-- Lao Prime Minister Prince Souvanna Phouma said Friday the withdrawal of the Pathet Lao demand for the end to U.S. bombing before Lao ceasefire took place showed their sincerity.

Souvanna Phouma said the Lao war may be ended next year if the present friendly atmosphere in the current negotiations in Vientiane continue.

11. CHINA ACCUSES U.S.S.R. OF HELPING LON NOL: Hong Kong -- China Friday accused the Soviet Union of "colluding" with and giving economic help to the Cambodian government of General Lon Nol.

12. FRENCH PAPER GIVES 'DETAILS' ON SETTLEMENT: Paris -- The United States and North Vietnam are close to agreement on a three-point peace settlement according to the newspaper France Soir.

UNCLASSIFIED

FRIDAY 10-20-72

0700-0745

Saigon Radio News and Commentary

1. Brief announcement without comment of meeting between Dr. Kissinger and President Thieu.

2. Lengthy exposition of ARVN 23rd Division victories in Pleiku, followed by discussion of military situation in MR4 (no enemy-initiated actions, many enemy killed in other contacts).

3. Interspersed were two tapings of Thieu's comments at Cong Hoa stadium -

(a) "Coalition is death"; no tripartite solution.

(b) "We do not fear a cease-fire... but..."

4. Commentary (10-15 minutes)

Discussion of 1952 Geneva Agreement on Laos: tripartite solution betrayed by Communists. So-called neutral force destroyed by Communists.

Communist.
peturbed by Communists. So-called neutral force destroyed by
Discussion of 1924 Geneva Agreement on Laos: tripartite solution

4. <u>Commentary</u> (10-12 minutes)

(p) "We do not fear a cease-fire... put..."

(s) "Coalition is death": no tripartite solution.

stadium -

3. Interfered were two tapings of Thieu's comments at Cong Hos

S. Lengthy exposition of ARVN 53rd Division victories in Pleiku, followed
by discussion of military situation in MR4 (no enemy-initiated actions,

FRIDAY

10-50-75

0700-0742

UNCLASSIFIED

Tin Song, Front page lead story October 20, 1972

PRESIDENT THIEU MEETS ADVISOR KISSINGER WITH A NUMBER OF VIETNAMESE AND US VIP'S IN ATTENDANCE

THE REPUBLIC OF VIET-NAM'S FUTURE WILL BE DECIDED BY THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH VIET-NAM

FOUR NOES STAND IS RECONFIRMED

PRESIDENT THIEU WILL GIVE A FULL REPORT ON NATIONAL ISSUES TO THE PEOPLE OF THE NATION SO THAT THE ENTIRE PEOPLE CAN DECIDE THEIR FUTURE

At 9:00 am this morning, Thursday, October 19, the President of the Republic of Viet-Nam, the National Security Council, and the Republic of Viet-Nam Ambassadors in the United States and at the Paris peace talks met with Dr. Kissinger.

On the Vietnamese side, those in attendance were the President, the Vice President, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, Presidential Special Assistant for Foreign Affairs Nguyen Phu Duc, the President's Private Secretary Hoang Duc Nha and Ambassadors Tran Kim Phuong and Pham Dinh Lam.

On the American side were Dr. Kissinger, National Security Affairs Assistant to the President of the United States, Ambassador Bunker, and General Abrams, Chief of Staff of the US Army.

Dr. Kissinger reported to President Thieu and the National Security Council on the progress of the Paris peace talks.

Although details of the meeting are secret, according to an expert observer, the Republic of Viet-Nam side asserted that any issue related to the internal affairs of South Viet-Nam must be decided by the people of South Viet-Nam-- no one else will be allowed to interfere.

The Republic of Viet-Nam side recalled that the North Vietnamese Communists are the invaders; the Republic of Viet-Nam, the victims. Because of this unsuccessful invasion, there is no reason the North Vietnamese Communists have the right to demand anything from the Republic of Viet-Nam. The Republic of Viet-Nam also especially emphasizes the right of self-determination of the people of South Viet-Nam and states clearly that the Republic of Viet-Nam will not accept a two-, three-, or four-part government, and that any solution must be decided by the people of South Viet-Nam. President Thieu will give a full report on this issue to the people of the nation so that the entire people may decide.

may decide.

a full report on this issue to the people of the nation so that the entire people
must be decided by the people of South Viet-Nam. President Thieu will give
will not accept a two-, three-, or four-bart government, and that any solution
people of South Viet-Nam and states clearly that the Republic of Viet-Nam
of Viet-Nam also especially emphasises the right of self-determination of the
have the right to demand anything from the Republic of Viet-Nam. The Republic
unsuccessful invasion, there is no reason the North Vietnamese Communists
are the invaders; the Republic of Viet-Nam, the victims. Because of this
The Republic of Viet-Nam side recalled that the North Vietnamese Communists

no one else will be allowed to interrise.

affairs of South Viet-Nam must be decided by the people of South Viet-Nam--
the Republic of Viet-Nam side asserted that any issue related to the internal
Although details of the meeting are secret, according to an expert observer,

Dr. Klausinger reported to President Thieu and the National Security Council

On the American side were Dr. Klausinger, National Security Affairs Assistant
to the President of the United States, Ambassador Bunker, and General Apramsa.

I am.

Secretary Hoang Duc Nha and Ambassador Tran Kim Pmung and Pham Dinh
Vasatant for Foreign Affairs Nguyen Phu Duc, the President's Private
President, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, Presidential Special
On the Vietnamese side, those in attendance were the President, the Vice

Dr. Klausinger.

Ambassador in the United States and at the Paris peace talks met with
of Viet-Nam, the National Security Council, and the Republic of Viet-Nam
At 8:00 am this morning, Thursday, October 19, the President of the Republic

DECIDE THEIR FUTURE

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE NATION SO THAT THE ENTIRE PEOPLE CAN
PRESIDENT THIEU WITT GIVE A FUIT REPORT ON NATIONAL ISSUES

LONN JOES STAND IS RECONFORMED

PEOPLE OF SOUTH VIET-NAM

PRESIDENT THIEU MEETS ADVISOR KLAUSINGER WITH A NUMBER OF

Tin Song, Front page lead story October 20, 1975

2.

During the last few days while the US delegation was on its way to Viet-Nam, President Nguyen Van Thieu was continuing wide-ranging consultations with the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, and political parties and affirmed that our stand is to refuse resolutely to accept any concept whatsoever which is not approved by the people of Viet-Nam through democratic procedures.

At the meeting, the Vietnamese personalities again set forth the fundamental issues related to peace in Viet-Nam. The Republic of Viet-Nam will continue to maintain its four noes stand: no coalition, no concession of land, no permission for the Communists to operate in South Viet-Nam in any form, and no Communist-style neutralization. The Republic of Viet-Nam will reject any solution other than that in the message previously sent to the National Assembly. That is, in the military domain a ceasefire must be brought about throughout Indochina. The North Vietnamese Communists must withdraw all their invading troops from all the countries of Indochina back to the North. In the political domain, the North Vietnamese Communists must not interfere in the internal affairs of South Viet-Nam. The issue of that which is called the Liberation Front will be settled according to the eight-point proposal of the allies. Problems involving cultural and commercial exchanges between the North and the South will be settled directly by the Governments of the Republic of Viet-Nam and North Viet-Nam after the war ends.

With regard to the nations of Southeast Asia, the Republic of Viet-Nam will be a nation of peace, freedom, and independence among the countries of the region.

The Vietnamese side also reaffirmed President Thieu's view that a summit meeting of the 10 nations of Southeast Asia to search for a peace formula for the entire region and that it would be the best procedure for bringing about an extended peace in Southeast Asia.

General Abrams reserved Wednesday for discussions with General Frederick Weyand and General John Vogt, respectively Commanders of US Forces in Viet-Nam and of the 7th Air Force--the unit carrying out the bombing of North Viet-Nam. According to AP, diplomatic experts in Washington are all saying that Kissinger's visit to Saigon appears to be one part in the US effort to convince Hanoi of the seriousness of the US position in Paris.

The meeting between President Thieu and Advisor Kissinger lasted from 9:00 am until noon on October 19.

to convince Hanoi of the seriousness of the US position in Paris.
arguing that Kissinger's visit to Saigon appears to be one part in the US effort
North Viet-Nam and of the 7th Air Force--the unit carrying out the bombing of
Weyand and General John Vogt, respectively Commanders of US Forces in
General Aprams reserved Wednesday for discussions with General Frederick

an extended peace in Southeast Asia.
the entire region and that it would be the best procedure for bringing about
meeting of the 10 nations of Southeast Asia to search for a peace formula for
The Vietnamese side also reaffirmed President Thieu's view that a summit

region. I

be a nation of peace, freedom, and independence among the countries of the
With regard to the nations of Southeast Asia, the Republic of Viet-Nam will

North Viet-Nam after the war ends.
be settled directly by the Governments of the Republic of Viet-Nam and
cultural and commercial exchanges between the North and the South will
according to the eight-point proposal of the allies. Problems involving
The issue of that which is called the Liberation Front will be settled
Communists must not interfere in the internal affairs of South Viet-Nam.
of Indochina back to the North. In the political domain, the North Vietnamese
Communists must withdraw all their invading troops from all the countries
tire must be brought about throughout Indochina. The North Vietnamese
sent to the National Assembly. That is, in the military domain a cese-
Viet-Nam will reject any solution other than that in the message previously
in any form, and no Communist-style neutralization. The Republic of
of land, no permission for the Communists to operate in South Viet-Nam
will continue to maintain its four noose stand: no coalition, no concession
mental issues related to peace in Viet-Nam. The Republic of Viet-Nam
At the meeting, the Vietnamese personifies again set forth the funds-

Viet-Nam through democratic procedures.
accept any concept whatsoever which is not approved by the people of
political parties and affirmed that our stand is to refuse resolutely to
consultations with the National Assembly, the Supreme Court, and
Viet-Nam, President Nguyen Van Thieu was continuing wide-ranging
During the last few days while the US delegation was on its way to

S.

TIN SONG

October 20, 1972

## Editorial

## RETURN

Adviser KISSINGER has once again returned to the RVN. This trip was announced by the White House as a trip for routine consultations. But this trip to Viet-Nam is being followed more closely by the public because it comes immediately after the longest secret talks with the North Vietnamese Communists.

What Dr. KISSINGER has been able to set up in the secret talks with the North Vietnamese Communists and what he will discuss with President THIEU is the big question. But those meetings have been kept secret by the participants according to the understandings concerning the talks.

Naturally public opinion on the outside has to guess and to speculate, and the speculations are seen according to the predictions of each group and each individual.

But there is one very obvious point, which is that the return of a special envoy of President NIXON is nothing to be surprised at; this point was made by GVN Foreign Minister TRAN VAN LAM right after the secret meeting took place in Paris. From that fact people see more clearly than ever that the free camp (our side) has coordinated closely not only on a common path but coordinated even on the details of that path.

...2/...

2/...

Obviously, the negotiations, underground or on the surface, are progressing toward a serious stage, so that a close coordination is viewed as necessary and the meaning of Advisor KISSINGER's return trip to the RVN emphasizes that every solution to the Viet-Nam problem does not violate the right of self-determination of the RVN.

The observance of President Nixon's guarantees to the GVN has told the North Vietnamese Communists that they should not expect the US Government to betray an ally. The best thing for the North Vietnamese Communists would be to yield to reason and to follow the recommendations of the US in the words of Ambassador PORTER at the conference table, saying that on Vietnamese internal matters the Communists should speak directly with the GVN.

Also during the past few weeks President THIEU has affirmed that the position of the RVN is under no circumstances to accept a coalition government, a tripartite government (because those forms only lead to a usurpation of power by the Communists) and that the prerequisite was that the North Vietnamese Communist forces end their invasion and withdraw to the North.

...3/...

3/...

President THIEU also made it known that the GVN hopes for a conference of all states of Southeast Asia, in which both North Viet-Nam and Saigon will be ready to meet all delegations of all Southeast Asian countries to discuss together and to find a lasting peace for the entire region. The problem of Viet-Nam for that reason would not be limited to a solution for Viet-Nam alone but would become a common problem of peace and the future of the entire region of Southeast Asia.

Tin Song front page, October 19, 1972

SENATORS, DEPUTIES REVEAL SUBJECTS OF THEIR MEETING WITH PRESIDENT THIEU

PRESIDENT APPEALS TO THE LEGISLATURE TO SHARE RESPONSIBILITY

THE REPUBLIC OF VIET-NAM'S POSITION IS TO THE COMMUNISTS WHAT WATER IS TO FIRE

A CEASEFIRE IS DISCUSSED BY BOTH SIDES

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF THE REPUBLIC OF VIET-NAM WILL BE DECIDED BY THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH VIET-NAM

"There still are difficulties and contradictions in the negotiations over the Vietnam issue, and the positions of both sides still remain intact on the green-covered conference table in Paris". This was the remark made by one of those who met with the President. He said that the concerned parties in Paris had entered serious negotiations but that a solution for Vietnam was still remote, especially with regard to its political future. He also reported that US disengagement from Indochina was the leading topic and the South Vietnamese people's responsibility for defense of their nation had become heavier than ever.

Answering a question, he stated that a ceasefire was mentioned by both sides as a most important move toward peace for all of Indochina, but that no agreement had been reached on its details. Predicting that a ceasefire will come in early 1973, he said, however, that South Vietnam's political future will not be based on the Communists' demands, that is to say that President Nixon's May 8 proposal will be used as a basis for the negotiations. The proposals include cessation of US bombing and mining in exchange for a ceasefire all over Indochina. The ceasefire will go into effect and US military activities will end throughout Indochina when the exchange of prisoners begins. Last of all, the US will announce a pullout of all troops from Vietnam within four months.

With regard to the political future of South Vietnam, the official said that the positions of both sides still remain in conflict as with water and fire and, therefore, the sooner the ceasefire comes the less chance there will be for achievement of a political solution.

be for achievement of a political solution.
and, therefore, the sooner the cessetire comes the less chance there will
the positions of both sides still remain in conflict as with water and fire
With regard to the political future of South Vietnam, the official said that

military activities will end throughout Indochina when the exchange of
cessetire all over Indochina. The cessetire will go into effect and US
The proposals include cessation of US bombing and mining in exchange for a
future will not be passed on the Communists' demands, that is to say that
will come in early 1973, he said, however, that South Vietnam's political
no agreement had been reached on its details. Predicting that a cessetire
sides as a most important move toward peace for all of Indochina, but that
Answering a question, he stated that a cessetire was mentioned by both

bavier than ever.
Vietnamese people's responsibility for defense of their nation had become
US disengagement from Indochina was the leading topic and the South
remote, especially with regard to its political future. He also reported that

had entered serious negotiations but that a solution for Vietnam was still
those who met with the President. He said that the concerned parties in Paris
covered conference table in Paris". This was the remark made by one of

Vietnam issue, and the positions of both sides still remain intact on the green-
"There still are difficulties and contradictions in the negotiations over the

DECIDED BY THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH VIET-NAM
THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF THE REPUBLIC OF VIET-NAM WILL BE

WATER IS TO FIRE

THE REPUBLIC OF VIET-NAM'S POSITION IS TO THE COMMUNIST'S WHAT

PRESIDENT THIEN

SENATORS' DEPUTIES REVEAL SUBJECTS OF THEIR MEETING WITH

Tin Song front page, October 19, 1973

NEWS SUMMARY

Friday, A. M., Oct. 20, 1972

1. SAYS THIEU REFUSES COALITION GOVERNMENT:

Saigon -- Presidential envoy Henry A. Kissinger conferred for five hours Thursday with President Nguyen Van Thieu, a fierce opponent of any Vietnam peace plan that includes a coalition with the Communists.

Thieu's refusal to agree to a coalition government was reemphasized by an Information Ministry statement issued during the first of Kissinger's two meetings with the President.

"The Republic of Vietnam will not accept a three part coalition government in Vietnam or any solution that is not accepted by the people of South Vietnam through democratic methods, the unprecedented statement said.

Normally, a joint communique is issued by the Americans and the South Vietnamese when all consultations have been completed.

2. REDS CAPTURE HAMLET NEAR SAIGON: Saigon --

Communist troops captured a hamlet 10 miles northeast of Saigon early Thursday in their deepest penetration toward the capital in more than three years, field reports said.

At the same time, Government troops wrested control of three other hamlets further from Saigon away from Viet Cong and North Vietnamese control, military officers said.

3. DEMOLITION TEAM INTERCEPTED: Saigon --

South Vietnamese troops intercepted a Communist demolition team near coastal Highway 1 and drove off two probing attacks along the defense perimeter of the former imperial capital of Hue Wednesday, military spokesmen said.

4. KISSINGER TASK: MORE FLEXIBILITY FROM THIEU:

Washington -- Behind their exchange of public recriminations, Washington and Hanoi in their secret talks have made "significant" progress which could lead at least to an interim peace pact in Vietnam, high officials said Thursday.

Presidential Adviser Henry A. Kissinger's task in Saigon this week, they said, was to persuade South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu that the first evidences of flexibility which the Communists have shown were worth following up.

Thieu was described as "highly suspicious" of the whole operation.

-2-

5. STEPS TAKEN FOR MILITARY CONTROL: Washington--

U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird moved Thursday to strengthen civilian control of the military and expand the inspection general system to prevent a recurrence of incidents such as the unauthorized bombing of North Vietnam.

Laird announced that he has ordered an inspection general system created in the military's unified commands which would report to the Secretary of Defense through the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

6. 13 KILLED IN MINED ROAD: Saigon --

Sharp fighting erupted Wednesday at opposite ends of South Vietnam, and 13 civilians were reported killed and six wounded when a minibus triggered a Communist road mine in the Mekong Delta south of Saigon.

In the northern quarter of South Vietnam, North Vietnamese troops rained nearly 1,000 artillery, rocket and mortar shells on three Government positions ranging from 25 miles northwest of Hue to 15 miles southeast and southwest of the old imperial capital.

7. CAMBODIA CONCERNED OVER CEASE-FIRE EFFECTS:

Phnom Penh -- The Cambodian government declared Thursday that a cease-fire in Indochina 'must necessarily be followed by an immediate and total withdrawal of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces from the Khmer territory.'

The Government statement expressed its concern that Cambodia might tunble to Communists in the shuffle of Indochina settlement. Vietnamese and Khmer communists control well over two-thirds of the country's territory.

8. FIGHTING ON PHNOM PENH DEFENSE PERIMETER:

Phnom Penh -- Fighting flared up on the outskirts of Phnom Penh's defense perimeter early this morning, the Cambodian High Command reported.

The Command said North Vietnamese build-up around Phnom Penh has increased, giving rise to speculation that Thursday's activity may signal a new Communist attack on the capital.

9. THAI OFFICIALS ACCUSE NORTH VIETNAM OF BASE

ATTACKS: Bangkok -- Thai officials have claimed for the first time they have positive proof that North Vietnamese regular troops were involved in sapper attacks on two U.S. Air Bases in northeast Thailand earlier this month.

10. NORTH VIETNAM: 'AS FIRM AS A ROCK': Tokyo --

North Vietnam says it is "as firm as a rock" and that as of last Tuesday it has shot down 4,002 U.S. planes, including "24 B52 strategic bombers and five F-111 swing-wing planes, the latest model in the U.S. air arsenal," Hanoi reported Friday.

... VIETNAM ALLIES MEET, p. 1

... EEC SUMMIT OPENS, p. 10

# KISSINGER-THIEU TALKS IN SAIGON

## Summary

Reports that Henry Kissinger and President Thieu were holding a series of meetings in Saigon produced a widespread impression in foreign media that the allies were unable to agree on conditions for a Vietnam settlement.

Limited comment generally assumed that Mr. Thieu and his views were the principal obstacles to a common position.

Countering that assumption, the London *Daily Telegraph* argued that "this simplistic picture ignores or inverts all the facts.... Mr. Thieu is rightly seeking a genuine settlement, covering Laos and Cambodia as well."

Speculative reports and editorials supposed that Hanoi and the U.S. were close to a solution.

-- The *Times* of London stated that "by all accounts, a draft plan for a coalition government in South Vietnam had been roughed out in Paris..."

-- West German TV said U.S. "Government quarters" had indicated that the U.S. and North Vietnamese positions on an interim government in Saigon were "almost identical" and that a cease-fire agreement was possible "almost immediately" if Thieu would yield on terms.

-- Italian radio observed this morning, "It is more difficult to convince an ally than an enemy."

Monitored output indicates that Hanoi, Peking and Moscow have not reported Mr. Kissinger's consultations in Saigon.

*

*

*

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London: "Thieu Undermines Hope"

British papers differed as to whether President Thieu and his views were the main obstacles to early peace in Vietnam.

The independent *Times* of London said reports of no progress in the Saigon talks "go far to undermine the hopes for a Vietnamese settlement raised by Dr. Kissinger's intensive talks with North Vietnamese leaders in Paris over the past two weeks. By all accounts, a draft plan for a coalition government in South Vietnam had been roughed out in Paris, together with the means for securing a cease-fire. What remained to be agreed was President Thieu's part of the bargain..."

The paper concluded:

"It is in Saigon that Dr. Kissinger's arguments will have to be pressed even more strongly if he is to complete his task as a peacemaker."

The conservative London *Daily Mail* reported that Mr. Thieu "bluntly refused to make any concessions to the Communists to help end the Vietnam war quickly.... It dampened hopes, fired by Kissinger's unexpected visit, that a cease-fire is in sight." The paper theorized:

"Mr. Nixon wants to avoid a direct confrontation with his South Vietnamese ally so close to the... Presidential election. But Thieu will not be allowed to stand indefinitely, in the way of a solution.... Nixon would have to be very fed up with Thieu to accept a solution that would be tantamount to a sentence of death on South Vietnam's independent future."

"Thieu Is Being Misrepresented"

On the other hand, the conservative *Daily Telegraph*, which supports U.S. Vietnam policy, asserted today:

"President Thieu is being widely misrepresented as the only obstacle to success in the mounting flurries of

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secret peace negotiations between the now almost continuously airborne Dr. Kissinger and senior North Vietnamese envoys. Whenever, as now, Dr. Kissinger turns up in Saigon, expectations are built up that at last President Nixon is going to twist Mr. Thieu's arm and tell him he must either stop obstructing or be left on his own without American help. Thieu's Waterloo?

"This simplistic picture ignores or inverts all the facts. Mr. Nixon, while offering generous peace terms, and while naturally eager to clinch it before the elections, continues to repeat that the Communists will not get at the conference table what they failed to get on the battlefield.

"It is also a travesty to describe Mr. Thieu as a puppet. He held the country together during the Communists' spring onslaught, and is in full control. He backs Mr. Nixon's peace plan, has offered the Communists equal rights in free elections, and would moreover stand down before the election."

The paper noted that "the North Vietnamese, by contrast, have been insisting on the sacking of Mr. Thieu and the imposition on Saigon of a nominated government. In this they would have two shares, the present government three shares, and the opposition three shares. The country would then fall apart and become an easy prey.

"Even if Hanoi, abandoning hope of getting everything on a plate from a President McGovern, is now prepared to modify these demands, there are still dire perils, in this and in other respects. An 'in place' cease-fire would leave the North Vietnamese invaders distributed in 'leopard's spot' areas in which they are already preparing to revert from the failed blitzkrieg to the more congenial guerrilla war.

"Mr. Thieu is rightly seeking a genuine settlement, covering Laos and Cambodia as well. He has proved a winner, and Mr. Nixon should continue to back him."

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## TV: "Cease-fire Will Not Fix Everything"

Political commentator James Cameron said last night on BBC television that "as we watch the global scurryings of Dr. Kissinger, we are given to understand that the Vietnam war is likely to end at any minute or at least before the American election, so everything is going to be okay. This is bunk, of course, since even if there was a cease-fire tomorrow, it will take years to normalize humanity in Southeast Asia, if indeed that can ever happen." His remarks accompanied an interview with two returned Vietnam veterans, Mark Lennox and Air Force police Sergeant Joe Eggers, who described horrors of combat. Eggers said burning the homes of South Vietnamese "was very cruel... but I didn't think of it at the time."

## West Germany: "Massive U.S. Pressure"

West German television and newspapers prominently played reports that Mr. Kissinger's visit "has not produced the expected breakthrough" and that the U.S. "is determined to bring massive pressure to bear on Thieu, if necessary, to bring about at least a cease-fire before the elections."

Reports from Washington said "Government quarters" indicated that the U.S. and North Vietnamese positions on an interim government in Saigon were "almost identical" and that a cease-fire agreement was possible "almost immediately" if President Thieu would end his resistance to the terms.

## "Thieu Also Blocks Laos and Cambodia Solution"

Today's left-center Frankfurter Rundschau, an opponent of U.S. policy in Vietnam, said a cease-fire "seems possible" in Vietnam and that "apparently only Thieu opposes it." The paper asserted that the U.S. "should have sufficient leverage on him to make him yield." Of President Thieu's statement that a Vietnamese government must have "a mandate from the people," the paper wrote:

> "This is the first time that he has shown so much understanding of democracy.... But Thieu is also blocking solutions for Laos and Cambodia... His refusal to agree to a cease-fire stands in the way of a compromise in all of Indochina... It would be macabre to see Thieu forcing U.S. imperialist action against himself."

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Influential right-center Frankfurter Allgemeine, under the headline "Kissinger Is Making Progress," said yesterday that "technical preparations" for a cease-fire were "in full swing at the Pentagon and the State Department," that France was "playing an important role as mediator behind the scenes," and that all concerned were maintaining "complete official silence."

Asserting that Mr. Kissinger had made more progress in the Paris talks "than is generally assumed," it concluded:

> "Hanoi has obviously become more forthcoming as a result of both the American air offensive and diplomatic pressure from Moscow."

A Washington correspondent of Munich's independent *Sueddeutsche Zeitung* wrote that President Thieu "is the key figure" and that Mr. Kissinger's purpose was "to bring massive pressure on Thieu not to oppose the settlement that is being worked out between Hanoi and Washington." He wrote there were "indications" that the U.S. wanted Thieu to cease his opposition to a coalition government "because Hanoi seems to agree now to Thieu's playing a limited role as the representative of the present Saigon leaders in a coalition with neutrals and Communists."

Independent-right *Die Welt*, Hamburg, ran a Washington report that "diplomatic sources" predicted Washington and Hanoi would issue "a joint statement announcing a political settlement of the Vietnam war before the elections."

## "Thieu Has Powerful Friends"

An analyst in the influential political weekly *Die Zeit* said "key points of possible agreement" had been reached in the secret Paris talks--cease-fire on the existing military situation, a coalition government with the NLF and possibly President Thieu, neutral status for South Vietnam, and supervision of the peace settlement by big powers including France and at least one Communist power. The writer asserted that Moscow favors but Peking rejects international supervision. He concluded:

> "Thieu publicly has rejected all of these solutions. His resistance prompted the Kissinger visit to Saigon. But

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Thieu has powerful friends, including Ambassador Bunker, who has supported him since the Johnson era, and several U. S. officers who adhere to MacArthur's principle that there is no substitute for victory."

Sensationalist illustrated weekly *Der Stern* reported from Saigon that "only one man stands in the way of peace--President Thieu, the man who is afraid of peace." The report said Mr. Thieu continues to talk of "fighting on to final victory," but now "the decisions are being made over his head." The writer stated that President Nixon wants to live up to his "campaign promise of 1968" to end a war"which has brought nothing but misery and death."

### Rome TV: "Thieu Expects Easing After U. S. Election"

State-run Italian TV reported last night that "for the present, it does not seem as though Kissinger has been able to overcome Thieu's opposition to a peace treaty that would exclude him from a position of power."

"According to Western observers, Thieu hopes that by being intransigent he can survive until after the U. S. elections... since he is convinced that with that deadline past, U. S. diplomatic pressure will slacken, thus leaving him more space and more time..."

### "Harder to Convince an Ally"

State-run Italian radio declared this morning:

"The Americans are apparently resigned to a coalition government... Observers believe that a general agreement has already been reached with the North Vietnamese. Hence Kissinger's insistence with Thieu...

"It is more difficult to convince the ally than the enemy... Meanwhile, the North Vietnamese are trying to achieve as many military successes as possible in order to arrive at a cease-fire in a strong position..."

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A New York correspondent of left-of-center *La Stampa* of Turin speculated that "nobody can still doubt that an agreement in principle was reached between North Vietnam and the U.S. on a cease-fire and Thieu's withdrawal. According to Washington rumors," he continued, "a date has already been set for the official announcement on October 23 or 24...and Thieu will call a surprise referendum on a cease-fire and the Saigon coalition government."

Socialist *Avanti* of Rome said today that "Washington-Saigon relations are at a critical stage because of the dictator's opposition to a coalition government." The paper asked: "What will Washington's reaction be to this slap in the face?... Will there be a break?... Presumably, after this slap Nixon will get angry and will send Thieu to the devil..."

Independent-conservative *La Nazione* of Florence remarked this morning:

"Nixon, of course, would never use the methods employed by the Kennedy Administration when it got rid of Diem in 1962... America can make use of huge economic, military and political means to exert its pressure..."

### Paris: AFP Story of Communist "Concessions"

French media, which have given little space to the Kissinger trip, today carried an Agence France-Presse report citing a South Vietnamese senator as saying that the Americans have told President Thieu that the Communists have made major concessions, and that South Vietnam should accept their solution: a cease-fire and a tripartite government.

Catholic *La Croix* of Paris yesterday ran the view of a correspondent just back from eight months in South Vietnam that "the broad majority of the population of South Vietnam does not want Communism.... There are, to be sure, 'Washington men' in Saigon but the wish of the great majority of the South Vietnamese is to get rid of any foreign interference with their affairs. Among foreigners they include the North Vietnamese."

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## Austria: 1954 Refugees in Danger

Der Volksbote of Innsbruck, an influential Catholic weekly, pointed to the danger that the North Vietnamese refugees who had fled south in 1954 "will now be liquidated together with the war itself." The article called the refugees "the mainstay" of the Thieu Government "and therefore, also of the Americans" in resisting Communism, and concluded:

> "Thus America's responsibility is greater than ever, and precisely at a time when the U.S. is ceasing to play the role of world policeman. The end of the predominance of the two superpowers, and with it a redistribution of power in world affairs, is certainly necessary and can no longer be halted. But the Vietnam peace will show whether this is taking place to the detriment of small nations resisting the Communist lust for power. Thus it concerns Europe, too."

## Bangkok: "Thailand, Others Should Participate"

Some Thai papers have speculated that an end to the Vietnam conflict is in sight. The Thai editor-in-chief of the British-owned Bangkok Post declared:

> "Washington should realize that it is necessary, indeed imperative, for Thailand to participate in any Vietnam settlement. Thailand has done a lot to help the U.S. and South Vietnam to withstand the North Vietnamese onslaught....

> "It is about time Thailand got together with other countries which have contributed troops and other assistance to South Vietnam, and which also have very vital interests in the outcome of the Vietnam conflict, to discuss the situation and seek participation in the shaping of a settlement."

## Vientiane: Souvanna Phouma View

Vientiane domestic radio yesterday quoted Prince Souvanna as telling Japanese newsmen that he has always wanted the Laos and Vietnam questions

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to be treated separately because, internationally, the Laos question was
settled according to the 1962 Geneva agreements." It also quoted him
as saying:

> "It is possible that the war will continue in Cambodia, following the settlement of the Laos and Vietnam problems. Now is too early to predict. We do not know what the big powers are going to do. Everything depends on them. However, the Cambodian issue is a big issue to us."

## Cambodian Statement

The Cambodian domestic radio yesterday broadcast an official statement which said the Government "contends that all the countries of Indochina have an almost similar concern about an eventual cease-fire and that a cease-fire is significant only if it is observed in all Indochinese countries."

## New Zealand: "Hazards of Partition"

The *Press* of Christchurch speculated today:

> "As a last recourse, the possibility of an agreed partition of Vietnam may have to be considered. Acceptance of this by the south would be an act of faith; there could be no real safeguard against a renewal of the Communist bid to overrun the whole country.

> "Militarily, the north is in no position at the moment to launch another offensive. By entering some form of political association with the south, Hanoi could buy time in which to gain strength."

## Kuala Lumpur: "A Trojan Horse?"

The conservative *Straits Times* of Kuala Lumpur observed yesterday, "There are plenty of straws blowing around Vietnam, and in Washington, Hanoi and Paris. But nobody is sure of the wind." Judging that the negotiators must be "fairly close" to agreement, the paper said the presence of General Abrams in Saigon "gives substance to the assumption that the final breakthrough depends on concessions in Saigon.

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"President Thieu must first be convinced that the provisional coalition will not be a Trojan horse."

## Manila TV Cites McGovern View

Manila television stations said the Kissinger and Abrams arrivals increased already rampant speculation in Saigon of an imminent settlement. One station last night cited Senator McGovern as saying that despite recent high-powered comings and goings he did not see any chance for an early end to the war, and that while he hoped he was wrong, "I think they are playing games."

## Communist Media: No Comment

Monitored output did not indicate that Hanoi, Peking or Moscow media have reported Mr. Kissinger's arrival in Saigon.

DRV delegation spokesman Nguyen Thanh Le, following the last private meeting at Paris on Wednesday, told a press conference that the negotiations "are still hindered by two basic questions--military and political--because of the intransigence of the Nixon Administration."

Agence France-Presse quoted him as saying, "As of today, October 18, the Nixon Administration has refused to end its war of aggression and refuses to abandon its agreements with Nguyen Van Thieu."

*

*

*

## EEC SUMMIT OPENS

West European media gave extensive coverage to the opening yesterday of the European Economic Community summit meeting in Paris.

Available reports indicated that news accounts did not call attention to President Pompidou's warm references to European ties with the U.S.

Many observers stressed the influence on the deliberations of the offstage American presence. Some considered the almost concurrent signing of the U.S. -USSR trade agreement as significant in connection with U.S. -European relationships.

*

*

*

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## French Communist Paper on Pompidou Speech

The only available comment on President Pompidou's references to U.S.-European ties in his opening speech yesterday was that of Yves Moreau in Communist **Humanite** of Paris. He wrote that Mr. Pompidou had "personally insisted on 'the close ties of the Atlantic alliance.' Little Europe, as he see it, 'finds its security in the American allaince' and it would be 'absurd' for the Common Market to try to resist U.S. domination... After that, Mr. Pompidou may well speak not of the independence but of the 'regional reality' of Little Europe... What is the value of this oratory after the admission that the interests of American imperialism prevail over anything else?"

### "Cannot Ignore U.S.-USSR Agreement"

Independent-left Le Monde said the European leaders meeting in Paris "cannot possibly ignore" the U.S.-Soviet trade agreement. The paper pointed out that the accord had been "signed between partners considering themselves equals. This is no small progress, and something more than orders and shipments might eventually--and perhaps accidentally--result from it."

"Will the equals join forces one day? The Nine cannot avoid asking themselves that question at a time when there is a glaring contrast between their economic power and their feeble, much too feeble, influence on world affairs."

### "No Discussion of Common Defense"

Today's financial Les Echos of Paris pointed out that "a taboo topic for the Europeans, the problem of an integrated common defense, was not raised yesterday and will not be raised today" at the meeting. It said that "this tacit agreement" not to raise the question "seriously mortgages the results expected from the conference, in particular on monetary matters. Can one really make progress toward a common currency, and thus challenge the hegemony of the dollar, when one depends on the American umbrella for one's defense?"

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"Can Trade War Be Avoided?"

Moderately conservative Figaro headlined yesterday, "Nixon's Shadow Looms Over Summit." Alain Vernay wrote:

"Paradoxically, the question of EEC relations with Japan, the countries of the East, and above all the U.S., is no- where to be found on the summit agenda. Yet these relations will be involved, directly or indirectly, at every stage of the discussions, since the intention is to move to- ward economic and monetary union and social progress, and these are changes that will have a very concrete impact on third parties..."

Vernay asserted that the agenda omitted the most important question: "to decide whether the summit delegations can avoid a trade war between the U.S. and the Community after the American Presidential elections." He concluded:

"There is every indication that commercial problems will become very acute as soon as President Nixon is re-elected. It is therefore possible, as is rumored in London, that Premier Heath will suggest to his colleagues that President Nixon be invited to meet with them to discuss matters on equal terms, instead of resorting to successive dialogues bound to create suspicion among those not present."

Frankfurt: "What About Monetary Policy and U.S.?

West German media observers displayed little optimism about progress at the summit meeting.

Right-center Frankfurter Allgemeine declared today that references in opening-day speeches "to Europe as 'a zone of stability,' to its desire to speak with one voice, to action programs for social progress, and to 'the quality of life' fail to impress us. This conference will have to prove itself in simpler and more concrete matters. For instance....what are the ideas of the heads of government regarding monetary policy toward Washington? We are more interested in the durability and solidarity of intimate relations within the Atlantic Community than in Europe's showing a profile of its own."

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"Confrontation Emerging"

Independent weekly *Die Zeit*, out yesterday, asserted that "some consider the American peril just a nightmare, but August 15, 1971 gave us a foretaste..." The paper predicted:

> "A hard confrontation between a disunited European Community and an increasingly inward-looking America is emerging. It is an America which worries about its export markets, is increasingly pervaded by a protectionist mood, and would prefer ending its balance of payments difficulties at Europe's expense...."

> "A high degree of European identity is required to enable the Community to survive the American challenge unscathed, and to see to it that European-U.S. cooperation continues despite transatlantic selfishness."

Independent *Sueddeutsche Zeitung* of Munich noted yesterday that "France rejects American ideas of tying reform of the international monetary system to a new deal in U.S.-EEC trade relations. However, in view of the American election campaign, the French delegation will try to avoid open controversy on this matter at the Paris meeting."

It observed that the French position "in any case is incompatible with Chancellor Brandt's call for establishment of a permanent organ to coordinate U.S. and EEC interests. Moreover, France is eager to strengthen EEC positions in the Mediterranean and Africa and to protect them against American interests."

**London: "Nixon Meeting With Enlarged EEC?"**

The liberal *Guardian* of Manchester and London said President Nixon had "hinted that he would welcome a meeting next year with the heads of government of all the members of the enlarged EEC. Both Mr. Heath and Chancellor Brandt would welcome the idea and would no doubt like it if this week's EEC summit in Paris were to extend an invitation to the U.S. President to come to Europe and meet them together next year.

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"However, there is no consensus about this in the Community, and President Pompidou is still apparently reluctant to single out the U.S. in the summit communique...."

"If President Nixon is returned to power, the U.S. will undoubtedly give high priority to all aspects of its relations with the EEC countries, including defense and political questions as well as trade and monetary reform."

Zurich: "How Far Should Communality Go?"

Switzerland's prestigious Neue Zuercher Zeitung yesterday saw the summit meeting's principal task as "finding formulas by which a bridge is to be built between the proponents of a 'European' and an 'Atlantic' Europe, and between regional and world-wide orientation of foreign trade policy. And regarding the dialogue with the U.S., which is becoming more difficult every day, the EEC hopes that France will realize the need for regulation compelling Washington to deal with EEC institutions instead of with the individual capitals...."

The paper pointed out that "in the coming international negotiations on monetary and trade policy, the EEC members will act en bloc. The summit meeting will have to answer the question of how far such communality should go in dealing with the socialist countries and particularly within the CSCE framework."

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EXCERPT FROM GVN NEWS RELEASE - October 19, 1972

Observers have noted that while the American delegation was visiting
Vietnam President Thieu was continuing broad consultations with the Nation-
al Assembly, the Supreme Court, and the political parties. The President
reaffirmed our position that we will never accept the tri-partite principle
and never accept any solution not approved by the Vietnamese people through
democratic procedures. . . .

democratic procedures. . . .
and never accept any solution not approved by the Vietnamese people through
restored our position that we will never accept the tri-battite principle
of Viva-empt, the Supreme Court, and the political parties. The President
Vietnam President Truon was continuing broad consultations with the Nation-
Opervers have noted that while the American delegation was visiting

EXCEPT FROM CAN CANE NEWS BELEVE - October 19, 1975

democratic procedures. . . .
and never accept any solution not approved by the Vietnamese people through
reinstated our position that we will never accept the tri-partite principle
of Vaucluse, the Supreme Court, and the political parties. The President
Vietnam President This was continuing press consultations with the Nation-
Opinion have noted that while the American delegation was visiting

EXCERPT FROM CAM BEM RELEASE - October 19, 1975

France's Invisible Men

NEW YORK TIMES 18 OCTOBER 1972

By C. L. SULZBERGER

PARIS—The French role in seeking to accommodate and even facilitate peace in Indochina has been consistently invisible, discreet and sometimes effective. Neither this role nor its objectives are understood by many Americans.

The principal goal is to end a savage war between France's greatest ally and the North Vietnamese, whom France respects, having both administered them and been defeated by them. The ultimate aim is to establish a neutralized area in which French influence can insure that Western interests are not wholly discarded because of a power vacuum exposed to China and Russia.

Apart from serving as host to the stalemated official peace negotiations, France has played an intermittent but occasionally important part behind the scenes. The successive chiefs of the Quai d'Orsay, Asian department, Etienne Manach', new Ambassador to Peking, and Henri Froment-Meurice, are carefully professional diplomats and by no means anti-American although they have often disagreed with Washington policy.

Throughout the Paris talks they gave advice to both sides, when asked, and transmitted messages with maximum objectivity. Moreover, a vital unfrenchian role was played by another settlement, Jean Sainteny, who was responsible for helping start the secret parleys between Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho of the Hanoi Politiburo.

Sainteny, a banker with long Asian experience, was parachuted from Kunming, China, to Vietnam as head of de Gaulle's mission there in 1945 and, incidentally, was given a bad time by hostile American officers. He has never allowed that sad experience to mar his friendship for the U.S.A.

Because Sainteny signed the first accord between France and Ho Chi Minh in 1946, many Americans including Bobby Kennedy and Ambassador Averell Harriman elicited his opinions in their search for peace. Richard Nixon came to know him before he was elected President and in 1966 asked him for advice on how to deal with North Vietnam.

The banker had also become a personal friend of Kissinger who taught Mme. Sainteny at Harvard summer school. During one of the Frenchmen's frequent visits to Washington, Kissinger asked if he thought it possible to hold secret negotiations parallel to the stalemated formal talks. Sainteny agreed to transmit a letter from Nixon to Ho Chi Minh proposing contacts.

When Sainteny returned to Paris in July 1969 he discreetly passed this message to Xuan Thuy, head of the North Vietnamese delegation, for transmission to Hanoi. A positive response came back. On Aug. 4, 1969, Sainteny offered his apartment as a site for the first Kissinger meeting with the Communists. Sainteny remained only to introduce the participants then, after showing them where drinks were kept, departed.

At that first talk those present were Kissinger, Gen. Vernon Walters, U.S. military attaché and an expert French linguist, Xuan Thuy, and his interpreter. Neither Sainteny nor his home were employed for any subsequent

contacts but the French Government has helped with logistical and security support.

The French are deeply eager for peace but have no illusions that agreement will be easy. The two crucial obstacles, for Paris, are Hanoi's and Washington's military reluctance to stop fighting.

As France sees it, North Vietnam has been geared to a wartime economy for so long that it feels installe dans la guerre and almost afraid to face the immense problems of returning to a peacetime economy. This remains true despite Hanoi's acknowledged error in launching the 1972 offensive which, despite great cost, has failed to achieve its principal objectives.

Likewise, many French seem persuaded the Pentagon also wants to keep the war going. While civilian Washington recognizes the need of

peace—perhaps even more than Hanoi does—there is a belief here that Vietnam has become for the U.S. military what Spain, during the civil war, was for the Germans: an admirable laboratory in which to test new weapons and tactics.

Some Frenchmen, indeed, suspect the recent bombing of their mission in Hanoi was deliberately mounted by American officers determined not to relinquish the "laboratory" and therefore ready to sabotage peace.

This is ugly speculation and is by no means widespread. Moreover, it is already evident that Paris is not going to permit either its pride or its official anger about the bombing to disturb relations with the United States or to block the painfully slow advance in the direction of settlement. Visible irritation at the bombing incident will not be allowed to hinder France's invisible role.

Vietnam: Hopes and Questions

By BERNARD GWERTZMAN
Special to The New York Times

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17—

Henry A. Kissinger's talks in Paris have raised not only hopes in Washington, but also many questions, for which there are some clear answers, and an even larger number of guesses, surmises and "I don't knowns."

Q. What makes these negotiations in Paris and elsewhere different from previous fruitless sessions? A. We don't know for sure. But following President Nixon's trip to Moscow in May, President Nikolai V. Podgorny visited Hanoi, and since July the pace of the Paris talks has quickened. Well placed sources say the talks have been more substantive and less polemical than before.

Q. Does this mean the Russians have been active?

A. Probably, Hanoi has hinted in its own press that both Moscow and Peking have been pressing it to reach a political settlement that probably falls short of North Vietnam's maximum goals.

Q. What were these goals?

A. An end to American involvement in Indochina, the topping of the Saigon Government by President Nguyen Van Thieu and the establishment of a three-part coalition Government that would sooner or later become dominated by the Vietcong.

Q. Has Hanoi changed its goals?

A. Not publicly. But in its statements recently Hanoi has insisted that it did not want to impose a Communist government in Saigon. But rather, a "truly neutral" one in which the Vietcong, the Saigon Government and unnamed neutrals would have equal shares of power. Officially, Hanoi still de-

Clear Answers on the Prospects of Peace Talks Are Few

mands that Mr. Thieu resign, but hints have come from Hanoi recently that it was prepared for him to stay as head of the Saigon part of the coalition.

Kissinger View Recalled

Q. What does the United States say about Hanoi's position?

A. It has said very little lately. In the past, Mr. Kissinger has said a coalition was only a "veneer" for a Vietcong takeover since the Communists were the best organized group in South Vietnam, but speculation is here heavy that Mr. Kissinger has been pressing for assurances from Hanoi that a new Saigon Government, would, new Saigon Government, would

Q. What kind of assurances?

A. We are now in the United States who would want a cease-fire arrangement by which Hanoi would pull its forces out of the South and not send any back into the country, thereby preventing the Communists from taking over the country by force after the Americans ceased their military operations. Also, guarantees would have to worked out to make sure that the Saigon Government part of the coalition would include the strongest anti-Communist elements, and that the neutral third was truly made up of nationalists who were neither pro-Hanoi nor pro-Thieu.

Q. Would this really guarantee that the Communists would not take power eventually in Saigon?

A. No. But it would satisfy President Nixon's pledge that he would not make a deal "imposing" a Communist regime in Saigon.

Q. What does Mr. Thieu think about such possibilities?

Thieu a Sticking Point

A. Publicly, he has strongly opposed any coalition with the Communists on the ground that history has proven that once in a coalition the Communists seek to take all power through intimidation, assassination, and subversion. He has supported a cease-fire so long as it included all of Indochina—Laos and Cambodia as well as Vietnam.

Q. Doesn't this look as if Saigon and Washington may not see eye to eye?

A. Yes. But so far, the differences have been muted. Mr. Thieu probably realizes that he has a minimum leverage on the United States.

Q. Will Mr. Thieu be more conciliatory toward the idea of a neutral or coalition government?

A. In the past, he has usually yielded to American persuasion.

Q. What about the American prisoners of war held in Hanoi?

A. They would presumably be released as part of the total settlement, which would have to include the cease-fire and political agreements.

Q. When will such a settlement occur?

A. Nobody knows. Many difficult problems remain to be settled, not the least of which is Mr. Thieu's resistance to a coalition. Nevertheless, many normally skeptical officials here believe that the odds definitely favor an accord of some kind in the near future. Some even talk of a settlement by Election Day, but others believe that it will take longer than that.

3-F

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

6 OCTOBER 1972 (18)

Royce Brier

Strange Logic in
The Bombings

THERE ARE OMINOUS Indochina bombing statistics, but if you hope to discover a rationale behind them, you will be puzzled.

Pentagon said that since January 1, more than 800,000 tons of "war ammunition" have been used over North and South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

This compares with 763,000 tons used in the same area in 1971. The all-weapons total since 1965 is about 7.5 million tons. A New York Times dispatch says it is roughly 3.5 times the explosive tonnage in World War II used by all allies in all war theaters.

How can a small area, a mere dot on a global map, absorb such a destructive shower without exterminating the inhabitants, and reducing all human structures to dust? Probably no one can answer that question, though there may be multifarious technical explanations for the puzzle.

FOR THE REALITY IS that most of the inhabitants of the target area are still alive, and still extremely active.

But the puzzle behind the puzzle is even more significant for the Americans at home.

There is a curious, almost weird analysis by what are called "U.S. intelligence agencies" in the Times story. These agencies "emphasized" that "while American air activities played a key role in blunting the communist offensive in South Vietnam, the intensive bombings in the north have failed to interfere meaningfully with the flow of troops and supplies to the south."

IS THIS intelligent intelligence, or only emphasized baloney? How does one "blunt" an enemy offensive, without substantially interfering with the flow of enemy troops and supplies? You'll have to give up. Maybe intelligence agencies are graduates from the school of self-contradiction.

Anyway, there are the troops and supplies, and there is no knowing if the enemy offensive has lost its momentum, or is regrouping for a new drive.

The northern bombing was originally explained as a move to protect American troops under President Nixon's wind-down program. The program is almost completed, and small American formations remaining are not in combat. The brunt of the defense in the south rests in Saigon troops. Yet the bombing continues at high intensity. It may therefore be assumed the bombing is now to protect South Vietnamese forces.

But this is a reason differing from the original one, and far less persuasive with the American people at home, though Washington may say it is necessary during peace negotiations. President Nixon is the principal here, and he gives the orders, but he is subject to advice issuing from the Pentagon.

This murky, altered situation sets up a final puzzle, and the President should clarify it, or require his military advisers to clarify it. As it stands, the bombing has the color of a sort of automatic, sleep-walking continuance which enhances the unreality marking this war for too many years.

4-F

WASHINGTON POST

18 OCTOBER 1972

Victor Lorza

After the War—
What Then?

SOMETIMES A COLUMN really touches the reader— when it tells him, for instance, that the war in Vietnam is virtually over, as this column has been saying. The war has been with us so long that many people find it difficult to adjust to the idea that it might soon be finished.

"But suppose you are right," they say, "what do you think will happen next?" And they expect some profound truth about the cease-fire terms, or the domino theory, or the international balance of power.

But this is where the commentator's instant wisdom leaves him and despair takes over. Their questions—your questions—show how the war has perverted us all, how the politics of the war has hardened our hearts and closed our minds to the things that really matter.

What is going to happen next? Americans are not used to dealing with the aftermath of war in their own homes. They fight other peoples' wars, in other peoples' homes, they make sure that the powers of light triumph over the powers of darkness—as in World War I, in World War II, as in Vietnam, maybe—and they go back to America.

WHAT IS GOING to happen next in Vietnam? Each of us has his own secret dread, a shameful recollection, his own troubled conscience. The GIs who came back from the war in Europe, and those now coming back from Vietnam, had to kill people — and no one ever forgets an experience like this.

My experience in World War II was different. I found myself in Europe, as a boy of 14, driven back and forth by the tides of war, fighting desperately to stay alive in the mass of humanity that was being ground to dust. I learned to lie, and to cheat, and to steal, not from the rich and the mighty, but from poor unfortunates like myself who were also lying, cheating, and stealing from me so that they might survive.

It wasn't pretty.

This is what the war did to children, and what it is doing to them today in Vietnam, and will go on doing to them long after the fighting is over. Orphaned children,

abandoned children, lost children. Refugee children. The children of Mylai after the GIs have done shooting, the children of Hue after the VC have done shooting. Bombed out children, maimed children, blinded children. Broken children—broken in spirit.

It isn't pretty.

There will be swarms of children—outcasts, rejected, unwanted, uncared for. The war will end, life will begin to return to normal. The beggar children, the orphans, the thieves, will see other children leading normal lives, with parents, going to school, playing children's games, eating their fill — yes, eating without apparently worrying where the next meal is going to come from.

YOU DON'T KNOW how important food can be, and a place of your own at school, and a clean shirt. No, not a change of shirt every day, just once a week. You don't know how important it is to have some one say a friendly word to you, perhaps smile, treat you as a human being.

How can one convey the depths of misery to people who have never known it? How can one tell what it's like to be hungry to a man who has never been hungry? How can one explain what pain is to some one who has never felt pain?

But it is in your power, in the power of every one who reads this and stops to think about it, to do something to mitigate the misery, to feed and clothe the hungry child, to give it an education of sorts, to help it unlearn the lying and the stealing and the cheating that has become part of so many children's lives in Vietnam.

The task of reconstruction and rehabilitation in Vietnam is huge. Many governmental and international agencies will devote themselves to it. But there will not be enough money to do all that is necessary. There never is.

Giving money to mitigate the misery which will engulf many thousands, perhaps millions, of children in the aftermath of the war will never eliminate the pain and the suffering. It is not conscience money, unless you are looking for an easy way out. But it could help.

© 1972, Victor Lorza

RADIO - TV
DEFENSE DIALOG

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1972 (BROADCASTS OF OCT 18)

JOHN CHANCELLOR, NBC: The NVNese stepped up the ground action a bit. The B-52s were out bombing and a second F-111 fighter bomber was down over NVN, but the AF says the F-111 is performing well. HARRY REASONER, ABC: NVN said its anti-aircraft fire downed the jet and that the crewmen were killed.

WALTER CRONKITE, CBS: In Paris a NVNese spokesman said that recent talks with Henry Kissinger have failed to break the deadlock caused by what he called Nixon intransigence in support of SVN's President Thieu. Meanwhile, fresh from those latest secret Paris talks, Kissinger arrived in Saigon to talk again with Thieu. Reports from Saigon say Gen. Abrams was sent there because of his unusually close relationship with Thieu. And the specific message these two men are bringing to Thieu plus his response could well determine whether this latest peace initiative will produce a settlement.

MARVIN KALB, CBS: Kissinger and President Thieu will focus on the details of a cease fire and the makeup of a coalition government. There are signs here Kissinger is close to an interim agreement with the NVNese on these two key issues. But without Thieu's approval, that agreement cannot be realized. No one here can even guess on how much pressure Kissinger has been authorized to apply. Some officials are hoping he and Thieu can agree on a standstill cease fire in SVN in time for a pre-election announcement. Thieu is not expected to be cooperative. In fact the irony of the current negotiation is that Kissinger is closer to a deal with Hanoi than to a deal with Saigon.

HARRY REASONER, ABC: NVNese officials in Paris called a news conference today to announce that the IC War has not been settled. FRANK MARIANO, ABC: As somewhat of a warm-up to Kissinger's arrival, Gen. Creighton Abrams steps off the plane on his first visit to a war zone since he commanded all US forces here. The Defense Department claims the new Army Chief of Staff is back to evaluate the progress of theVNization. But it's difficult to imagine Abrams coming to VN at this point in time on a military mission, especially when he's reputed to be closer to President Thieu than any other American. Kissinger's visit is a second in as many months. With him this time, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State William Sullivan, the former Ambassador to Laos and noted Asian expert. TED KOPPEL, ABC: There are continuing hints of progress, or as one US official put it today, a narrowing of differences. This same official also said that the NVNese are talking more reasonably of late, even though they're still insisting on a simultaneous military and political settlement and the ouster of President Thieu.

CHANCELLOR, NBC: Henry Kissinger spent the day today being briefed on the military situation in SVN and preparing for his meeting with President Thieu. The military aspect of this Kissinger mission along with the presence in Saigon of a flock of military brass and VN experts, has led to speculation that the mechanics of a cease fire may be on the agenda. ARTHUR LORD, NBC: Of particular interest to the leaders at this point is, which side controls what territory in SVN. It's often hard to tell, as many parts of the country are still hotly contested.

CHANCELLOR, NBC: S. Korea's President Chung Hee Park today began to run his country under martial law. JOHN RICH, NBC: A decree suspended the Constitution, closed the National Assembly, banned political activity, closed universities and put the entire news media under strict censorship.

## NBC NIGHTLY NEWS NBC-TV 6:30 PM

### Kissinger Prepares For Thieu Meeting

**JOHN CHANCELLOR:** Henry Kissinger, the President's VN negotiator, spent the day today being briefed on the military situation in SVN and preparing for his meeting with President Thieu.

The military aspect of this Kissinger mission along with the presence in Saigon of a flock of military brass and VN experts, has led to speculation that the mechanics of a cease fire may be on the agenda. But in terms of hard information, nothing is known, beyond the fact that a lot of important people have assembled in Saigon. (technical difficulties at NBC)

**ARTHUR LORD:** ...VNese activity and SVNese countermeasures.

Kissinger's arrival has started a fresh round of rumors that peace is just around the corner. But those rumors are just rumors based on speculation.

At this juncture there is no official information, at least here in Saigon, that would indicate that the war is any closer to being over.

The village of An Mi (?) 15 miles outside of Saigon is a good example. There had been heavy fighting here for more than a week, and finally the NVNese had been driven out.

An Mi or what's left of it can now be said to be under the control of the Saigon Government, but the NVNese could come back at any time.

There are hundreds or maybe thousands of An Mis in SVN. The control of the contested areas would be a sticky point in negotiating a cease fire.

Arthur Lord, NBC News, Saigon.

### NVNese In Paris Call News Conference

**CHANCELLOR:** In Paris today the NVNese called a news conference. Everyone showed up wondering if some kind of breakthrough would be announced, but that wasn't the purpose

Our man Bernard Kaplan attended that news conference.

**BERNARD KAPLAN:** The purpose of the news conference was to spike rumors that a peace agreement has practically been reached. The NVNese spokesman Win Tan Le (?) gave the first official insight by his side into what has been happening at the meetings between Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho.

When questioned he didn't flatly deny that some progress has been made, but all his emphasis was on the major difficulties which remain. He left no doubt that SVN's President Nguyen Van Thieu is still the biggest obstacle to peace. The US he said is still resisting Thieu's removal.

He categorically denied reports that in the private talks, NVN had offered to let Thieu remain on in some capacity.

But Thieu isn't the only problem left to solve, the spokesman said, there are military problems as well. In spite of all the Paris meetings he left the impression there had not been significant progress in the talks since late September.

What the NVNese were saying is clear enough. Until everything is settled, nothing is settled. So, as far as they're concerned, peace is not yet a certainty.

Bernard Kaplan, NBC News.

**CHANCELLOR:** To make it all more complicated, the French Communist Party newspaper, Le Moniter, today ran a report from its correspondent in Hanoi.

That report said Kissinger's recent talks in Paris have led to some progress. Le Moniter said today, in spite of the absence of precise information to back up this viewpoint, the possibility that the war may be ended quite soon is gaining ground in Hanoi.

### NVNese Step Up Ground Action

**CHANCELLOR:** In the war itself, the NVNese stepped up the ground action a bit.

2 Thursday, October 19, 1972

Park Runs S. Korea Under Martial Law

CHANCELLOR: S. Korea's President Chung Hee Park today began to run his country under martial law.

He started out by convening a special committee that will help him and his government set up a system of military tribunals and imposed press censorship.

JOHN RICH: A decree suspended the Constitution, closed the National Assembly, banned political activity, closed universities and put the entire news media under strict censorship.

The morning after, except for the appearance of half-a-dozen tanks and armored cars downtown, there were few manifestations of martial law in Seoul. Residents went about their routine in the bright October sunshine.

Nervous Senators, confused about what to do, tried to block all picture taking. When NBC News tried to film the tanks now sitting on the steps of the National Assembly, our camera was opened and the filmexposed

As in the Philippines after President Marcos proclaimed martial law a month ago, the average S. Korean appeared surprised, confused and was trying to keep a low profile until things clarify.

President Park has said that the present Korean Constitution was designed for the cold war and is outmoded. He has promised to produce a new draft constitution in the next ten days and give the people a chance to vote on it in a referendum within a month. This he claims will strengthen his hand in reunification talks with the North.

S. Korea and the Philippines are the two Asian nations the US has massively supported and tried to develop in the American image.

Today, both of America's former wards are ruled by martial law.

John Rich, NBC News, in Seoul, Korea.

ABC EVENING NEWS ABC-TV 7 PM

HARRY REASONER: NVNese officials in Paris called a news conference

today to announce that the IC War has not been settled. But they were careful to say that the stalemate was in effect as of today.

They've been holding more private talks with Henry Kissinger, President Nixon's foreign policy advisor, stimulating the rumors that progress has been made in negotiating an end to the fighting.

Tonight Kissinger and the former American Military Commander in VN are in Saigon for major conferences with President Thieu on the course of the peace talks.

We have a report on their arrival from Frank Mariano.

FRANK MARIANO: As somewhat of a warm-up to Kissinger's arrival, Gen. Creighton Abrams steps off the plane on his first visit to a war zone since he commanded all US forces here.

The Defense Department claims the new Army Chief of Staff is back to evaluate the progress of the VNization, a project not unfamiliar to him.

But the passenger most everyone was waiting for came some hours later. Kissinger's visit is a second in as many months.

The Kissinger entourage was met by a raft of American and SVNese officials: US Ambassador to SVN Ellsworth Bunker, his VNese counterpart to Washington Ambassador Tran Kim Phuong and the present Commander of what American troops are left here, Gen. Frederick Weyand.

In true Kissinger fashion throughout these negotiations, he says nothing to newsmen. After posing briefly for pictures, he was whisked away.

This could be out of another airplane, into another car and off to another round of talks for Henry Kissinger, only this time he brings to this round heavier reinforcements than he did in August.

But until word emerges that some

3 Thursday, October 19, 1972

agreement has been reached, peace
will continue to be a word on a lot
of lips here.

Frank Mariano, ABC News, Saigon.

TED KOPPEL: This is Ted Koppel
at the State Department.

For several tantalizing weeks now
both the US and NVN have allowed the
impression to linger that some prog-
ress is being made towards a peace
settlement.

Today's angry sounding words from
a NVNese spokesman in Paris did very
little to undermine that impression.

Up to this day, he said, the
VNese pogrom has not been settled.
Well, hardly anyone thought it had
been.

But there are continuing hints of
progress, or as one US official put
it today, a narrowing of differences.
This same American official also
said that the NVNese are talking
more reasonably of late, even though
they're still insisting on a simul-
taneous military and political
settlement and the ouster of Presi-
dent Thieu.

It seems very unlikely that the
high powered team headed by Dr.
Kissinger and Gen. Abrams is in
Saigon now merely on a mission of
reassurance to President Thieu.

But if any compromise at all is
to be reached, Thieu must be con-
vinced that he can agree to it with-
out fear of being sold out.

Perhaps the most compelling argu-
ment in that direction is President
Nixon's conviction that he will be
reelected with or without a VN set-
tlement, but that he cannot afford
four more years of living with a
bad deal concluded in haste.

The indicators then still point
towards progress but nothing immedi-
ate.

This is Ted Koppel, ABC News, at
the State Department.

F-111 Lost In IC

REASONER: The US F-111 jet fight-
er has been plagued by mechanical
problems since it went into opera-
tion.

The US Command in VN reported
today that a second of the planes
has been lost in IC since the F-111's
return to the war zone in September.

were killed.

CBS EVENING NEWS CBS-TV 7 PM

Progress of Peace Talks

WALTER CRONKITE: From three
capitals tonight word on the prog-
ress, or lack of it, toward peace
in VN.

In Paris a NVNese spokesman said
that recent talks with Henry Kiss-
singer have failed to break the
deadlock caused by what he called
Nixon intransigence in support of
SVN's President Thieu.

But in what he did not say, the
questions he ducked, there was a
hint that perhaps some progress had
been made.

Meanwhile, fresh from those lat-
est secret Paris talks, Kissinger
arrived in Saigon to talk again
with Thieu.

His arrival in Saigon nearly
coincided with that of the Army's
new Chief of Staff Ccreighton Abrams.

Reports from Saigon say Abrams
was sent there because of his unusu-
ally close relationship with Thieu.

In Washington Marvin Kalb reports
on what is apt to be the main subject
of those talks in Saigon.

MARVIN KALB: Kissinger and
President Thieu will focus on the
details of a cease fire and the
makeup of a coalition government.

No one here can even guess on
how much pressure Kissinger has been
authorized to apply. Some officials
are hoping he and Thieu can agree
on a standstill cease fire in SVN
in time for a pre-election announce-
ment.

Thieu is not expected to be co-
operative.

4 Thursday, October 19, 1972

Although the administration maintains a no comment approach to the Kissinger talks, NVN has lifted the lid somewhat, its Paris spokesman saying, as of today, October 18, the war continues.

And from Hanoi other communist spokesmen are even less oblique in maintaining an optimistic line.

Officials here suspect this unusual optimism is really a form of pressure on Thieu to cave in.

But whether Thieu will collapse or cooperate under this combined Washington-Hanoi pressure, is at this time unknown.

Marvin Kalb, CBS News, the State Department.

5 Thursday, October 19, 1972