Wednesday, June 7, 1972
Paris Is Key, Red Says
WASHINGTON (UPI) --Le Duc Tho, a top North Vietnamese strategist, was quoted Monday that no matter what is done at big power summit talks, "the Vietnamese problem will be settled by us in Paris with the United States."A Washington Post reporter, Murrey Marder, had a four-hour interview with Tho, a member of the Hanoi Politburo, in Paris on Saturday. His account of the interview was carried in Monday's Post.Marder reported that Tho exhibited "great interest in the impact that (the Moscow summit) meeting may have on the Vietnam conflict."However, when asked what the effect of President Nixon's visits to Peking and Moscow might be on North Vietnam's interests, Tho replied:"... Both China and the Soviet Union had reaffirmed their strong support for the struggle of the Vietnamese people just as before. Whatever talks may have held between China and the United States, the Soviet Union and the United States, both these countries respect our right to settle the problem and the Vietnam problem will be settled by us in Paris with the United States."Tho was asked about the effect of the mining of North Vietnamese ports and stepped up bombing of the North by the United States.He said, "Mr. Nixon's intensifying the war naturally will cause certain difficulties and losses to the Vietnamese peoples." But he said "communications and transport continues" and "all ways of supply cannot be sealed off."Tho contended that the Vietnam situation, from Hanoi's standpoint, is better now than it was when Nixon took office."This is the real situation (but) ...Mr. Nixon is not yet reconciled to giving up his plan for Vietnamization of the war; that is, to use Vietnamese to fight Vietnamese and to use Indochinese to fight Indochinese."There Mr. Nixon is recklessly playing the last game when he has bitterly lost the game.""Paris Is Key, Red Says", by (UPI), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Wednesday, June 7, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.