Sunday, May 14, 1972
Reds Nix U.S. Bid To Parley
PARIS (UPI) --The United States told the Vietnamese Communists Friday it was ready to resume peace negotiations with them if they show desire to bargain over real issues, but Hanoi rebuffed the offer.The American delegation under Ambassador William J. Porter made the offer of a conditional resumption of the talks to the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong in a special press communiqué. Hanoi's negotiator Le Duc Tho said promptly the Americans must return to the conference without posing any condition.The U.S. delegation said peace talk sessions should resume along rules outlined by Porter May 4, when he told Communist diplomats he was suspending the talks until they had indicated their willingness to "negotiate seriously on matters of substance."Tho, the Hanoi secret contact man who held 13 private meetings with presidential adviser Henry A. Kissinger, brushed aside Porter's offer at a news conference he held on Vietnam issues and at which he was told of the American suggestion."We demand the resumption of the weekly sessions without conditions." Tho said, gesturing before television cameras."This shows proof on Nixon's goodwill -he intensifies the war and sabotages the Paris conference," Tho said.Tho said he would not resume secret talks with Kissinger until the weekly semi-public sessions begin again and "until President Nixon modifies his policy.""With the resumption of the conference sessions we will see if Nixon is so disposed -yes or no -to cease intensification of the war," Tho said."In the contrary case, how can one solve the problems even in private contacts? For our part, we are always disposed to solve seriously the Vietnam problem, and we estimate that the two types of negotiations -secret and semi-public -are indispensable."Since Nixon intensifies the war, one may wonder what is the usefulness of holding private meetings. Can we settle anything in such conditions?" Tho asked.Emphasizing for what he said was the fifth time that Hanoi does not want to impose communism on Saigon as President Nixon had declared, Tho said, "If the United States had not (intervened) our country would have been unified long ago. Classically speaking, North Vietnam is socialist and as for South Vietnam, the people there want a three-segment government. That is really their aspiration. North Vietnam cannot impose a Communist regime on South Vietnam.""Reds Nix U.S. Bid to Parley", by (UPI), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Sunday, May 14, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.