Friday, May 19, 1972
Agnew Confers With Thieu, Top Americans In Viet Visit
SAIGON (AP) --Vice President Spiro T. Agnew conferred with President Nguyen Van Thieu for more than an hour Wednesday in a meeting that U.S. sources said was intended to underscore the Nixon administration"s support for South Vietnam in the current Communist offensive.Thieu's press office said Agnew and the president "reviewed and discussed the general situation in South Vietnam." Aides refused to give any details or to say whether Agnew carried any personal messages between Thieu and President Nixon. But they said the vice president would report to Nixon immediately upon returning to Washington Friday.Agnew flew to Saigon from Bangkok, where he arrived Tuesday after representing Nixon at the ceremony in Tokyo returning Okinawa to Japan. It was his third visit to South Vietnam, and he stayed three hours and 15 minutes, then flew back to Bangkok.Accompanying him to the meeting with Thieu at the presidential palace were U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker and Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam.Also present were Vice President Tran Van Huong, Premier Tran Thien Khien, Foreign Minister Tran Van Lam, Gen. Cao Van Vien, the chairman of the Joint General Staff, and Deputy Foreign Minister Tran Kien Phuong, who is ambassador-designate to the United States.Agnew, Bunker and Abrams then took a helicopter to Tan Son Nhut Air Base and talked together at Abrams' office there.The vice president was to meet Wednesday afternoon in Bangkok with Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn, chairman of Thailand's ruling national executive council, and Wednesday night he was giving a dinner for his Thai hosts."Agnew Confers With Thieu, Top Americans in Viet Visit", by (AP), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Friday, May 19, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.