Friday, May 19, 1972
Hanoi Spikes U.N. Role
PARIS (AP & UPI) --North Vietnam Wednesday rejected any United Nations mediation role in settling the Vietnam war."The United Nations has no right to interfere, under any pretext, in the Vietnamese problem," the Hanoi Foreign Ministry said in a formal statement.The text of the declaration was circulated in Paris by the North Vietnamese delegation to the suspended Vietnam peace talks.It demanded the United State return to the Paris conference table, which it said was the only place the war could be settled peacefully.The Hanoi statement slammed the door on the United Nations in attacking what it said were reports of a U.S.-organized "Asiatic peace conference place under the patronage of the U.N. with the aim of achieving a cease-fire under international control.""The Vietnamese problem is a problem between American imperialism, the aggressor and saboteur of the Geneva 1954 accords on Vietnam, and the Vietnamese prople (sic) who oppose the aggression for the safeguard of their fundamental national rights recognized in the said accords," the Hanoi statement said.The statement also turned down a British proposal to call a new Geneva-style conference as a "feverish approach" to the Vietnamese problem.The statement demanded that when it returns to the negotiation table the United States accept the two key demands of the Vietnamese Communist -a terminal withdrawal date for all U.S. troops and overthrow of the regime of South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu.Earlier, the U.S. delegation in Paris accused Hanoi and the Viet Cong of disdaining a negotiated settlement to the war.The American-South Vietnamese statement said: "Genuine negotiation requires serious intent and mutual discussion of each side's proposals. These are not conditions or requirements laid down by one side. They are simple, inescapable elements of any real negotiation.""Hanoi Spikes U.N. Role", by (AP & UPI), 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.