Friday, May 19, 1972
The 'Deal': POWs For Pullout
WASHINGTON (UPI) --Former Defense Secretary Clark M. Clifford said Tuesday the Communists would accept a "deal" calling for a total U.S. military withdrawal from Indochina in exchange for American prisoners of war.Clifford said it would not be necessary for the United States to overthrow South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu to complete the arrangement, as North Vietnam has been publicly insisting.Clifford talked to reporters after meeting in closed session with about 40 House liberals.He contended that in secret negotiations the Communists would be more than willing to forego an American ouster of Thieu if they could be assured of a complete U.S. military disengagement from Indochina. "This is what they want," he said."That deal could have been made anytime in the last three or four years and could be made today," Clifford said. "It never has been put to the other side."Clifford, who headed the Pentagon during the final year of the Johnson administration, said that -contrary to the impression generated by the Nixon administration -propositions along the lines he was suggesting have always been accompanied by a complicating factor, such as a proposed cease-fire.The Communists would never agree to a cease-fire, he said, because they want to continue their offensive after the Americans have gone.President Nixon is insisting on a cease-fire, said Clifford, because he wants to prevent a Communist takeover of South Vietnam. That, he added, is a desirable goal but one that is inconsistent with the American people's desire to bring home all troops and prisoners."The 'Deal': POWs for Pullout", by (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.