TNAG-0031-FCO40-67-Relations-with-China-1968 — Page 140

CONFIDENTIAL

Reference News from 26 April to 8 May

Digest No. 8

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VIETNAM

The Reference News continued to leak snippets of information on the preliminaries to the Paris talks as they progressed. Finally on 5 May the bulletin let the cat cut of the bag com- pletely by giving a full account of the North Vietnamese proposal of Paris as a site and 10 May as a date, The American. acceptance of the offer was also briefly reported.

At the beginning of the period the bulletin quoted President Johnson's remarks at a press conference in the White House to the effect that the US was constantly in touch with North Vietnam through regular meetings in Vientiane between the American and North Vietnamese Ambassadors, In the same issue of the bulletin (27 April) another article said that the US had once again sent a letter to the North Vietnamese on the subject of a possible site, The inference was that the letter was transmitted during the contacts between North Vietnamese and American ambassadors in Vientiane, The US rejection of Phnom Pehn and Warsaw as suitable sites was noted on 30 April,

The readers of the bulletin were also informed about the bizarre Indonesian offer of a ship cruising in the Gulf of Tongking as a possible site for talks. The Reference News reported that the offer was accepted by the United States but dencunced by the North Vietnamese who pointed cut that the proposal did not meet with any of the requirements put forward by the US, The North Vietnamese were quoted as having proposed Phnom Penh and Warsaw cnce again,

The report in the Reference News of 5 May on the agreement to meet in Paris was remarkably full. The article said that the North Vietnamese had authorised Xuan Thuy to begin talks with representatives of the US on an unconditional cessation of the bombing of North Vietnam by the US, and other acts of war and subsequently to discuss cther matters of concern to both sides, Subsequent western press reports quoted in the bulletin suggested that the US attitude to the talks was still tough. The US required an assurance from the North Vietnamese that they would exercise restraint on the infiltration of men and supplies to the Scuth before the Americans would stop bembing.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

This time the liberalisation drive in Czechoslovakia was given rather less space than before. The reports showed the same hostility towards Dubcek and his colleagues as in previcus issues. Several articles touched upon the problem facing Dubcek cf how to dispose of a conservative opposition to his reforms without setting in metien an old-style purge. The programmatic statement put out by the new Prime Minister, Cernik, on 24 April was described in some detail. The two main points which the bulletin seized upon were his expressed desire to improve relations with the West and to cbtain foreign credits. In the context of contacts with the West cne headline said that "Czech revisionist newspapers demand a resumption of diplomatic relations with West Germany". The bulletin also included several articles from European and American newspapers expressing satisfaction with the Czech reforms. The Reference News included one particularly hostile itein abcut a demonstra- ticn cutside the American Embassy in Prague during which some

../Vietnamese

CONFIDENTIAL

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