TNAG-0033-FCO40-69-Relations-with-China-1968 — Page 150

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Vietnam

The bulletin gave reasonably full coverage to reports of the fighting in the South, the Paris talks, President Johnsor's talks in Honolulu and US statements on Vietnam,

The 12th, 13th and 14th official sessions of the Paris peace talks were outlined. There was some indication that the Chinese were not displeased with the uncompromising line of the North Vietnamese delegation: headings given to UPI reports sometimçs stressed North Vietnamcse intransigence on the one hand, and disingenuous American tactics on the other. For example, the bulletin singled out a statement by Thuy emphasising that the talks had achieved nothing to date and that the US claim that there were signs of progress was intended to deceive public opinion, as a rubic for a UPI report. North Vietnamese obduracy emerged clearly from reports of the 12th meeting and the bulletin gave some prominence to their delegation's outright rejection of the US offer on the economic development of South-East Asia. A statement made by Rusk shortly after the 12th mecting warning that no ccrly results could be expected in the talks was reproduced. (On the other hand, reports of the 13th session of the peace talks noted that the names of the three US airmen to be released by the North Vietnamese were

informally communicated to Harriman during a coffee break), Accounts of the 14th meeting gave prominence to Harriman's statement that there had been "nothing new, and no direct results". However, the Chinese reader was informed that there had been another 30-minute coffee break. The bulletin provided plenty of evidence of deadlock at the Paris talks, but by selecting for publication such North Vietnamese statements as "there can be no progress until the US stops bombing" and monitering signs that the US might be prepared to do sc, it showed that there was still a possibility of genuine peace talks developing cut of the present apparent impasse

This possibility was underlined by the modification of the third of the North Vietnamese "4 points" which was also noted in the Reference News, In this context, the bulletin's critical treatment of a statement by the Lactian Prime Minister calling for a complete halt tc bombing and the setting-up of a coalition government in the Scuth is also of interest as a reflection of Chinese fears.

Internal political developments in America with a bearing on the war were carefully written up. Vice-President Humphrey's statement that the talks could eventually lead to a settlement appeared in the bulletin, as did Scnater McCarthy's proclaimed wish to go to Paris and make contact with North Vietnamese negotiators. Governor Rockefeller's four-point plan was reported under a damning headline.

The bulletin scught tc underline political contradictions between the US and South Vietnamese governments. Priority was given to reperts in this vein of the Hençlulu meeting, and the South Vietnamese wish for their observers in the Paris pence talks to have direct negotiations with the North was given a derisive heading.

A steady stream of reperts en Nerth Vietnamese battle successes was maintained. However, the Chinese again included an cocasional reference to Viet Cong setbacks.

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