View in Saigon: Reds Won't Talk, They'll Fight for All-Out Victory

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Digital Object Identifier

363-04801

Title

View in Saigon: Reds Won't Talk, They'll Fight for All-Out Victory

Description

Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about the percieved futility of peace talks, page 13

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Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.

Transcript

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- Page 1
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[Apr 13, 1965
Pg 13]
View in Saigon: Reds Won't Talk,
They'll Fight for All-Out Victory
By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent
SAIGON.
There's not the slightest.
hint or hope that Hanoi or
the Liberation Front will ne-
gotiate on any terms, say spe-
cialists in Saigon who follow
Communist affairs closely.
Both the North Vietnamese
regime of President Ho Chi
Minh and the Liberation
Front the political arm of
the Communist Viet Cong
guerrillas in South Viet Nam
-have unequivocally rejected
all overtures for peace talks
to settle the Vietnamese war,
the specialists say.
Hanoi and the Liberation
Front, with the support of Red
China, will drive for complete
defeat and total humiliation
of the United States in Viet
Nam, politically and militar-
ily, in an attempt to prove
Peking's conviction of Com-
munist invincibility in guerril-
la-type "wars of liberation,"
the specialists believe.
[The Associated Press re-
ported yesterday that Pres-
ident Ho, speaking Saturday
to the National Assembly in
Hanoi, called President John-
son's Vietnamese policies "the
daydream of a madman."
were
["We love peace, but we are
not afraid of war," Mr. Ho
said. "Our people will never
submit." He added that the
North Vietnamese
"fighting heroically to defend
the North and giving all-out
support to the South." He
called for a united Viet Nam
as guaranteed by the 1954
Geneva accord. His remarks
were quoted in a Peking
broadcast monitored
Tokyo.]
in
In the last two weeks, both
the Hanoi radio and the Lib-
eration Front radio changed
the terms of their objectives
by vowing "to liberate the
South, to defend the North
and to work for the reunifica-
tion of the North and South."
Their previous position had
been to work for a "neutral"
South Viet Nam which
American officials interpreted
to mean a South Viet Nam
Communist Viet Cong guerrillas launched
mortar attacks early today on a U. S. military
headquarters in Quang Tri and on two Viet-
namese military bivouacs outside that city just
south of the 17th Parallel. Two U. S. service-
men, three Vietnamese soldiers and 30 civilians
were wounded, a U. S. spokesman said. Several
buildings in the U. S. compound were badly
damaged and 25 barrels of fuel oil were set
afire. Quang Tri is about 100 miles north of
Da Nang air base. In Saigon, experts were
assessing the war's diplomatic front.
swallowed by North Viet Nam
within a decade.
The recent broadcasts in-
dicate the Communists intend
to skip this neutral phase and
will push immediately for
reunification, a policy dia-
metrically opposed to the
U. S. demand for an inde-
pendent South Viet Nam.
Some observers predict that
unless there is a drastic
change in the political climate
within South Viet Nam, which
has been sliding into pro-
Neutralist hands, the Com-
munists will accomplish their
aim within three years.
Only then, when the
Communist subversives have
wrecked the armed forces and
the government and have
gained virtually complete con-
trol of the countryside, will
the Communists "negotiate,"
the observers believe. But the
political settlement would
amount to a surrender of the
American position.
Communist China yesterday
rejected two more peace over-
tures, telling Britain it would
not welcome a visit by Patrick
Gordon Walker and saying
Secretary General U Thant of
the United Nations would not
be welcome either.
Former Foreign Secretary
Gordon Walker had been
named as a special repre-
sentative to visit Peking,
Hanoi and Saigon in an at-
tempt to mediate the Viet
Nam conflict. Mr. Thant had
been considering a peace
mission to Southeast Asian
capitals.
Peking, along with Hanoi
and Moscow, earlier had de-
nounced last week's proposal
by President Johnson for
"unconditional discussions" on
Viet Nam, saying any talks
would have to be with the
Liberation Front, which is not
recognized by the U. S. or
South Viet Nam.
Moscow radio broadcast a
new attack yesterday, calling
the U. S. proposal a ruse by
leaders who "wish to mask
their aggression in some way
to give the impression that
they are reconsidering Amer-
ican policy while keeping on
their previous course."
The broadcast, beamed to
North America, added: "There
is nothing to show that it
was sincere."
The specialists on Commu-
nist affairs also saw an indi-
cation of Hanoi's hard line
against negotiations in last
week's government reshuffle.
Vice-Premier Nguyen Duy
Trinh, named the new For-
eign Minister, and Dang Viet
Chau, new Finance Minister,
are both close friends of Tru-
ong Chinh, the most extreme
proponent of the Peking line
in North Viet Nam's Commu-
nist party.
The most immediate ques-
tion in Saigon is whether the
Russians will send air defense
material to protect North Viet
Nam from U. S. air strikes.
Most observers believe the
threat of an invasion by Chi-
nese troops has diminished.
Sources say the Soviet offer
to send such material, made
in February by visiting Pre-
mier Alexei Kosygin, included
the condition that the Hanoi
regime would negotiate a
peace settlement.
The question is whether
Hanoi now can persuade the
Russians to withdraw this con-
dition.
Despite the growing as-
cendancy of pro Peking
strength within the Viet Com-
munist leadership, the special-
ists believe Hanoi will con-
tinue to maintain friendly
relations with Russia, hoping
to prevent an open Sino-Soviet
break and, if possible, to pull
the Russians closer to the
Hanoi-Peking axis.

Date

1965, Apr. 13

Subject

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Peace Talks; Vietnam (Republic); Vietnam (Democratic Republic); Vietnam (Republic)--Relations--Vietnam (Democratic Republic); Mặt trận dân tộc giải phóng miền nam Việt Nam

Location

Saigon, South Vietnam

Coordinates

10.8231; 106.6311

Container

B4, F6

Format

newspaper clippings

Collection Number

MS 363

Collection Title

Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers

Creator

Keever, Beverly Deepe

Copyright Information

These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.

Publisher

Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries

Language

English