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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-06904 to 363-06914.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-06904 to 363-06914
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Title
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Article about Communist plans to negotiate peace
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Description
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Original title: "Negotiate", Article draft about the Communist "peace counter-offensive", for the Christian Science Monitor
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AI Usage Disclosure
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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.
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Transcript
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- Page 1
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Sairad
Proreuter Tokyo
Negotiate 1 (normass/doope)
csm.
Saigon, May 8-The Vietnamese Communists are preparing to launch
their own peace counter-offensive diplomatically and internally within
South Vietnam in the coming months, reliable sources report.
The political campaign, expected to begin no earlier than July,
discussions a
TREM
would probably not repeat not lead to immediato negotiations with the Allied
bloo, although it might pave the way for those in the long-range future.
Reliable sources said they do not expect any now political proposals
in the peace counter-offensive which would indicato substantial concessions
or a softening of their previous positions. The sources predict the
Communists would simply re-state and elaborate on their previous positions,
hoping that the political tide would turn in their favor internationally-
especially in Americawhile the political and military situation be
becomes more favorable to them within South ✓ Vietnam.
More Reuter
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Sairad
Proreuter Tokyo
Negotiato 2 (m) Saigon (normass/doope)
Captured Viet Cong documents and official Hanoi statomonts indicato
that the political-diplomatic moves are part of a "three-sided campaign"
their
being coordinated with a military escalation of the ground war within
South Vietnam, which is also expected to accelerate in July or tes with
the
monsoon rains.
More Reuter
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Sairad
Prorouter Tokyo
Negotiate 3 saigon (normass/deepe)
Communists'
One key point in the peace counter-offensive would be the
official elaboration on him the willingness of the
National Liberation Front for South Vietnam-the political backbone of
the Viet Cong--to form a national coalition government for a neutral
South Vietnam, officially independent from the Communist North.
Another
on key point would be an attempt to raise the prestige of the
National Liberation Front, to make it appear as a separate entity from
Hanoi and thus worthy of an independent role in discussions with the
Allied side. Thus far, the Johnson Administration and the Vietnamese
government i have said they
w33
talk with the ma them To Ba
would
To National Liberation Front represented
North Vietnamese regimes
on the Hanoi dolegation.
More Reuter
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Sairad
Proreuter Tokyo
Negotiate 4 saigon (normass/doope).
Political sources here believe that if the Communists are really
effective in their diplomatic presentations--which will mark a
prelude to the American elections in 1968--they may be able to cause a
great deal of divisiveness within the United States, splitting both the
Democratic and Republic Parties into even more fragments, with some sides
wanting to press on to win the war, others wanting to negotiate even at
the price of recognizing the National Liberation Front and admitting it
into a coalition governmenté, and others wanting to negotiate but onnan
diFFERENT
on more suid strigent torms.
More Router.
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Sairad
Proroutor Tokyo
Negotiate 5 Saigon (normass/deepe)
Other factors determining whether the Communist terms would be
acceptable to the Jo Johnson Administration or the Vietnamese government
would appear to rest af on the outcome of the following: first, the
Communists military push and how badly they can maul Vietnamese government
forces and tire out other Alliod troops; second, the results of the
Vietnamese government election for President and the Senato to be hold
in September; third, how much popular resentment anti-wer demonstrators
can arouse in Europe, America and Asia during the scheduled
hot summer of dissents fourth how much American popular resentmont
develops as budget discussions & begin for the fiscal year starting July 1
and as American casualty lists grow longer.
More Router
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Sairad
Prorouter Tokyo
Negotiate 6 Saigon (normass/doope)
The diplomatic counter-offensive already appears to be undorway
in a behind-the-scenes fashion, as ranking North Vietnamese leaders
attempt and apparently have succeeded to some degree in cementing
the Communist bloc behind their upcoming military campaign and healing
over Sino-Soviet differences on the conduct of the war. North Vietnamese
Premier Pham Van Dong has been in Poin Poking and a do North Vietnamese
delegation has visited Eastern Europe.
In the coming months, the diplomatic counter-offensive would become
more visible and more dramatic with into overseas officials of the
NUMEROUS
Nato National Liberation Front and North Vietnam holding articulate
press conferences with Western journalists, moving into the non-Communist
moral and anti-American-causados.
countries and onlisting support from Communist Parties and other loftists,
such as in France and Italy, and in general, attempting to lure
neutralist countries to pressure America and South Vietnamese governmonts
for discussions on torms acceptable to the Communists.
More Router
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Saired
Prorouter Tokyo
Negotiate 7 Saigon (normass/doope)
Political observers here believe that the it representatives
affic. As
of the National Liberation Front-rather than the Hanoi representati
will gain the spotlight abroad and will offor just enough varied
5
conflicting viewpoints from Hanoi to confuse the issues, as a means to
add to the NLF prestige and its purported independence.
More Router
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Sairad
Prorouter Tokyo
Negotiate 8 Saigon (normass/deepe)
South Vietnam, Viet Cong political
On the political front in
agents have been busily contacting non-government leaders in the religious,
social and political fields, unim the urging thom boven to boycott the
upcoming September elections for Vietnamese President and Jomi Sonate,
either openly or discreetly criticize the elections as American
engineered and rigged-and encouraging then to "save their names" until
tax different elections are held for a national coalition assombly.
These Viet Cong political agents have said that the future national
coalition assembly-representing both pro-Communists from the National
Liberation Front as well as non-Communists--would then form a national
coalition government, which nood not be unified with Communist North
Vietnam in the immediato futuro.
Persons who have boon contacted by the Viet Cong representatives said
MANY
that most of the discussions took place during the Tet lunary holidays
in February when large numbers of the population move f relatively
freely around the countryside and into Saigon.
More Router
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Sairad
Prorouter Tokyo
Negotiate 9 saigon (normass/deepe)
Non-Communist individuals who are known to have been contact4d
contacted by the Viet Cong representatives include the leftist or
anti-government elements in the major religious blocs, such as tho Catholics,
S
as well as prestigious
Buddhists, Cao Dai and Hoa te Hao sections
students
political figures and leaders of Vietnam's fragmented politica par
political parties.
Just how much success the Viet Cong political cadre have had
in enlisting the support-or the immediate neutrality--of the
non-Communists living in the government-controlled zones remains to
be seen until all candidie cand canid candidacies are announced and the
election campaign begins this summer.
More Reuter
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Sairad
Prorouter Tokyo
Negotiate 10 saigon (normass/deepe)
Communist
One recent and effective oxample of the political maneuvering
was the upcoming truce during Buddha's Birthday on May 23. South Vietnamese
Pre Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky first proposed the truce to the Hanoi
government for a 24 hour period. Hanoi snubbed the offer. So did the
No
National Liberation Front--but in tax turn announced their own 48 hour truce,
saying it was done not only at the request of the leading Buddhist member
of the NLF Presidium but also of the head of the United Buddhist Church
in Saigon, Thich The Tion Ki Khiet. Thus, the prestige of the NLF was
which is already
enhanced in the eyes of the Buddhist leadership,
to predominantly anti-government and leaning towards the Viet Cong.
More Reuter
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Sairad
Prorouter Tokyo
Negotiate 11 Saigon (normass/deepe)
The last official statement of the National Liberation Front
regarding the conditions for negotiations ante was issued on rey 22
March 22, 1965,
at the very beginning of the American build-up of combat troops in the South.
CHAIRMAN
At a press conference, NLF virgin, Nguyen Huu Tho issued a
THEN TRENLE
Poston
long, but vaguely worded statement was "rosolutely to kick out
the United states imperialists in order to liberate the South,
build an independent, democratic, le peaceful, and neutral South
Vietnam, and achieve national unification."
The expected launching of the diplomatic-political counter-011 ense
offensive, spelling out these vague generalizations, may still be
unacceptable to the Johnson Administration and the Saigon-based Vietnamese
government. But, if they are accepte
rep unacceptable, the
Communists could well succeed to put both capitols on the political
defensive,
observers hore said.
n End Routor
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Date
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1967, May 8
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Vietnam (Democratic Republic); Diplomacy; Strategy; Peace
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Location
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Saigon, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.8231; 106.6311
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B7, F3
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Format
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dispatches
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Collection Number
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MS 363
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Collection Title
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Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
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Creator
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Collector
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
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Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
