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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-05055 to 363-05064.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-05055 to 363-05064
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Title
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Article about President Johnson's decision to stop bombing over North Vietnam
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Description
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Original title: "reaction", Keever's title: "LBJ's Unilateral Bombing Halt Sparks Hopes for Peace - But Fears of U.S. Exit", Article draft about President Johnson's decision to stop bombing over North Vietnam, for the Christian Science Monitor, page 10
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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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zcze sag
yy nnm
reaction 1 (normass/deepe)
SAIGON, NOVEMBER 1-President Lyndon Johnson's unilateral halting
of the bombing of North Vietnam-which marks the significant beginning of
an American combat exit from Asia-brought jubilant, if not premature
predictions of peace to the Vietnamese common man and an initial, if
momentary internal political and propaganda defeat for the South Vietnamese
government.
After two weeks of bitter disagreement, but with prior notice from
Wa shington, the American bombing cessation left the South Vietnamese
government with a serious if not irreversible-lack of confidence in the
American commitment to prevent a Communist take-over in South Vietnam. The
South American-South Vietnamese alliance, inked in past Honolulu and
Manila communiques for joint actions for peace, was temporarily shattered.
And, at this writing, it may worsen as the Saigon regime decides whether it
can "lose face" by sending its own delegation to Paris, as President
Johnson said it was "free" to do, or whether it can risk losing the war
AN Angry FIND
by hastening a premature American withdrawal.
130
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zC2C sag
yy nnm
reaction 2 (normass/deepe)
"We got left holding an empty bag--and anyway the bag has holes in it,"
one senior Vietnamese government official,, speaking privately said nervously.
"What does it matter if Johnson says we won't be recognizing the National
Liberation Front in Paris. If we sit across the table from them, it pretty
well means recognition. We still don't know if the NLF is part of the
Hanoi delegation (which Saigon approved of) or if it is a separate
delegation (which Saigon has vowed it would not talk with). And I doubt
if the Americans know these things either. Nothing is really very well
settled.
And if
"I certainly don't know how (President Nguyen Van) Thieu can back
down now. But, how can he buck the Americans and boycott Paris?
he sides with the Americans, the cynical Vietnamese will say he got paid
five million dollars for payingminition saying the right thing."
A low-level Vietnamese government official said with nervous
seriousness: "President Thieu has lost alot of face. Imdomomm Last
hexaxxminghammmm-night he made this tough speech about resisting all
pressures. I don't see how he can wiggle out of this. Maybe the CIA
(Central Intelligence Agency) knows. They should know everything."
==more reuter
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zcze sag
yy nnm
31
reaction 2 (normass/deepe)
A Vietnamese government minister, speaking privately,
dejection:
said with
instead
"We had all better get down on our knees and pray for mercy.
In the long-run, it means Asians will side with the Russians,
of the Americans, to keep the Red Chinese at bay."
A long-time American observer in Asia explained a
"Washington has never understood the political and psychological
factors in Asia. This is a severe setback for the West.
Who actually
You don't think Asians
believes we got any concessions out of Hanoi?
are going to put any stock in LBJ's saying 'I really got alot of concessions
from Hanoi up my sleeve, but I can't talks about them'.
Viet Cong had to rocket the city right before his speech."
And then the
==more reuter
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zczc sag
yy nnm
reaction 3' (normass/deepe)
normes
To the end, the Vietnamese government stood firm against a joint
Bom B. Ng-Hall
SAG
HAD MAD
American-South Vietnamese declaration because of Hanoi's demands that the
communique would not repeat not mention the specific son concessions
in return, Thompsxm informed sources report. The Vietnamese
government had argued that without mentioning the conditons,
the communique
would be a major propaganda victory for the Communists, not only in South
Vietnam,
but throughout free Asia. The government officials maintained
that it would appear that the Allies had capitulated to the consistent
Hanoi demand for an unconditional cessation of the bombing,
appear that the United States-rather than the North Vietnamese-had
been the
escalation of the war.
aggressors and had precipitated the
that it would
Hardline Western diplomats sided with the Vietnamese viewpoint.
"Any halting the bombing without mentioning the ones explicit
Commun
conditions from Hanoi will give them a tremendous propaganda, victory,"
one pro-American diplomat explained.
TAS
"And now that's what happened."
1350
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ZOZO sag
Jy nnm
reaction 5 (normass/deepe)
Another Vietnamese government official offered the same viewpoint.
"Half of this war here is a war of words," he said. "Hanoi is.
going to get on the radio and say the Americans have at last capitulated
to the unconditional halting of the bombing. Even if we got conditions
from Ho Hanoi and we can't announce them what are we going to do.
"Frankly, no one believes Johnson got any conditions at all from Hanoi.
The Vietnamese government does not repeat not know what they are. And,
frank we doubt that even the Americans know what they get out of this.
The
at the next Paris conference is stil
==more reuter
Saigonard
delegations
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zozo sag
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reaction
(normass/deepe)
The timing and a peculiar set of circumstances
also seemed to taint
the speech of President Johnson, which was broadcast mid-morning here over
the American military radio station. The Vietnamese government radio station
with held announcement for three hours, and then it read the xi terse
communique from the office of President Nguyen Van Thiue Thieu. The
communique said simply:
"This morning November 1,
at 0900, the U. S. government took the
decision to announce a unilateral cessation of the bombing of
North Vietnam at 2100 local time. Concerning this problem, the President
will make a speech before the people and the National Assembly tomorrow
at 1000 November 2.
==more reuter
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ZOZO sag
ᎩᎩ Max
reaction (normass/deepe)
two IMMED A
Factors
The political and psychological setting for the unilateral amouvemen
which worked to the disadvantage of the Vietnamese government were we
first the
followed
e Communist shelling and rocketing of Saigon, Hue, My Tho
and the storage petroleumn storage installation at Nhe Be in the evening
JOHN Son's
and early morning hours preceding the Presidential speech.
The most
gruesome attack occurred at 6:30 a.m.--two and half hours before the speech-
in which a Soviet-made .122 mm. rocket hit a Roman Catholic church
filled with worshipers for the All-Soul's Day services,
in which
Total Saigon
in Hue
19 were Vietnamese civilians were killed and 64 were wounded.
casualties were 21 Vietnamese civilians killed and 78 wounded;
where ten 122 mm. rocket rounds impacted inside the citadel, nine civilians
were killed and 13 others wounded. In My Tho, 33 rounds of 82 mm. mortar
fire woul wounded sixteen.
"This is just the Communist way of saying we have whipped you (with
the bombing halt)--and ther these rockets are to show we whipped you good,"
an official American photographer expounded. was trying to take a photo
of the rocket round that impacted inside the Gia Long Palace and this
"I
Vietnamese captain got so mad at me and he was yelling, 'You always talk
about American la casualties-but what about V₁e tnamese casualties."
==more reuter
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zozo sag
Jy nnm
reaction (normass/deepe)
Some Vietnamese civilians criticized the Viet Cong for unleashing the
SERIOUS
attacks during the delec delicate moments when peace was under discussions-
5/
but other criticized the Americans for not repeat not stopping the bombing
of the North sooner so that the Communists would not repeat not have shelled
the urban centers.
Second,
President Johnson's unilateral announcement-ignoring Vietnamese
government agreement for the bombing halt-came as an ironic shock
on the Vietnamese National Day. The city was already in a holiday mood
when the President's speech was broadcast; shops exaxnkosedm and government
offices were closed. The government had already planned its most
Mil. TARY
inconspicuous of all its national days--no parades or public ceremonies
were planned because on a previous anniversary the Communists had
shelled reviewing stands in the center of town an hour before senior
government officials arrived.
Me Some Vietnamese voiced pride in the nationalistic stand of the
But this WAS G
Saigon government in running counter to t American pressure, still the
VERS RADOWED By the
shock waves of what is generally interpreted here as the beginning of the
"de-Americanization" of the war overshadowed the
sationalistic
1357
==more reuter
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gozo sag
yy nnm
reaction
9
(normass/deepe)
The Vietnamese National Day is also a highly car controversial day
for internal political reasions because it marks the 1963 overh overthrow
of Vietnam's first President, Ngo Dinh Diem-and many pro-Diemists to this
"dumping" that regime.
day blame American officials for
But, the high-level concerns of the Vietnamese government did not
who clearly
repeat not penetrate to the Tx Vietnamese common man,
BR. Ng. Ng
interpreted the bombing halt as a giant step towards peace.
"This is a vangngowym holiday and a very good day to get the
one low-class Vietnamese laborer
good news of the halt of the bombing, "
explained.
"It means things in Paris will progress towards peace.
It's
too bad the Communists had to spoil this happy atmosphere by mortaring and
rocketing this morning."
A 22-year-old Vietnamese maid explained,
"The news if very good.
It means we can have a big Tet this year," referring to a happy lunar new
year, which was spoiled last time by the Communist offensive.
==more reuter
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Sozo sag
yy nnm
reaction
(abrmass/deepe)
In a low-class, ff open-air coffee shop, Vietnamese cyclo-drivers and
laborers watched the civilian casualties from the Communist shelling brought
into a nearby hospital.
"When you look at that you should want nothing else but peace," one of
them explained, tuning in his transistor radio for the latest news. "Now
I'm glad there's a bombing halt-only that will lead to peace."
But,
the news.
some of the Vietnamese army officers were clearly shaken by
"We are going to have more and more trouble," a Vietnamese major
said. "It sounds like 1954 again--when the French suddenly decided to end the
Indo-China War. This time we don't know what will happen."
And some Vietnamese were bitinxx clearly worried.
"We don't know what will happen," a Vietnamese businessman said.
"Everything is now decided thexmexions secretly by the Americans and the
Communists. We nationalists have not repeat no right to know about what is going on.
But, anyhow halting the bombing is good if it brings peace."
end reuter
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Date
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1968, Nov. 1
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Subject
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Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973; Vietnam (Democratic Republic); Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Aerial operations; Bombing, aerial; Bombardment; United States--Relations--Vietnam (Republic); Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Peace; Diplomacy
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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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B10, F39
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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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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
