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Part of Viet Election Secret

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VIET ELECTION SECRET

7

J

By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent

SAIGON.
A secret decision was made at last month's Honolulu conference to try to speed up South Viet Nam's elections for a.
national legislative body-previously announced for late 1967to "early 1967 or as soon as possible,'' reliable sources indicate.

The sources attributed the decision to substantial American pl'essure-includlng /·7t'.1ef
desire o! President Jo insorr
himself-to speed up the
vote.
Vietnamese observers view
the action as an ind x of
the desire of the Jo nso
administration to atte pt to
negotiate a, peace settlement
here by offering substantial
concessions to the Hanoi
regime through rearranging
the Saigon political and
governmental structure.
Premier Nguyen Cao Ky,
before the conference, had
announced the late 1967 timetable, which would give the
government almost two years
to pa.clfy large blocs of the
rural population now under
some Communist coi;i.trol.
Observers here doubt the
anti-Communist South Vietne >ia.ese government will se'cure and control a safe proportion of the population by 1
the earlier dates.
The anti-Communist generals, who actually hold the
reins of power in South Viet
Nam, are considered· to be reIuctant to support the speedup, but have little altern~t!ve
except to do so.

METHODS
Observers believe there are
two cl/:~inct approaches to negot!atiion. The first is a formal,
"around the table," type.of international confe1:ence, such
as the 14-natlon Geneva conference which ended the
French Indochina war in 1954.
The second Is an "under-thetable" agreement made by rearranging the power structure
within the Saigon political
arena.