HANOI VIEW: KISSINGER FLURRY MEANS LITTLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000300360005-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 17, 2000
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: October 6, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

STATINTL CtjR'TS'!`'l`TArr SC1I'.1CE MONITOR
STATINAlpproved For Release 2001/03/04 PCWZP80-01601F
Vietnam peace rumors sprout once again as Henry
Kissinger darts back and forth to Paris, as his depu-
ty, General.11aig, returns from talks with President
Thieu, and as candidates Nixon and Agnew. drop
hints along the campaign trail. Is agreement really in
the offing? ` No, ' in essence, is the answer of the
Coiilmunist delegates to the Paris peace talks: Louis
wiziaitzer, just back from extensive interviews with
them in Paris, explains their point of view. (Mr. Wiz-
nitzer, U.S.- correspondent for Mlontre al's French-la.n-
gua,e daily La Presse, has had numerous previous,
discussions 'with North Vietnamese officials in recent
.years,' and has visited. North and South Vietnam.)
'Meanwhile; Takashi Oka reports from Paris (Page 2)
that the peace 'talks indeed appear stalled.
By Louis W'iznitzer . ends by playing "the democratic game,"
tb The Christian Science Monitor that is by insisting on their formula for a
Paris tripartite government in Saigon and on
having elections held at a near date In
c~ No settlement of the Vietnam war
South Vietnam under independent aus
is likely before the American presidential. pices - but continuing to fight until they
election on Nov. 7, or indeed at any time get this. They believe, further, they can
in the near future. continue to hold out against bombing and
o
? The North Vietnamese and the Viet blockade until they do get what they
Cong see presidential adviser Henry want.
Kissinger's secret talks with North Viet- Private talks with the principal North
namese Politburo member Le Due Tho as Vietnamese and Viet Cong representa-
more a part of the American election fives here, Xuan Thuy and Mrs. Nguyen
campaign than of American willingness Thi Binh, have led this writer to the
to reach a compromise acceptable to above conclusions - some of them
their side.
inference -
b
dl
itt
d
y
y
m
e
a
. o The North Vietnamese and the Viet Against this background,
Cong go along with the Kissinger-Le Due deadlock at the latest round
Tho talks to prove to Peking and Moscow
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong willing- Vietnam peace talks here
t b fler-'b'e - which is what the should be no surprise.
e
continued
of weekly
Thursday
nCSS o
-
Chinese and the Russians have urged. Discussing Dr. Kissinger's earlier se-
them to be. cret talks here with Le Due Tho, the
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong repre-
s The need to prove this flexibility sentatives say privately Air. Kissinger's
now may be all the greater because the visits to Paris are a "propaganda ploy."
North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong are Lyndon Johnson, they say, used crude
probably planning a new offensive. methods to convey the impression that he
a The sticking point in the Kissinger- was searching for a diplomatic solution.
Le Due Tho talk's is not so much the He used to state the number of miles that
person of South Vietnamese President he or Dean Rusk had journeyed "in
Thieu as the conflict between the two search of peace."
sides over long-term political control of Air. Nixon, they say, resorts to more
South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese sophisticated techniques: hints, under-
and the Viet Cong want to irrevocably statements, and even secrecy are used to
bolt the door against an American return give people the impression that "some-
to Vietnam (after American withdrawal) thing is going on in Paris."
If the Americans subsequently see things Main iSSUeS skirted?
for them
going politically the wrong way
in South Vietnam.
hope that he may then announce, directly
or by ways of leaks, that an area of
agreement had been reached." But in
fact, they say, nothing has been settled at
all. -
Why then do the Communists go along
with this ploy and agree to be a party tp
purportedly sterile discussions?
Although they will not say this and
although they absolutely refuse to specu-
late on their military operations, the.
most informed guess is that they are
about to launch a new military offensive
in the South. Because of this they
apparently are anxious to show their
reluctant Soviet and Cliinese suppliers
that they are not intransigent, that they
remain willing to talk whip shooting, ,
that they are flexible and realistic and
therefore not unworthy of their allies'
assistance.
The nub of the ma.t.er, as far as
negotiations are concerned, remains
what it has always been: (1) Who will
rule South Vietnam in the near future?
And (2) Who will run it in the distant
future?
Although Xuan Thuy and Mrs. Nguyen
Thi Binh do not say as much, it is this
reporter's impression that South Viet-
namese President Thieu is not really the
main issue. Rather, his political future is
a smokescreen behind which both sides
are fencing over a bigger issue.
The Sept. 11 statement from the Viet
Cong refers to President Thiau's depar-
ture less specifically than in the past,
even though the Viet Cong still insists
privately that he must go But the Viet
Cong has always stated that policies
counted, not personalities.
Thus it is.-conceivable that If what they
call Saigon's "repressive apparatus"
(concentration camps, police, cen-
sorship) were dismantled, they might not
object to a Saigon administration within
which General Thieu was a member of a
tripartite government. And, just as the
Viet Cong may not be really after
General Thieu's head, so President Nixon
might not be Irrevocably opposed to
dumping him. What the U.S. Government
has opposed so far is a tripartite govern-
ment which it sees as a device for a
Communist take-over.
The Viet Cong are confident that time
Most of the time, they say, Air. Kiss- is on their side and that they can afford to
roger avoids discussing the main prob- play "the democratic game." The chips,
Cong bell lA c~ Re~eta re 2 ~ a'Ct ~JP, to ]~fa~Vl 1 ~ 3~dv l1fa11ot11e2S way, in several
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