Monday, April 3, 1972
U.S. Offers Hanoi Talks In Private
WASHINGTON (AP) --The State Department said Friday the American delegation to the Paris peace talks would be willing to hold private talks with the North Vietnamese on ending the Southeast Asian war.Spokesman Charles W. Bray said the United States will be willing to meet with Hanoi's top negotiator Le Duc Tho "in any useful channel private or public."Le Duc Tho is reported to have left Hanoi for Peking before his expected arrival in Paris next week.The public Paris peace talks resumed Thursday after a month's suspension with the United States chief delegate William Porter asking the North Vietnamese to start immediate discussions on ending their country's invasion of the South.The Americans then asked that the talks be resumed or indicated they would be willing for another round of talks next Thursday.Bray refused to comment in any way on published accounts that the United States is willing to avoid bombing the Hanoi-Haiphong area of North Vietnam to test the other side's intent in any secret peace talks.He said the current and constant American position on bombing is that raids will be conducted in, above and below the demilitarized zone.The Americans, however, last conducted a bombing raid in the Hanoi-Haiphong area nearly three weeks ago. Since then the U.S. bombers have been limited to targets generally far to the south of the North Vietnamese capital area."U.S Offers Hanoi Talks in Private", by (AP) published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Sunday, April 30, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.