Thursday, May 18, 1972
Paris - Talks Plea Rejected By U.S.
PARIS (AP) --The United States Tuesday night turned down Communist demands that the formal Vietnam peace talks resume Thursday.Stephen Ledogar, U.S. delegation spokesman, said "we have received no indication that the other side have any serious intention to negotiate on matters of substance."The condition set by the United States for resumption when it suspended the conference May 4 was proof from the Communist they were willing to get down to negotiation instead of the exchanges of prepared statements which have been the feature of the more than three years of meeting here.Ledogar said a full statement on the rejection of the Communist request would be issued Wednesday.In a note to the U.S. delegation, the Viet Cong demanded "an immediate end to the mining and blockading of North Vietnamese ports, and an end to the bombing and pounding of the two zones of Vietnam..."The United States, the note said, "must renounce its sabotage of the Paris conference."The Viet Cong said that the United States once again indefinitely suspended the conference "to prepare the way for new escalations of the war.""Paris-Talks Plea Rejected by U.S.", by (AP), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Thursday, May 18, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.