Friday, May 12, 1972
Back Viet Parley, U.K. Urges Russ
LONDON (AP) --Britain urged the Soviet Union Wednesday to join in calling a new international conference to negotiate an end of the Vietnam war.The response of Soviet Ambassador Mikhail Smirnovsky to the proposal by Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home was merely to say he would forward the idea on to Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko in Moscow.In a 25-minute meeting devoted to a discussion of the Vietnam crisis, however, the Soviet envoy strongly criticized President Nixon's action in mining North Vietnam's ports.Britain and the Soviet Union were cochairmen of the nine-member Indochinese conference in Geneva which in 1954 achieved a settlement of the war then raging against French rule.The London and Moscow governments still share a residual responsibility in seeking a settlement of the conflict in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.The Foreign Office issued a statement saying the foreign secretary and the Soviet ambassador met for 25 minutes."Sir Alec Douglas-Home, as one of the two cochairmen, proposed the reconvening of the Geneva conference. The Soviet ambassador undertook to convey Sir Alec's views to Mr. Gromyko," it said.A Foreign Office spokesman declined to disclose Smirnovsky's precise reaction and comments on the over-all situation in Vietnam.But British and Soviet informants said later the discussion covered all aspects, including Nixon's move to mine the approaches to North Vietnamese ports.The Geneva conference in 1954 was attended by Britain, France, the United States, Russia, Red China and parties from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.Since North Vietnam's offensive began March 30, Soviet officials have rebuffed two Brtish (sic) attempts to reconvene the Geneva parley, declaring it was impracticable."Back Viet Parley, U.K. Urges Russ", by (AP), printed in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Friday, May 12, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.