Nixon envoy sees Vietnamese puppet

Workers Press no. 844, 17 August 1972 · scan page 3

Topics: Vietnam and Indochina, United States

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FOREIGN policy adviser to US President Nixon, Henry Kissinger, talked in Saigon yesterday with South Vietnamacp dirtatos Nguzan Van Thieu.

The talks followed secret discussions in Paris between Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the North Vietnamese politburo member.

The two men have held three sets of secret talks since the 1neranon offensive began Vietnam three months ago.

Neither the Americans nor the North Vietnamese have given details of the Paris discussions, though Le Duc Tho flew from Paris to Hanoi on Tuesday as Kissinger left for Saigon.

However, the North Vietlamese nave made it clear thai they wil not accept a military settlement without discussion of the political issues involved in Vietnam-and their priority demand is the removal of Thieu from power in Saigon.

It is not clear whether Kissinger is in Saigon to give Thieu his marching orders or to reassure him that he will not be abandoned by the US government. But Thieu has certainly been showing all the signs of acute nervousness about his posiA series of • new decrees rushed through by his government earlier this month were aimed at destroying the last remnants of independence for the Saigon press, forcing them to pay huge deposits to the Interior Ministry or go out of business.

At the same time, the National Liberation Front guerrillas are moving closer to the capital, blowing up important ammunition dumps and cutting vital supply routes. Yesterday a squad of NLF saboteurs attacked the capital's airport at Tan Son Nhut.

Nixon's intensive bombing campaign in Vietnam is arousing widespread protests in the United States which cannot help his prospects in the November election. -His new-found friends in Moscow all reking lave vecIr preo"-tier to Minanis alanse sing the Vietnamese deal with the US.

The bombardment and blockade of the North has plainly not shaken the resolve of the • Vietnamese people to fight to the end against US imperialism and liberate the South.

Whatever the purpose of Kissinger's diplomatic manoeuvres this resistance is the chief barcient thought for the consequences' will be liable to an indefinite period of imprison-