New Flexibility

In both Washington and Paris last week, the feeling grew that U.S. and North Vietnamese negotiators have finally begun to move from rhetoric toward reality in their meetings. North Viet Nam's chief negotiator in the peace talks, Xuan Thuy, went out of his way to belittle American suggestions that longer tea or coffee breaks between the formal sessions represented some progress, noting ironically: "We talk about the seasons, the weather, the food, the scenery."

Still, the informal break last week lasted 42 minutes, a long time to discuss even the glories of France's climate, cuisine and countryside. In fact, the coffee breaks represent the opening of secret talks between the North Vietnamese and the Americans--and, as such, clear the way for the next stage in negotiations.

Some high U.S. officials feel that the North Vietnamese have finally realized that their monotonal demand for a complete bombing halt is no longer productive in moving either the U.S. or world opinion; therefore, they expect some kind of breakthrough in Paris during the coming weeks. The North Vietnamese are showing some signs of removing the mask of intransigence that they have worn since the talks began at Paris' Majestic Hotel seven weeks ago. Unbending a bit, Thuy and his aides even took in the horse races at the fashionable Auteuil track in the Bois de Boulogne. They are also spending more and more time talking about real problems and gradually letting the demand for a bombing halt fade into the background. The U.S., on the other hand, is trying to demonstrate flexibility; it told the North Vietnamese last week that if they stopped trying to force Communism on South Viet Nam, U.S. troops would be withdrawn without question.

All But the Devil. Public statements by both sides also suggested new flexibility. "We are prepared to cease bombardment at the appropriate time," insisted Negotiator Cyrus Vance, repeating the U.S. appeal to Hanoi for a reciprocal gesture of de-escalation but couching it in the broadest terms to date. "This could be done de facto," said Vance. "It could be done by some indication, either directly or indirectly, that such a step is being taken." Hanoi's delegates refused to accept that gambit, but Radio Hanoi implicitly met a longstanding U.S. demand that North Viet Nam acknowledge the presence of its troops south of the Demilitarized Zone. Said a broadcast People's Army statement monitored in Hong Kong: "The peoples and armies of our whole country will continue fighting shoulder to shoulder to firmly inflict ever heavier blows and ultimate defeat upon the U.S. aggressors."

All sorts of people were popping in and out of Paris, some of them leftist or Communist journalists extending an occasional feeler for the North Vietnamese. The ubiquitous Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett, a Communist with good contacts in Hanoi, told the Far Eastern Economic Review that North Viet Nam would accept the political neutralization of the South if that would help end the fighting--an idea broached long ago by the National Liberation Front but not lately heard about. David Dellinger, editor of the U.S. antiwar magazine Liberation and organizer of last October's march on the Pentagon, also appeared in Paris. The North Vietnamese, he said, had told him that if the U.S. stopped the bombing, they would like to see the Paris talks broadened to include questions affecting the future of all Southeast Asia.

Arriving in Paris to meet with Vance --but not with the North Vietnamese-Laotian Premier Souvanna Phouma ad dressed himself to just such a question. He insisted that any peace settlement or cease-fire in Viet Nam should provide for the withdrawal of the 40,000 North Vietnamese troops that he says are now in Laos. Souvanna avowed that the talks "are now in the propaganda stage" but expressed the opinion that "they might look different in a few weeks."

Hanoi also invited U.S. Presidential Candidate Eugene McCarthy to come to Paris for briefings. "We are prepared to welcome and discuss our case with anyone except the devil," said a North Vietnamese spokesman. Washington analysts think that the reported slowdown in the flow of materiel through China to Hanoi may be Peking's way of punishing Hanoi for talking to the Americans. They also offer an interesting reason for the Soviet Union's suddenly seeming anxious to talk about disarmament: the Russians expect the war in Viet Nam to be settled this year, and want to forestall the U.S. from putting the money thereby saved into new missile and anti-missile systems.

Increasing Apprehension. All the stirrings, however slight or hopeful, were not lost on the South Vietnamese, who have been increasingly apprehensive over what is going on in Paris. In a debate over U.S. policy in the National Assembly last week, Assemblyman Duong Van Ba bluntly set forth many of his countrymen's doubts: "There is a plot to sell out the government of Viet Nam to the Communists." Even Premier Tran Van Huong, once spoken of as the possible head of a coalition government, warned that "these contacts have become a facade to cover up the military plots of the Communists." Many Vietnamese fear that they might become odd men out as a result of any agreement between Washington and Hanoi, since a settlement would clearly include governmental changes in Saigon. Reflecting these fears, the National Assembly approved a resolution asking the U.S. to clarify its present policy on Viet Nam. At the same time, the South Vietnamese government decreed arrest for anyone, be he journalist, politician or peasant, who publicly calls for the formation of a coalition government.

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