Oenologist's Dilemma

During his years as U.S. Ambassador to Bonn, Paris and London, David Bruce won a reputation as a connoisseur of wine. Last week in his new role as chief U.S. negotiator at the Paris peace talks, Bruce stumbled over his own expertise. Speaking to newsmen after the close of the 84th session of the protracted talks, Bruce described the proposals made by Viet Cong Chief Delegate Mrs. Nguyen Thi Binh as "new wine in old bottles." Moments later, a U.S. press officer explained that what Ambassador Bruce had meant to say was "old wine in new bottles."

Actually, it was a bit of both. In the first Communist initiative at the Paris talks in more than 16 months, Mrs. Binh spelled out eight points. Many were familiar, including demands for the reunification of Viet Nam, and the establishment of a neutral foreign policy. But some of the other points were either new or contained new angles. The hoary demand for total U.S. withdrawal was no longer accompanied by the word "immediate"; instead, Mrs. Binh set June 1971 as the deadline. Mrs. Binh also said that if U.S. units withdraw by then, Communist forces would refrain from attacking them. Later, a Viet Cong press officer said that if South Vietnamese forces held their fire, Communist troops would do likewise, presumably for an indefinite period of time.

In a softening of previous positions, Mrs. Binh declared that once the U.S. agrees to the deadline, the Communists will be willing to discuss "the question of releasing captured military men." In what appeared to be a significant shift, she also dropped the Viet Cong's demand that the U.S. overturn the Thieu government as it leaves and sanction the establishment of a coalition government that included the Viet Cong. Instead, she said that the Viet Cong would be willing to negotiate with an interim regime, which could include present members of the government with the exclusion only of President Nguyen Van Thieu, Vice President-Nguyen Cao Ky and Premier Tran Thien Khiem. The interim government, she said, would also conduct national elections, which would help determine the composition of a coalition government.

The Thieu government swiftly rejected the Viet Cong proposals. In Washington, State Department officials pointed out that they were timed to influence the U.S. elections in November and to anticipate this week's joint session of Congress, which is being called to protest the "inhuman treatment" of the 375 known U.S. prisoners in North Viet Nam and the 77 held by the Viet Cong. Even so, Washington officials, some of whom were displeased by Bruce's off-the-cork reaction, hoped that there would be enough new wine to get the long-stalled Paris negotiators moving toward substantive issues.

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