The Ritual Resumes

The scene was set for another enactment of the familiar ritual. Units of France's tough riot police were stationed along the elegant Avenue Kleber, which slopes away from the Arc de Triomphe. Outside what was once the Hotel Majestic, black sedans swung to a stop and disgorged the chief delegates, and their aides, of the four negotiating parties: the U.S., South Viet Nam, the National Liberation Front and North Viet Nam.

Before entering the building, where the Viet Nam peace talks resumed last week after a 10-week suspension, U.S. Ambassador William J. Porter stepped up to a battery of microphones. He rattled off a list of recent diplomatic developments--the Moscow summit, the start of East German-West German negotiations, the Korean rapprochement. Then Hanoi's Chief Delegate Xuan Thuy took over the microphones--and launched a numbingly familiar tirade against the American bombing of North Viet Nam.

On that note of disagreement, the 150th plenary session of the Paris peace talks began. It slightly increased the hope that the Communists might be returning to Paris with "a new approach." Mme. Nguyen Thi Binh, the N.L.F. chief delegate, stood fast on the Viet Cong's seven-point plan, which insists upon a total U.S. withdrawal by a set date, the resignation of South Viet Nam's Nguyen Van Thieu and the establishment of a coalition government in Saigon that would include the Communists and supervise new elections.

She dismissed as "arrogant and illogical" the more limited Nixon proposal of May 8, which calls for an in-place ceasefire, a release of all American prisoners in return for a U.S. withdrawal within four months, and an end of acts of war by the U.S. in Indochina. One glimmer of movement was a remark by Xuan Thuy. He suggested that while the Communists still wanted to oust Thieu, the shape of Saigon's political future might be left--as the U.S. has proposed--to later negotiations between the two Viet Nams. Then, at week's end, Le Due Tho, a North Vietnamese Politburo member who has had secret talks with Presidential Adviser Henry Kissinger, returned to Paris and indicated his willingness to enter into private talks again. Said Tho: "If Mr. Kissinger has something new to say and shows an interest in seeing me, I am ready to see him to discuss a correct solution to the Viet Nam problem."

It was too early to tell whether these remarks were simply a new variation on an old theme. Still, U.S. officials think the talks could advance. For one thing, the Communist offensive in South Viet Nam has faltered, while U.S. bombs continue to punish North Viet Nam.

Pressure on Hanoi. Less visible is the pressure that Hanoi has been under from its allies. Communist leaders are known to have pressed the North Vietnamese for an agreement based on the May 8 plan, noting that Nixon is unlikely to make more concessions. The North Vietnamese, however, know that Nixon faces an election in four months against a rival who has vowed to stop U.S. bombing on Inauguration Day and pull all U.S. forces out within 90 days thereafter. As one North Vietnamese diplomat put it last week: "Nixon is bound by time. We have no time frame."

What, if anything, could come out of the current talks? The Nixon Administration is not prepared to discuss a coalition government in Saigon, which Washington believes would be Communist dominated. The maximum hope is that Hanoi and the N.L.F. will agree to a settlement along the lines of the May 8 proposal. At most the talks could produce some sort of a formal ceasefire that would end the U.S. air campaign over North Viet Nam in return for decreased North Vietnamese military activity in the South. That is far short of a peace settlement. Considering the Communists' tough initial posture last week, it could also prove well removed from reality.

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