After a Mini-Crisis, a Modest Forward Step

IT was a most unlikely assemblage of foreign ministers under the glittering chandeliers of Paris' Hotel Majestic. Russia's Andrei Gromyko showed his distress at having to sit next to South Viet Nam's Tran Van Lam, who, in turn, frowned at the Viet Cong's Madame Nguyen Thi Binh. China's Chi Pengfei avoided even looking toward Gromyko, but chatted congenially with William Rogers, who affably courted both Chi and Gromyko. But despite all of the sensitivities and animosities around the huge circular table--and after a brief crisis that threatened to scuttle the entire Viet Nam settlement--a 13-party international conference moved the tenuous Viet Nam peace another notch ahead last week.

With no great enthusiasm, the dozen foreign ministers solemnly signed the Act of Paris,* a compromise document that will help bring international pressure upon the combatants to live up to the Paris peace settlement, which had been signed in the same room one month earlier. The pact provides a channel for handling violations of the cease-fire when--and if--they are reported by the four-nation (Canada, Hungary, Poland and Indonesia) International Commission of Control and Supervision. The ICCS, or any one of its members, will report violations to the four original combatants--the U.S., South Viet Nam, North Viet Nam and Viet Cong--who must relay copies to the other international conference members. There is no agreement on what will be done about any transgressions, though the U.S. and North Viet Nam could then jointly ask for a new international conference to take up that question. Alternatively, any six members could demand such a meeting.

While a smiling Rogers declared that "I am satisfied--entirely satisfied," the agreement falls short of U.S. hopes for stronger cease-fire guarantees and a firmer commitment toward achieving peace in Laos and Cambodia. One of the most disappointed was Canada's Mitchell Sharp, who had urged that some "standing authority," such as the United Nations, be empowered to act on cease-fire violations. He said that Canada, long frustrated by its participation in the International Control Commission that was supposed to police the 1954 Geneva agreement on Indochina, will decide within 30 days whether to pull out of the new ices.

Apart from Viet Nam, the conference was significant as the highest-level meeting among officials of China, Russia and the U.S. since President Nixon made his visits to both Peking and Moscow. The triangular ballet was performed with finesse. Gromyko and Chi confronted each other only once. When the South Vietnamese fought for a provision recognizing the Saigon government as the only legitimate regime in the South, Gromyko sharply opposed it, while Chi remained silent. Gromyko later stalked over to Chi and asked: "Did your silence mean support of the South Vietnamese?" Chi stared at Gromyko with disdain, then turned his back. The provision was rejected.

The conference--and the whole peace agreement--had been in jeopardy earlier in the week, when Hanoi announced that it would not release more U.S. prisoners until it was assured of an end to violence against its representatives on the Joint Military Commission in South Viet Nam. In retaliation, the U.S. then stopped its troop withdrawals and pulled its mine-clearing ships out of Haiphong harbor. Rogers met first with the North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese and Viet Cong, then with the North Vietnamese alone. At the same time, both the Chinese and Soviet representatives applied pressure to Hanoi's delegation--and suddenly, the P.O.W. release was back on schedule. Hanoi officials and the Viet Cong released the names of 136 Americans who, they said, would be turned over to U.S. military representatives early this week in Hanoi. In another private meeting, between the Viet Cong and South Vietnamese, Saigon's representatives promised better protection for the Communist truce watchers. Yet Hanoi did not seem reassured, and at week's end the Communists withdrew their JMC field teams from Hue and Danang. They were flown in U.S. aircraft to Saigon, thus further delaying the already tardy truce supervision process.

Tanks. Hanoi's complaints had some validity. Crowds of up to 4,000 South Vietnamese have assailed the Hanoi delegates at both Hue and Danang, throwing rocks and injuring six delegates. "If Saigon wants to stop these things, it can stop them," declared one high U.S. official. The Communist military representatives are mainly confined behind barbed wire and high fences in primitive compounds.

Both Vietnamese sides launched a numbers campaign, charging massive violations of the cease-fire by the other. The Communists claimed Saigon forces had committed 24,000 violations and had lobbed precisely 12,523 shells in Quang Tri Province. Saigon claimed 5,540 Communist violations since the agreement was signed. More seriously, the State Department revealed U.S. intelligence estimates of a new Communist troop build-up along the Laotian border, including the southward movement of tanks, and the setting up of SA-2 antiaircraft batteries at Khe Sanh.

There still was no effective ceasefire throughout South Viet Nam, as each side continued to jockey for advantage before the supervisory machinery becomes fully operational. While some Communist forces seemed to be getting in position for a larger, but limited attack, such action did not appear imminent. Hanoi is not expected to do anything to slow the U.S. troop withdrawal, which is timed to coincide with the prisoner release. Just what might happen after all U.S. prisoners and troops are out remains a murky--and potentially momentous--matter.

* Besides Rogers of the U.S., Gromyko of the U.S.S.R., Chi of China, Lam of South Viet Nam, Binh of the Viet Cong and Sharp of Canada, the others were North Viet Nam's Nguyen Duy Trinh, France's Maurice Schumann, Britain's Alec Douglas-Home, Indonesia's Adam Malik, Poland's Stefan Olszowski and Hungary's Janos Peter. The U.N.'s Kurt Waldheim was present but did not sign the pact.

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