Sunday, Ndvember 3, 1968 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Three Sunday, November 3, 1968 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Three Bomb WASHINGTON (R) - The big breakthrough in U.S.-North Viet- namese efforts to negotiate terms for a bombing halt began to de- velop last Sunday night. It was then that secret word began' to reach the White House from Hanoi on "the essential un- derstanding," as President John- son put it Thursday night, of the conditions for ending American attacks on North Vietnam. But U.S. officials now believe that President Ho Chi Minh had made the basic decision about a month earlier to begin to de-es- calate the war and move into seri- ous peace negotiations. The reason for this judgment was both military and political and grew out of the Johnson administration's view of the war, which is very different from Ha-, noi's publicly stated view. Johnson and his advisers felt that Ho' Chi Minh and his asso- ciates were paying. a very high price to continue the war and would -want at some point to be- gin to move the conflict into se- rious negotiations. Some of Johnson's advisers told halt climaxes secret diplomacy him that Hanoi either had to move toward substantial peace negotiations in early October or wait several months until a new president was installed in the White House. The chief U.S. negotiator in Paris, Ambassador Averell Harri- man, had advised as early as August that if Hanoi felt it could get an acceptable deal with John- son it would undoubtedly do so. CONDITIONS On Sept. 17, Johnson had con- ferred with Harriman and re- viewed his conditions for halting the bombing. According to ad- ministration officials these were essentially that: " The demilitarized zone se- parating North and South Viet- nam would be respected by Com- munist forces as well as U.S. and allied troops; 0 That North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops would not make terror attacks on Saigon and the other cities and towns of South Vietnam; 9 That representatives of the Saigon government of President Nguyen van Thieu would be ad- mitted to the second phase of the Paris talks, following the bomb- ing halt.I Johnson said he could not settle for less in halting the bombing. In Paris and in statements from Hanoi, the North Vietnamese pressed the line-which they con- tinued throughout October-that they would accept no conditions for halting the bombing. On Oct. 3, Ambassador Cyrus R. Vance, having returned to Washington following the Oct. 2 Paris meeting, conferred with Johnson. Officially he was back to review the situation in the talks. Actually, according to gen- erally *accepted reports, he was seeking maximum negotiating flexibility in the belief that in O c t o b e r the long-deadlocked bombing issue might begin to move. QUESTIONS The peace talk session in the second week of Octob'er was held on the 9th and for the first time the North Vietnamese negotiating team began to ask questions that bore on how a bombing halt might be arranged. By that time it had become ap- parent that a lull had set in on the battlefield and that North Vietnam was withdrawing whole battalions from South Vietnam. The United States took the posi- tion that if this was a Hanoi ini- tiative to de-escalate the war, Hanoi should give assurances that a new offensive would not be launched when the bombing stop- ped. One of the key questions report- edly asked by Ambassador Xuan Thuy in that critical first week of the negotiations was whether the United States would stop the bombing and other attacks on North Vietnam if Hanoi agreed to have the Saigon government at the negotiating table. Harriman replied that would make a deci- sive difference. Harriman and Vance also em- phasized that de-escalation was a vital element of any deal. Hanoi had insistently rejected such re- ciprocity, but the battlefield lull initiated by North Vietnam seem- ed to offer a way around the re- ciprocity issue. All the enemy had to do was give Johnson "reason to believe," as he himself had said, that the de-escalation would hold and that the DMZ and the cities of South Vietnam would be respected, PROGRESS By Oct. 12, a Saturday, the secret talks had advanced so rap- idly that administration officials believed an agreement might be possible in the following week. Johnson consulted at long range with Ambassador Ellsworth Bun- ker and Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, the U.S. troop com- mander, in Saigon. They told him they believed that Hanoi was ready to shift the war at least partially from the battlefield to the conference table. They reported they had drafted their own analysis, which they were about to send to Johnson, which reached that conclusion on the basis of the military situation in South Vietnam. Bunker then began a series of meetings with South Vietnamese President Nguyen van Thieu on the terms for ending the bombing. Thieu is represented by American officials as indicating lie would go along with Johnson's plan- if the U.S. president was prepared to resume the bombing in the event Hanoi violated the DMZ with new escalation, or attacked the cities of the South. At that point two weeks of hard bargaining began. Hanoi, accord- ing to the U.S. version, wanted a delay in the talks and a commu- nique in which the United States would .state that it was imposing a bombing halt unconditionally. BLOW YOUR MIND AFTER THE STRIKE! FOLK FESTIVAL Mendoy 8:30 p.m. Canterbury House Scintillate with Pam Myles, Dave Johns, Jack Quine, Marge Himel, and Jim Strand! Proceeds go to the JIM LEWIS for SHERIFF MOVEMENT. Souls $1.25-Bodies admitted FREE ! -Associated Press A RIVER SPAN in North Vietnam severed by American planes; such objects are now off-limits to the bombers. PRESENTING- 1, SATURDAY and SUNDAY WOMAN OF THEDUNES Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahra, 1963 Screenplay by Japan's Nobel Prize winner in literature. "A horrifying allegory and comment on man's indi- viduality; a man and a woman trapped in a sand pit." 7:00 & 9:05 ARCH ITECTURE 662-8871 I5C AUDITORIUM The United States, it, is said, maintained that the talks must go forward without delay, and that the Saigon government would have to participate if they were to be productive. Harriman also told Xuan Thuy that if there were violations of the demilitarized zone or attacks on the cities of the South it was a dfact of life" that Johnson could not sustain a bombing halt. Hanoi negotiated for inclusion of the National Liberation front, political arm of the Viet Cong, on equal terms with the Saigon gov- ernment by proposing that the second phase in Paris be called a Four-Power conference. This was unacceptable to Thieu. On the military side Hanoi tried to get Johnson to call the proposed bombing halt uncondi- tional. Johnson: stood on his for- mulation that he had to have some reason to believe that if he halted the bombing North Viet- nam would not take advantage of that fact to improve its military1 position. Last Sunday, Oct. 27, what Johnson Thursday night called "confirmation" began to come in from Hanoi. As one official put it, "we achieved a breakthrough." The actual form of this reported Hanoi response has not been dis- closed. CONSULTATIONI Before taking the final action he announced Thursday night, Johnson summoned Abrams from Saigon. The general arrived at the White House at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. I Of the bombing halt. Abrams is reported to have told the Pres- ident that in view of all the cir- cumstances, "I think it's the right thing to do." Essentially, the question John- son asked the field commander was whether, if the North Viet- namese decided to attack, Abrams could protect his men. The essence of Abrams' answer is reported to be that a week would be required for them to move from the posi- tions to which they have now pull- ed back and if they did move he would have time to take counter- action. The President reportedly affirm- ed Abrams' standing orders that if any such threat developed he. could act at once on his decision without consulting Washington. Officials said this now includes authority to Abrams to retaliate against the North -presumably 'with artillery. Such a development presumably would also raise for the President the question of whether he should resume the bombing. Ambassador Bunker then ad- vised President Thieu in Saigon that Johnson was prepared to'act on the basis of the understanding reached in Paris with Hanoi. On Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 30, Johnson was informed by Bunker that Thieu said his gov- ernment was prepared to act on the basis of the Paris understand- ing and agreed to the halting of all attacks against North Vietnam at 8 a.m., Nov. 1, Washington time. the by The Associatcd Press and College Press Service POLICE CLASHED WITH BLACKS in Washington D.C. yesterday after an officer wounded a woman he said was chasing him with a butcher knife. The incident touched off an angry gang of young blacks who hurled rocks and bottles at every approaching car driven by a white man. Police fired tear gas into the crowd after they set fire to three cars and overturned another. Both the woman with the knife and another bystander were wounded when the officer fired several shots as he stufhbled away from them * 0 x LIU SHAO-CHI was reported to have urged top Peking leaders to obey party rules in considering his expulsion from the Chinese Communist Party. The report, from the Hong Kong Star, an Australian edited tabloid, said that Liu also refused to confess to "more mistakes in Mao-thought" or accept suggestions that he resign. According to the story, Premier Chou En-lai tried to woo Liu into supporting party chairman Mao in a last minute bid for reconciliation between the two leaders. Liu, however refused to make any public confessions. In Taipei, experts on Chinese Communist leaders sug- gested Liu was a victim of the deepening conflict between Peking and Moscow. * * ! ANGRY JORDANIANS stormed the U.S. embassy in Amman yesterday forcing Bedouin security troops to ex- change fire with the armed demonstrators. First reports said one person was killed and several were wounded in the exchange. The demonstration, involving at least 10,000 people, began as a protest march marking the fifty-first anniversry of the Balfour declaration which promised a national homeland for the Jews in Palestine. The mob attacked the embassy after a speech by Palestin- ian nationalist leader Suleiman Nabulsi, leader of the "Na- tional Coalition" of Palestinian factions which support guerilla action against Israel. J. R. WIGGINS, U.S. AMBASSADOR to the United Nations, demanded strict observance of the Middle East cease-fire before the Security Council yesterday morning. The Council met iin emergency session on complaints by Israel and Egypt, each side blaming the other for instigat- ing two military intrusions last week. In his first speech since he became UN ambassador, Wiggins criticized both Egypt's argument that it has a right to practice "preventive defense" and Israel's contention that it is entitled to "reprisal.' He said neither were acceptable actions. A RECORD 73 MILLION VOTRS are expected in next Tuesday's election. Gains are expected in the South w;ere many states have sharply increased registrations due to the influx of black' voters since passage of the voting rights act of 1965. However, the turnout may drop below 1964 levels in fifteen usually Democratic states, including Michigan, California, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Penn- sylvania, West Virginia, Washington, New Mexico, Kentucky, Oregon and the District of Columbia. According to an Assocated Press survey of official regis- tration records and estimates by election pfficials, a total of 90,141,438 of the 121.5 Million Americans of voting age are registered to vote. The actual turnout is estimated at 72,987,527 or 81 !; I the MICHI GAN-1LLI NOIS GLEE CLUB GONCERT Saturday, November 9 7:00 & 9:30 Hill Auditorium Featuring Russell Christopher Baritone-Metropolitan Opera Former Member-U of M Glee Club ARK FILM SOCIETY HUMPHREY BOGART and GEORGE RAFT, in THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT MONDAY, NOV. 4 7:30 & 9:30 per cent. THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN entered its last weekend underneath the spectre of an electoral college deadlock. As their appeals for support echoed across the land, all three major candidates were predicting victory in next Tues- day's election. Most polls and surveys placed Nixon in, the lead, but Associated Press News Analysts believe the political picture is rapidly changing as Humphrey gains support from President Johnson's decision to halt the bombing- of North Vietnam. There were continuing indications, though, that Wallace's third party candidacy could prevent either Nixon or Hum- phrey from winning a majority of the electoral vote, which could throw the election onto the House of Representatives for the first time in 144 years. S I I "DOJMIN" KEPS UP OWITE ]a on! at the ARK 1421 Hill 11 UI The Liongollen Award INDIVIDUAL TICKET SALES START TOMORROW! Hill Auditorium Box Office Open 8 A.M.-6 P.M. Mon.-Fri. 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