FRANCE: VIET CONG AND SAIGON AGAIN FAIL TO AGREE ON AGENDA FOR FULL-SCALE NEGOTIATIONS ON SOUTH VIETNAM'S POLITICAL FUTURE AT PARIS TALKS.

Record ID: 648543

  • Title: FRANCE: VIET CONG AND SAIGON AGAIN FAIL TO AGREE ON AGENDA FOR FULL-SCALE NEGOTIATIONS ON SOUTH VIETNAM'S POLITICAL FUTURE AT PARIS TALKS.
  • Date: 27th March 1973
  • Summary: 1. SV Nguyen Luu Vien out of car & speaks 0.50 2. SV Nguyen Van Hieu out of car & speaks 1.24 Initials SGM/1645 SGM/1711 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 11th April 1973 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Paris, France
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA4F8VQWI7U7ADI9YL33Q80XNFY
  • Story Text: The Viet Cong and the Saigon administration on Monday (26 March) again failed to agree on an agenda for full-scale negotiations on shaping South Vietnam's political future -- two months after the peace agreement of January 27th.

    Most of the session at the Chateau de la Celle St Cloud near Paris, was taken up with the Viet Cong's demand that the United States withdrew its last remaining troops from South Vietnam by Wednesday (28 March), in accordance with the provisions of the Paris peace pact.

    Nguyen Van Hieu, Minister of State in the Viet-Cong-backed Provisional Revolutionary Government, accused President Nixon of violating the Paris accords by ordering United Sates' forces to stay in Vietnam until all U.S. prisoners of war are freed, including nine held captive in Laos.

    Nguyen Luu Vien, Deputy Prime Minister in the Saigon Government and leader of the Saigon's delegation at the talks, said in session that the presence of North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam constituted "A permanent threat to the South Vietnamese population....As long as these troops stay in South Vietnam there cannot be a true and lasting peace."
    The two parties adjourned after a three-hour session and agreed to meet again on Friday (30 March)
    SYNOPSIS: The Viet Cong and the Saigon administration on Monday again failed to agree on an agenda for full-scale negotiations to shape South Vietnam's political future -- two months after the January twenty-seventh peace agreement. Interviewed by French newsmen after a three-hour session in Paris, Nguyen Luu Vien, Deputy Prime Minister in the Saigon administration, said that his side at the talks was sticking strictly to the spirit and letter of the Paris agreement and hoped that the other side was doing the same. In session he said that the presence of North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam was a permanent threat and a barrier to a "true and lasting peace".

    Most of the session was taken up with the Viet Cong's demand that the United States withdraw its last remaining troops from South Vietnam by Wednesday, in accordance with the provisions of the Paris agreement. This point was underlined after the conference when Nguyen Van Hieu, Minister of State in the Viet-Cong backed Provisional Revolutionary Government, also spoke to French newsman. He said that this situation was a grave violation of the earlier agreement and an attack against the fundamental rights of the Vietnamese people. The two parties agreed to meet again on Friday.
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