Chou Rules Out Geneva Before U.S. Withdrawal

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31108, 11 July 1966, Page 13

Chou Rules Out Geneva Before U.S. Withdrawal

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) PEKING, July 10. The Chinese Prime Minister, Mr Chou En-lai last night ruled out reconvening of the Geneva conference on Vietnam unless the United States withdraws its forces from South Vietnam.

Mr Chou said in a speech that the proposal of the Indian Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Ghandi, to reconvene the conference was designed only to sap the fighting will of the Vietnamese and to help the United States.

forces from Vietnam immediately, completely, thoroughly, totally. “Unless United States troops are withdrawn, reconvening of the Geneva conference is entirely out of question,” he said. Mrs Gandhi on Thursday called for an immediate convening of the 1954 Geneva conference on Indo-China by its colchairmen ,the Soviet Union and Britain. This was part of a six-point peace plan for Vietnam she put forward. The plan called for a halt in the bombing of North Vietnam, a military stand-

still in the South and eventual neutralisation of Vietnam. Talks With Tito Mrs Gandhi will go to Jugoslavia from Cairo today for two days of talks on Vietnam and other issues with President Tito, her European colleague in the non-aligned world. The discussions on Brioni Island will centre on the Vietnam peace plan, wellinformed sources in Peking said. President Tito is likely to consider with Mrs Gandhi possible ways of giving concrete form to her peace plan,

which the Indian leader emphasises should be treated as an idea only, open to similar suggestions. In Cairo, usually reliable sources said President Nasser agreed with Mrs Gandhi that reconvening of the Geneva conference offered the best hope of a peaceful settlement in Vietnam. The sources said the President agreed with Mrs Gandhi’s proposal, but he expressed the view that unless Hanoi’s co-operation was obtained no peace initiative had much hope of success. Mr Chou En-lai said the United States was declaring its intention of fighting to the finish in South Vietnam.

Mr Chou told a banquet marking the end of a twoweek Afro-Asian writers’ conference on Vietnam: “The United States must unconditionally withdraw its armed

“Evidently, its purpose Is to force the Vietnamese people into begging for peace, otherwise it will destroy Vietnam,” he said.

“The United States will never succeed in its objective,” he said. “Whatever the risk and whatever the price,” China was determined to support and aid the Vietnamese people until they won final victory. He accused the Soviet leaders of committing a “most open, barefaced betrayal of the Vietnamese people” by declaring that the United States bombing around Hanoi and Haiphong would not affect U.S.-Soviet collaboration and the reaching of a disarmament agreement.