Negotiations: Hanoi's Fabians

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About the only thing in strike-bound Paris that seemed to be moving slower than the traffic last week was the peace parley on Viet Nam. U.S. and North Vietnamese negotiators held a single 2-hr. 57-min. session at the Hotel Majestic, then adjourned for four days. Hanoi was clearly bent on emulating the tactics of Fabius Cunctator (the delayer),* the Roman general who wore down the more powerful Hannibal by his endless harassing tactics. The long break was occasioned in part, a Hanoi spokesman explained, by the fact that Ascension Day was approaching, "and since we translate 'ascension' as 'escalation' in Vietnamese, we had better not meet on that day."

His comment was not entirely facetious. Hanoi doubled the rate of infiltration this year to at least 12,000 men a month, now has the equivalent of a dozen full divisions, or 80,000 men, in the South. If anything, fighting has intensified since talking began, particularly in northernmost I Corps. During the first week of the Paris negotiations, the U.S. suffered 549 battle deaths, the second highest toll of the war.

In addition to Hanoi's obvious desire to stall for time in hopes of strengthening its position on the battlefield, there are other reasons for the glacial pace of the talks. One is that the North Vietnamese clear even the most minuscule matters with Hanoi. They even had to exchange twelve cables before they were permitted to move from their expensive digs at the Hotel Lutetia to a 20-room suburban villa once occupied by the late French Communist boss Maurice Thorez. Hanoi hesitated out of fear: What would the Chinese Communists think of North Viet Nam's delegates moving into a villa owned by the openly pro-Soviet French Communists?

Another reason for delay may be that Hanoi hopes to take advantage of the U.S. presidential campaign to influence American policy and American public opinion. According to one theory current in Paris, the peace discussions will not achieve anything until the middle of August, after the Republican Convention and just before the Democratic Convention. The North Vietnamese don't like Richard Nixon but they like Lyndon Johnson even less; if there is progress in peace talks now, some of them suggest, they fear that Johnson will be drafted as the Democratic candidate, and they are anxious to keep that from happening.

Diminishing Returns. At one point, North Viet Nam's negotiators avowed that if the U.S. unconditionally halted the bombing "and other acts of war" against the North, the talks could turn to "a political settlement of the Viet Nam problem." That offer was soon followed by a threat. "In the event that these official conversations do not end in results," warned Chief Negotiator Xuan Thuy, "the American party must bear the full and entire responsibility."