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GV & CU Centre de Conferences International sign
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GV PAN South Vietnam delegate's car arrives, out & into building
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SV Cameraman
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SV Porter (USA) into building
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GV North Vietnam delegate's car arrives, out of car walks to microphone & speaks
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SV Cameraman
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GV North Vietnamese delegate walks away & into building
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Initials SGM/2315 SGM/2335



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: All sides to the Vietnam Peace Talks in Paris were today (Thursday) quite obviously biding their time, waiting for the results of the talks being held in Washington between President Nixon, Dr. Henry Kissinger, and Nguyen Phu Duc, President Thieu's special envoy from Saigon. They were also certainly not undertaking any commitments until the resumption next Monday (December 4) of the meetings in Paris between Dr. Kissinger and Hanoi Politburo Member Le Duc Tho - meetings which were broken off last week after six successive sessions.

Chief U.S. Delegate William Porter said before today's session that his country envisaged a new and mutually beneficial relationship with all sides in the conflict. Saigon's delegation spokesmen Nguyen Trieu Dan said that their only demand was the withdrawal of Hanoi troops from South Vietnam. While North Vietnam's Nguyen Vinh My - deputising for Chief Negotiator Xuan Thuy - reiterated Hanoi's often-repeated claim that all should have been settled on October 31st, the date that the peace should have been signed if, according to the North Vietnamese, the United States had stuck to the agreement made.

SYNOPSIS: In Paris on Thursday, the Vietnam peace talks resumed in what was described as a dilatory mood. The Saigon delegation reiterating that a withdrawal of Hanoi troops from the South was their only major peace demand - they, like the other delegations, apparently marking time awaiting the results of the U.S. - South Vietnam talks in Washington, and the resumption on Monday of the secret meetings between Doctor Kissinger and Hanoi Envoy Le Duc Tho. Chief Negotiator William Porter said the USA envisaged a new, beneficial relationship between all sides.

Deputising for Chief Negotiator Xuan Thuy, North Vietnam's Nguyen Vinh My reiterated one of Hanoi's most often-repeated claims. He said: "Today is the thirtieth of November - if the United States Government had respected its commitments and, as planned, signed on October thirty first, the peace agreement worked out between the Democratic Republic of North Vietnam and the USA, the war would already have ceased, and peace would have been established in Vietnam for a month".

The Kissinger-Tho talks- which have given rise to increased speculation that a peace agreement is imminent - were suspended last week after six successive sessions.