Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part-VI-A.djvu/14

The National Liberation Front rejected the Baltimore proposals. The President had labeled Hanoi the principal antagonist, termed support frem North Vietnam the heartbeat of the war and offered to negotiate with other "governments" concerned in the conflict, statements interpreted as proof of US refusal to deal with the Front.

Peking called Johnson's offer a "trick... full of lies and deceptions" designed to induce the Viet Cong to disarm while the US prepared for war. Conditions proposed by the US were called "completely unacceptable" the aid offer an attempt to "buy over the Vietnamese people."

Pravda (11 April) called Johnson's offer "noisy propaganda" which changed neither US policy nor US determination to continue aggression in Vietnam.

Also in April 1965

U THANT was reportedly eager to visit various foreign (mainly Southeast Asian)capitals to explore prospects for a negotiated settlement. Hanoi refused to meet with U Thant, terming any UN injection into the Vietnam issue "inappropriate".

Peking's Jenmin Jih Pao agreed: "The Vietnam question has nothing to do with the United Nations ... no meddling by the UN is called for nor will it be tolerated... "

British statesman PATRICK GORDON-WAIKER visited several Southeast Asian nations to talk about an end to war. Hanoi and Peking refused to meet with him.

Jenmin Jih Fao (13 April) lauded a statement attributed to Ho Chi Minh in the Japanese Communist Party publication, Akahata, which called for the withdrawal of US forces as a condition for any settlement and called US talk of negotiations "meaningless". But on 14 April, North Vietnam asked the US to recognize its Four Points as a basis for an international conference. Prior US withdrawal was not made a condition for negotiations.

On 18 April, BREZHNEV and LE DUAN, First Secretary of the Vietnam Workers Party, in a communique reporting on recent Moscow talks, said the Soviet Union would send volunteers if North Vietnam requested them and if the US intensified aggression. The communique demanded an end to the bombing, withdrawal of US forces and declared the NIF the only legitimate representative of the Vietnamese people.