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Co-Chairman. (VNA, 3 January 1967) The NLF echoed Hanoi's feelings on 4 January; Peking called Brown's suggestion a "new trick of the great peace talk conspiracy. . . " (NCNA, 5 January 1967)

January 1967

On 2 January 1967, New York Times man HARRISON SALISBURY interviewed PHAM VAN DONG in Hanoi. Dong stressed the four points were not to be considered as "conditions" for peace talks but as providing a "basis of settlement of the Vietnam problem." He added that they were to be understood as "valid conclusions for discussion," or matters for discussion. The "big question is to reach a settlement which can be enforced, " he said, adding it was up to Washington to make the first step. (New York Times, 4, 8 January)

The Vietnam News Agency clarified one part of Pham Van Dong's statement on 6 January, saying the Premier "actually told Mr. Salisbury 'the four-point stand of the DRV constitutes the basis of a settlement of the Vietnam problem.'"

On 5 January, MAI VAN BO said if the US stopped bombing his country "definitively and unconditionally," Hanoi would "examine and study" American proposals for negotiations to end the war. He said the US "must first recognize the NFISV, which is the only authentic representative of the South Vietnamese people, to negotiate with them and settle all questions of South Vietnam." He said, "Hanoi insists that the US recognize the four point program as a basis for a settlement of the Vietnam problem and demonstrate its goodwill by stopping the bombing of NVN definitively and without conditions."

New York Times, 6 January

Tokyo's Akahata, 1 January, published Ho Chi Minh's written reply to questions submitted previously. Ho was quoted as saying "any measure to settle the Vietnam problem should be based on the DRV's four point proposal and the NFLSV's five-point proposal." Ho said the recent bombings and increased troop commitments were an intensification and expansion of the war indicating the fraudulent nature of US peace initiatives.

On 3 January, the German magazine Der Spiegel ran answers from Ho Chi Minh to another set of questions. Der Spiegel wrote the DRV President had said for peace to be immediately established," the US must withdraw her troops and those of