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similar privileges, the US and GVN would be ready to cooperate fully with the ICC to grant it complete access to monitor and supervise the withdrawal of forces and continued inspection of the southern part of the DMZ plus 10 miles. Upon separation of forces, the US and GVN would be ready to undertake talks leading to further de-escalation and to an over-all settlement. (New York Times, 20 April)

Hanoi rejected both the Canadian proposal and the US 10-mile Zone extension suggestion. Nhan Dan denounced Mertin's speech -- without mentioning his name -- for failing to"urge the US imperialists to stop their aggressive war in Vietnam, cease definitively and unconditionally" the bombing and withdraw US troops. (VNA, 16 April). The DRV Foreign Ministry "energetically condemns and rejects the deceitful proposal for. widening of the demilitarized zone by 10 miles on either side." To bring peace, the statement demanded US cessation of bombing, withdrawal of troops, and other well-known conditions. (VNA, 21 April)

Mai Van Bo, in a Canadian radio-TV interview, rejected Johnson's insistence on a reciprocal gesture from the DRV. He said South Vietnam belongs to all the Vietnamese people and implied that the DRV would not cease supporting fellow countrymen. Bo also said the Ho-LBJ correspondence had been made public to expose before world public opinion the real intentions and objectives of American policy in Vietnam; he noted that the bombing of North Vietnam had been resumed before the US had received Ho Chi Minh's reply to the President's letter. (Canadian Broadcasting System, 21 April)

The NF denounced the US-Zone extension plan, accused the US of having long plotted to turn the "temporary demarcation line into a territorial border, perpetuate the partition of Vietnam ... and prepare for war against the DRV." (Radio Hanoi, 23 April)

Peking called the DMZ-extension plan a "dirty trick." (NCNA, 23 April)

Tokyo's Asahi Evening News released a long interview with Premier Pham Van Dong on 25 April. Dong reportedly said: "Our four point stand is the correct basis of a settlement of the Vietnam war -- no correct solution can be found if one departs from it. It proceeds from the Geneva Agreements." Referring to Trinh's 28 January interview, Dong said he "pointed out that if the US wants to talk with the DRV it must unconditionally stop bombing raids and all other acts of war against the DRV." Pham Van Dong said, "this is a very important diplomatic move of ours. It shows that we are ready to talk, as the US claims that it is ready to talk, at any time... " Dong said Ho Chi Minh's