Australian Left Review
Article Title
The Paris Peace Talks
Abstract
FIRST, I WILL TRY TO GIVE a short background to these talks and second, estimate where they are now and what is the position of the parties; and also the possibility of these talks bringing a final settlement to the Vietnam question. The first thing is the background. President Johnson started the bombing in 1965 in order to deter North Vietnam from entering South Vietnam and to bring North Vietnam to the conference table. He said that he wanted to have a general settlement and wanted to make a compromise; that he was making no preconditions; even that he was prepared to negotiate about the independence of South Vietnam without any precondition at all and would give millions in aid to Vietnam if violence were given up and people sat around the table to negotiate a reasonable settlement.