Wrestling with Peace in Indochina

...We have not been able to do that much yet," he concedes, "but the big fighting has wound down, and I don't think this is just a temporary lull...

...Others are not so sure, reasoning that the Communists do not want to provoke a resumption of American air strikes from Thailand, that they will be discouraged from taking action by both China and Russia, and that the leaders in Hanoi will be sufficiently inhibited from resuming hostilities by the promise of massive U.S...

...It is not logical to expect us to show maximum good will while Hanoi continues its murderous actions...

...Among them is Michel Gauvin, Canadian chairman of the International Commission of Control and Supervision (ICCS) established under the January agreements, made up of Canada, Poland, Hungary, and Indonesia...

...both sides have shown sufficient restraint to avoid fracturing the fragile truce...

...I think such things were inevitable and, all circumstances considered, the situation at present is better than might have been expected...

...Saigon has brushed these grievances aside...

...It is time for a different, younger generation to take over this country," said the man, who holds an upper echelon-but not policymaking?administrative post...

...To say it isn't, of course, is not to say it won't be...

...For this reason many-though by no means all-experienced observers are hopeful about the immediate future in Vietnam...

...We have paid dearly for the peace that exists today," he stated, adding that he had come to South Vietnam with feelings of hatred and pride...

...In the course of a 90-minute interview, he placed great emphasis on mutual cooperation and his government's desire to avoid reopening full-scale hostilities...

...remarked Thiet, who claimed that two members of his family died during the raids...

...Under the present circumstances this is the best we can offer them," said a government spokesman...

...And the international peace-keeping machinery, to nobody's great surprise, remains a dubious mechanism for calming the troubled waters...

...We are tougher than the present leaders, and more educated, too...

...Pessimists predict that the North Vietnamese will then launch a major offensive...

...That proviso proved to be an Oriental version of Catch-22, since the same authorities generally refused to allow reporters to enter the compounds to conduct the sanctioned interviews...

...The South Vietnamese have even tried to block other JMC delegates from conferring with the Communists more than a minimal number ot times...

...His feelings reflect those of government supporters who believe the United States applied undue pressure on Laos by threatening to reduce aid...

...Moreover, only four of the sites have representatives of all four JMC parties, and it is unlikely the others will be fully manned before the JMC terminates on March 28...

...and agreeing to the neutralization of Vientiane and Luang Prabang, the administrative and royal capitals, respectively...

...The beauty of our nation is that we know how to behave...

...uation," he insists...

...They may have a point...

...In the platitudinous world of Western diplomacy, Gauvin is a straight talker...

...A TOLERABLE LEVEL OF VIOLENCE Wrestling with Peace in Indochina BY ARNOLD SAIGON After listening to spokesmen for the Thieu regime accuse the Communist forces of their 3,378th ceasefire violation, a Western diplomat remarked: "A cease-fire violation is when the other side fires back...

...The ink was hardly dry on the Laos truce agreement before Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma, widely expected to be named to the same position in the new provisional government, called a press conference and announced that he had been "tricked" by a post-cease-fire offensive the Communists had launched throughout the country...

...Yet, as with everything else in Vietnam, these facts are not what they seem, and so long as one was realistic enough not to expect the Paris accords to produce a full-fledged settlement without recriminations, the present state of affairs is far from desperate...

...Indeed, the most likely prospect in Laos at the moment is that the 72-year-old Souvanna will face increasing trouble, particularly if the dissatisfaction of one disgruntled Laotian is echoed elsewhere...

...referring to the American and Thai presence in Laos, while not specifically mentioning the North Vietnamese...

...I wouldn't waste my time and energy on a hopeless sitArnold Abrams regularly reports in these pages from Southeast Asia...

...Even if people like Thiet are sincere in their willingness to abide by the terms of the truce agreement, serious problems persist...

...There were many things I could have said to those men...

...The military is even more unhappy...

...Everything could go back to square one, and that is where we came in...

...North Vietnamese officials, meanwhile, point out the courteous treatment American representatives have received in their country since the cease-fire took effect...

...allowing foreign troops to remain on Laotian soil for another 90 days...

...The Communists have accused the Thieu government of sponsoring violent demonstrations against them, and have protested about restrictions on their movement, inferior food, inadequate facilities, and cramped living quarters...

...I think the situation reflects a willingness on both sides to turn away from war...

...The comment sums up the current situation in South Vietnam...

...Hatred for the way Americans attacked us during those 12 days in December," he explained, "and pride because of the way we came through those attacks...

...The South Vietnamese, for their part, have vigorously pursued what the Pentagon would call a policy of protective reaction, employing air and artillery strikes against any area of suspected Communist control...

...was widely viewed as a villain, forcing an unacceptable agreement upon an unwilling ally...

...In several ways, he admits, the situation is grim, but, he adds, a "sense of perspective" is needed to judge it properly...

...Although the Laotian leader tried to convey an image of assurance, it is far from certain that he can deliver on these promises...

...The limits of South Vietnamese hospitality, for example, became apparent soon after the Communist representatives arrived in Saigon: The Vietcong and North Vietnamese JMC delegates have been virtually quarantined in heavily guarded compounds here and in the regional headquarters...

...From the outsel it was unlikely that the bitterness and distrust bred by the war would promptly disappear, or that the two sides would join in full cooperation...

...Low-keyed statements and poli-tesse marked a rare interview granted last month to this correspondent and a Canadian broadcaster by North Vietnamese and Vietcong representatives at Can Tho, a JMC regional headquarters in the Mekong Delta...

...American bombing was renewed, but on a much lower scale than previously...

...I'm no boy scout," he says, "and I'm no 'can-do' man either...

...Laos, in particular, looms as the linchpin of the entire Indochina conflict...

...A long-awaited cease-fire became official in that country on February 22, but had no noticeable effect on the war there-which, if anything, heated up with the signing of the pact...

...During a visit to Vientiane, I saw the initial joy that greeted news of the truce tum to gloom after it became apparent that the government had relinquished far more than it received...

...Some people, after all, thought the country would be back in flames again by now...

...We might have done better...

...The future of the precarious peace could well be determined, not by negotiators and control commissions in South Vietnam, but by events in neighboring Laos and Cambodia...

...A 45-year-old man of serious demeanor but capable of a warm smile, he spoke at length about the fighting, expressing special bitterness over the B-52 bombing raids last December...

...The informed consensus is that Hanoi and Saigon will contain themselves at least to the end of this month, when the U.S...

...We would not have given in so easily on the truce agreement...

...War destruction obviously weighed heavily on the Communists' chief spokesman, Major Nguyen Thiet, deputy commander of the 46-mem-ber North Vietnamese delegation at Can Tho...

...It had been a searing experience, he said, to be flown from Hanoi to Saigon aboard an American aircraft manned by American servicemen...

...One Laotian official despairingly claimed that his country's leaders see their cease-fire in the same light as South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu saw his-only they lack Thieu's toughness to bargain with Washington for better terms...

...The ICCS chairman, for one, takes clashes of this kind in stride...

...They are bitter about what they consider major concessions made to the Communists without reciprocal gains: giving the Pathet Lao equal power in a new coalition government...

...That was coup talk-to Laos what apple pie is to America...

...In the face of political pressure, Souvanna publicly pledged to recoup the losses, adding that American air support, terminated when the cease-fire officially took effect, would be resumed if enemy attacks continued...

...And the capability of the government troops to recover the lost territory is doubtful...

...But when a person wants to show good will he does not say such things...

...I'm very much aware of the difficulties here, and how much must be done, but at present I'm still cautiously optimistic...

...I'm not among those who see operating delays and some unpleasant incidents as sure signs that the peace-keeping effort is doomed to failure," he explains...

...The cease-fire may be working as expected, but with North Vietnamese occupation creating an ill-defined "leopard spot" pattern on South Vietnamese soil, and with neither side gaining any assurance that it will be able by political means to expand its control beyond the areas it dominates militarily, the potential for renewed warfare remains high...

...America wanted the war stopped.' he said, "so in one day we signed over everything we have been fighting for over the past 20 years...

...Nor have the Saigon officials been overly generous in providing for the needs of the Vietcong and North Vietnamese...

...Correspondents who tried were detained by police and had their press credentials confiscated...

...On leave from his post as ambassador to Greece, he has carried out peace-keeping assignments in the Congo, the Dominican Republic, the Middle East and...

...Still, what keeps Gauvin in Southeast Asia is his personal estimation of the prevailing conditions, not any concrete achievements by his commission...

...The chain of events that might then ensue is awesome to contemplate...

...Soon, the prevailing mood in the Laotian capital resembled that of Saigon in late October, when the terms of the Vietnam accords were first disclosed: At that time the U.S...

...Since January 27, the date hostilities were officially supposed to end, more than 10,000 soldiers have fallen, hardly evidence on either side of a "spirit of mutual nonelimina-tion"-as the truce agreement puts it...

...in the '50s...

...The obstacles the JMC is encountering are the fruit of two decades of fighting...

...where lighting continues unabated...

...Requests for investigations have been meager, however, for they must originate with the JMC, and up to now that balky body's main accomplishments have been to mediate prisoner exchange problems, to make a formal appeal tor stricter truce observance, and to maintain decorum at its meetings...

...military presence in Vietnam will become a thing of the past...

...He continued: "But perhaps it is our fault...

...Battle contacts are numerous, to be sure, and at times bloody, but they have not erupted into large-scale fighting...

...If I felt now that Vietnam was hopeless, I would pull out...

...Largely through Gauvin's initiative, the Joint Military Commission (JMC)-the group consisting of American, Vietcong, North and South Vietnamese military representatives-has sent teams to seven regional headquarters throughout South Vietnam to institute procedures for investigating any ceasefire violations...

...Yet if a coup occurs, Hanoi would view it with nothing less than alarm...

...The most that could have been genuinely anticipated at this point was a tenuous peace with a tolerable level of violence, and despite the bloodshed of the past month, that is what we have...

...Instead of concentrating on negotiating with the Communists, we should have studied the way Saigon stood up to Washington...

...The reports of combat incidents and other infractions that have replaced the body count are about as reliable as their predecessor was...

...We are very unhappy with the situation, and we are not alone...

...Gauvin has the credentials for such a sense...

...The tenor of current North Vietnamese declarations and the conduct of their delegates in South Vietnam reinforce the latter view...

...In an effort to demonstrate magnanimity, government officials declared that foreign (but not local) newsmen could interview the Communist representatives-on the condition that the meetings were held within the delegates' compounds...