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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, October 30, 1968
Abrams confers with LBJ; no change in peace effort
WASHINGTON (UPI)-Gen. Creighton Abrams, U.S. military commander in Vietnam, conferred secretly yesterday with President Johnson and top military and diplomatic advisers.
The White House, announcing Abrams' visit after he had returned to Saigon, said it was a "general military review."
Press Secretary George Christian denied it reflected any change in efforts to achieve a breakthrough in the Paris talks with North Vietnam.
There have been persistent reports that a halt in U.S. bombing of North Vietnam was in the works. New Zealand Prime Minister Keith J. Holyoake said in Saigon Monday said that U.S. conditions for a bombing halt were now more generous than ever.
But Christian told newsmen nothing had changed since the President's news conference statement last Thursday that there had been "no basic change, no breakthrough" in the situation.
Johnson last conferred with Abrams here during the Democratic National Convention last August.
No newsmen saw Abrams Tuesday.
At a cabinet room ceremony shortly before Abrams' visit was disclosed, Johnson said he had been up very late Monday night. This might have been an indication that Abrams had arrived Monday and spent the night at the White House as the President's guest.
During their private talks, Christian said, Johnson awarded Abrams the Distinguished Service Medal as successor to Gen. William C. Westmoreland, who returned last June to become Army chief of staff.
St. Louis poet to recite
John Knoepfle, poet in residence at St. Louis University, will read selections from his work at the SUA Poetry Hour at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Kansas Union Forum Room.
Knoeple, who teaches creative writing and poetry at St. Louis, has had works published in numerous literary magazines.
PARIS (UPI)—Mai Van Bo, the senior North Vietnamese official in France, yesterday flatly ruled out any military or political concessions by Hanoi in exchange for a U.S. bombing halt. He spoke on the eve of a possibly crucial negotiating session with American diplomats.
As both sides prepared for the 28th meeting today since the Washington-Hanoi talks began May 13, the South Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong demanded full representation to the exclusion of the other at any formal peace conference.
The meeting today is regarded as critical because it will be the last before the U.S. presidential election.
Hanoi refuses to concede on bombing
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Bo, who serves as senior adviser to the North Vietnamese delegation at the talks, made Hanoi's position clear in a statement Tuesday night to a meeting of the Friends of Vietnam Association.
"We will not pay for any cessation of bombings," Bo said.
"The United States must end the bombings completely and unconditionally. After the bombings halt, we are prepared to discuss other matters of mutual interest with the aim of finding a peaceful solution. But the United States must ask for no reciprocity on our part."
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