Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 19, 1972, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winning Frh kiss saturday february 19, 1972 17 Hanoi plans to test National France plans naval buildup by countered Christian science Monitor news service the Long weary struggle for Vietnam is now reaching a if cant Climax perhaps the significant Climax of the War. Even As president Nixon goes to peking to try his Luck at Glo bal diplomacy with Mao tse Tung Sand Chou in Lai the communist regime in Hanoi is preparing to mount a series of military attacks in South Vietnam which it Hopes put or. Nixon on the defensive psychologically and induce him to make the political Concession it is demanding the Jettison ing of South vietnamese. Pres ident Thieu the Battles in Vietnam this Spring will be More a test of National will than of military strength. The actual fighting is Likely to be indecisive both in the Central and Northern Moun Tain regions where the heavy assaults by Large units will come and also in the South where Small hit and run raids will be staged to give the impression of a countrywide Offen Sive. Communist troops Are being told they can win the War this year. What Hanoi dreams of is a Campaign that will be billed in the world press As a second tet reminiscent of 1968. It knows that . Enthusiasm for the vietnamese War evaporated won in 1972, just As it was not in 1968. It does not matter if the North vietnamese and Viet Cong take punishing losses in order to stage the coup do theatre they want just As they did in 1968. What is essential is to show Hanoi s will and capability to fight on a after All these years of War. By demonstrating their own determination the North Viet namese intend to convince both Washington and Saigon that the prize of South Vietnam will be won by the communist forces whenever the americans have completed their withdrawal no matter How much support the United states still gives to the Thieu government. The political moral Hanoi wants president Nixon to draw is that he might As Well give up and abandon president Thieu now. The North vietnamese Are offering him a Chance of trying to save face by concluding an agreement to install a coalition government with the communists can Domi Nate rather than waiting for a forceful takeover later by an outright communist regime under Hanoi s Tutelage. This is Hanoi deaths have been less than 1 in any one week. There seem on the face of it Little incentive for the .government to top pie the Saigon regime after 1 years of efforts to keep it in dependent. To do so solely of the return of . Prisoners o War would discredit the United states in Asia for Many years to come. Nevertheless the North Viet namese communists intend to push american sentiment in this direction by mounting the coming Spring offensive. They Are particularly driven to do in so that there will be no temptation on the part of their own ally communist China to come to an agreement with president Nixon on a Vietnam settlement giving Hanoi less than total Vic tory. Mainly however they appear to be motivated by the be Lief that american National and governmental will is weak that the United states is on the strategic Retreat in Asia and that now is the time to one More Sharp blow to american almost overnight in what in retrospect plainly was a pessimistic overreaction to the heavy fighting of that Spring. It is not necessary for any major military objective to be billionaire turns 83 Dallas Tex. A Oil billionaire h. L. Hunt one of the. World s richest men has celebrated his 83rd birthday going to the of fice As. Usual. Saturdays and holidays Are Days when i have to get things says Hunt who still works six Days a week. The Only Compromise has in mind North vietnamese Premier Pham Van Dong s answer to president Nixon s latest peace offer could not be clearer. The United states he said must desert president Thieu and put in his place a government that would co operate with Hanoi and its Southern political front organization. Not Only does president Nixon have to dispose of or. Thieu but also Promise to dismantle All . Bases in South Vietnam and discontinue any kind of military and eco nomic assistance. These Are humiliating de mands that Only the most ardent doves in the . Senate would accept at this Point. The military situation is far from dictating such a surrender. After All . Forces in Viet Nam Are Down to under troops hardly any combat except in the air now involves . Forces and for More than four months american combat morale. The Thieu regime which gives every sign of stabilizing South Vietnam at the moment is on the verge of building itself into a permanent obstacle to North vietnamese ambition to control the whole country. While continuing american eco nomic and , Saigon May prove too Tough to defeat. The North vietnamese could of course wait until All the. . Combat forces go and then try their Luck but they evidently do not feel that time is necessarily on their Side. The Hanoi regime wants president Thieu and his sup porters at a minimum to fear that president Nixon will de pose president Thieu even As president diem was overthrown in 1962. They May even Hope that Nixon intent on his game plan of opening communications with peking will be less than heroic in facing up to a direct military Challenge this Spring or that a propaganda Victory his Spring jul in any Case elect a different . President his fall. So they Are putting heir resources into the test a test on the Battlefield and ultimately a test of the will of his nation to stick with the objective of assisting South Viet by Boris Kidel i Pompidou s chairmanship a Paris special owns decided on a 15-year Navy con am to defend itself. The author is a person who has Long been in High place in Washington chinese lift ban Pek ingers Jostle at Book counters by John Burns peking about a dozen books banned during the cultural revolution went on Sale again monday setting off a rare Melee in peking s main Book shop where hundreds jostled each other at the counters to buy copies. The books Many of them faded and Dusty after years in storage included several Clas s i c s by the great Liberal thinkers of eighteenth Century Europe such As Montesquieu. The bookshop also did a brisk business in several newly published books some of them translations of european works and others original chinese texts which were on Sale for the first time. The decision to make the books available viewed Here As a major step towards intellect t u a 1 liberalization coincided happily with the beginning of the Spring festival the three Day Holiday which Marks the do you really want to save with a Winter Bonus up to 000 on a new Home so our selection of bungalows 2 storeys by Tevels and 2, 3 a 4 bedroom Homes. We have Homes in kind of neighbourhood furl str Hast visit Wulw of the Ftp Winf Mimi to Tufty pork 73 now pc 732 is Lster St. 201wnmton blvd. Pm. Pm. Pm. 253-5055 Downs Portage Plikh Mofid u3cobktt. 4mt.auison 154 total pu1374271 pm. Pn.s37452i 107 Kum Uit to. Pm. My ii your Oldt Home or come in Trade traditional chinese new year. With Money in their pockets and gifts to buy for relatives Pek ingers leaped at the Opportunity crowding the sidewalk outside the main bookshop Well before it opened. Normally disciplined in a crowd they bagged each other aside in their eagerness to get to the counters apparently afraid that the Supply would run out before they got their turn. The energies released in the struggle to get to the front had been stored up for More than five years since the Days when University libraries and Book shops were forced to purge their stocks of any titles that might leave them vulnerable to charges of ideological impurity. The purge forced chinese readers into a diet of ideologically acceptable texts most of them drawn from the writings of the giants on the communist movement principally Marx Lenin and Mao tse Tung. In the last year there has been a gradual loosening up with some of the old titles re turning to the shelves but Noth ing to compare with the intellectual Bonanza represented by monday s releases. The books which went on Sale monday ranged from the commentaries by Marx on German philosophy to the history of the Pele onesian wars written be fore the birth of Christ by thucydides. Other titles on Sale included Jean Jacques Rousseau s the social contract Montesquieu s spirit of the Laws Immanuel Kant s critique of pure reason and a anthology of writings by the Early Raissez f a i r e economists including Adam Smith and David Ricar do. Chinese readers interested in the crisis in Northern Ireland represented in the chinese press As a simple Case of brutal oppression of the Uno fending Irish masses by British oppressor troops will also be Able to get a look at some of the historic background to the crisis by Reading sir William Petty s political Economy of Ireland first published in 1899. Chinese works Back on the shelves include traditional works known to be favored by chairman Mao including a novel the three kingdoms which is said to have played a part in awaken ing a spirit of rebelliousness in the Youthful chairman Mao. Kuo Mojo a major figure in twentieth Century chinese literature and now a member of the leadership group around pre Mier Chou in Lai has several books among those newly on Sale. One of them is a treatise on two of the most Farious of China s ancient poets Lipai an Tufu. The books also include some entirely new ones such As a code Tion of Short stories by Amateur writers in the people s j liberation army and a Aoi Aber j i of texts written Spe Dasy for to of fee books i was assay sees in one peopled tace it Tai several i info president Georges Pompidou has decided on a Long term plan to strengthen the French Navy. The priority Given to the buil Dup of the nuclear deterrent has left France s conventional naval forces in an orphaned state. While most other including the soviet Union and the United states As Well As for instance the Netherlands and Spain allocate Between one third and one Quarter of their defence budget to the Navy France spends a Mere 17 per cent. With the bulk of the Fleet As signed to the Atlantic chiefly As cover for France s nuclear submarines Squadron is Down to a single helicopter Carrier the a romances and a number of smaller absence of naval Power is one of or. Pompidou s severest handicaps As he tries to assert French influence in . In contrast with Gen. De Gaulle who sought a world role for France or. Pompidou the pragmatic realist has More modest Aims. The Mediterranean and French speaking Afri Ca Are the two areas on which he has concentrated his foreign policy ambitions. One of his objectives is to free from the presence of the two super Powers Russia and the United states and turn it into an area of his policy cannot even become remotely credible As Long As France is without a real Navy in . Today she can hardly even show the Flag there at a moment of sudden crisis let alone intervene to protect French interests. Primarily to make French leadership aspirations in More plausible France s defence Council which meets under president Striction program know under the cede name bin plan. Details Are still secret by the program is known to in elude the construction of Nev helicopter carriers anti aircraft and anti submarine escort ves Sels Supply ships and submarines. France s naval officers who had become in concerned by the government s neglect of the surface Fleet Are jubilant about the president s decision. In an order of the Day the newly appointed naval Chiei of staff Admiral Marc de Joy Bert Felt entitled to announce that the Navy was emerging from the the Blue plan coincides with new efforts on the diplomatic front to promote French influence in . The recent visit to Greece of Jean de Lipkowski the Secre tary of state for foreign affairs was a very evident attempt to woo the colonels in Athens. Or. Lipkowski was the first min ister from a West european country to go to Greece since the colonels seized Power nearly five years ago. From the very Start the French government has carefully avoided any outright condemnation of the military take Over in Greece ostensibly be cause it is one of the principles of French policy not to inter Vene in the internal affairs of another nation. Ignoring the protests of greek opposition groups or Lipkowski went out of his Way to be agreeable to the colonels. On his arrival in Athens he noted that France and Greece had on the whole the same intransigent Conception o f their National later he did concede that the two countries did not hold Iden tical views on democracy. How Ever this he added should not affect their relations because each country was free to Choos its own form of democracy. Apart from the Extension o political influence the French have another reason to be inter ested in Greece. The colonels Are potentially major clients o the French arms Industry. Las month Greece took delivery o the first of four rocket equipped gunboats built in the Cherbourg shipyards. Now the greek government is said to be consider ing the Purchase of at least 50 Jet fighters. Or. Lipkowski protested that it was not the Job of 3 foreign minister to act As arms sales Man but it can be safely assumed that his visit was at least partly designed to per Suade greeks to buy Mirage f 1s rather than . Phantoms. By encouraging the colonels to loosen their links with the United states and drawn into a closer Mediterranean partnership the French also Hope of derive economic benefits. Among the major projects for which the French Are competing Are the creation of a greek aircraft Industry the construct Ion of an underground railway system in Athens and the in production of the French scam e 1 e v i s i o n Colour system Ranee is already the second biggest foreign investor in Reece. The . Still takes the first place but with million wested since 1964, France is now ahead of Britain and West Ermany. While courting Greece pres Dent Pompidou is also trying to enforce France s position in he Arab world. Lebanon s pre Mier Saab Salam was Given a particularly cordial Welcome u r i n g his official visit to i Rance this month. Due to pre Var ties with France the be anon represents for the Rench a valuable Bridgehead in the Middle East. Premier Salam heaped Praise on France s Leader. Both Gen. De Gaulle and president Pompidou he said had understood the deeper reality of the conflict in the Middle East and the deadly danger to world peace caused by Israel s aggressive and expansionist policies. But despite All these compliments frence plays no More than a marginal role in the efforts for a peaceful solution in the Arab israeli conflict. The Snag in or. Pompidou s policy is that he lacks the Means to Challenge the influence of the super Powers in . While Felting or. Lipkowski the colonels in Athens were in fact negotiating with the United states about Home port facilities for the . Sixth Fleet in greek harbours. Or. Pom i d o decision to expand France s Navy is unlikely to alter the balance of Power in in the foreseeable future. . Writes off sub Washington a the United states cannot seek Resti ution for a submarine it Lent to Pakistan and which was sunk during the recent India pakis Tan fighting a Senate armed services subcommittee was told thursday. The sunken sub was of 73 ships the United one tates has Lent to navies of 27 countries. New measure Sydney Australia renter conversion of the traditional lint of milk to a metric size is o Start in the Middle of 1973, a of Dairy Industry spokesman ays. The pint becomes 600 Mil litres and the quart a litre. Will pay your Basic 1972 protecting Manitoban on the move insurance and licence plate fees during our annual Spring Sale on the Purchase of any car open tonight till 10 . Open sunday to 5 . 71 Ford 71 Torino 71 Pinto 70 Mercury 14 Brand new 1971 cars 69 Mustang will be offered during the sale1 52759 aut Opac agents on duty during Sale All indoors Sot till 10pm Sun Froni 12 00 till 5 p in me i 9th ;