WASHINGTON: President Nixon has stopped the bombing in Vietnam, north of the 20th parallel, and today [Dec 30] said the Paris peace talks with North Vietnam would resume on Jan 8, the United States Government announced. A defence department spokesman announced later that the bombing had in fact stopped Friday [Dec 26] night Washington time. (In Paris, spokesmen for the North Vietnamese and the Provisional Revolutionary Government delegations to the regular peace talks confirmed that the talks would resume following the halt to the bombing).

A White House spokesman said: “The Presi­d­ent ordered that all bombings above the 20th parallel be discontinued as long as serious negotiations are underway.” The spokesman continued: “As soon as it had been made clear that serious negotiations could be resumed at both the technical level and between the principals, the Presi­dent ordered a bombing halt. …” Deputy Secre­tary of State William Sullivan was to lead the American delegation at the experts level talks on Jan 2, it was announced. — News agencies

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2022