Halperin Sees No Vietnam Truce, Says Chinese Rule Out Negotiation

"The Chinese see negotiation in Vietnam as a sell-out of the revolution, and say that under to circumstances should Hanol go to the conference table," Morton H. Halperin, Defense Department official and former assistant professor of Government at Harvard, said last night. Halperin spoke on a program broadcast on WGBH-TV.

The Chinese, he said, see "the removal of the communists from the South" as the only result of negotiations.

Responding to concern over a nuclear confrontation in South Vietnam, Halperin said that the expansion of Vietnam into nuclear war was not a major Administration concern. "Form the European, Russian, and American viewpoint, we are very far from a nuclear war."

Halperin was joined on "Brattle Street Forum" by Eara F. Vogel, associate of the East Asia Research Center. Dr. Jerome Cohen, Professor of Law; and Dwight Perkins, assistant profesosr of Economics. All are from Harvard.

Vogel called for a shift in U.S.-China relations, but said that rather then concrete proposals, the United States should make a "genuine effort to show China that we have some respect for her."

Cohen suggested more specific proposals to bring China closer to the West. He called on the U.S. to end its ban on trading non-strategic goods to China, to ease the regulaitons against tourism, and to encourage additional third party contacts with the Chinese.

The group considered Taiwan the major block in relations between the two countries. The settlement of this issue is even more important than Vietnam, Cohen said. China does not maintain any diplomatic relations with any country recognizing Taiwan.

Perkins emphasized the large Chinese-Japanese trade belance as a clue to closer American ties with China. Japan is China's second largest trading partner, although the two countries do not maintain diplomatic relations.

Vogel said that the economic and cultural exchanges between China and Japan "means that there may be a lot more flexibility in Chinese policy than we think."

Although Halperin emphasized U.S. support of Taiwan, he said that current American policy is "to encourage Japan and other nations to enlarge cultural and economic ties with China." "I see this as a major device to bring China into the world." he said.