Antiwar Meeting Begins Friday

A national conference of antiwar students will meet in Ann Arbor, Mich., this weekend to consider plans for coordinated, nationwide activities this Spring to oppose continued U.S. involvement in Indochina.

Discussion at the conference, which was planned weeks before news broke of the current U.S. sponsored invasion of Laos, is expected to center around proposals for ratification of a "peace treaty" between antiwar forces in both U.S. and Vietnam.

The initial steps in the negotiations of such an independent treaty came over Christmas as a response by both Vietnamese and American antiwar groups to an eight-point peace proposal put forward in Paris on Sept. 17, 1970, by the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) of South Vietnam.

In that proposal, the PRG called for the United States to set a definite date for the withdrawal of all its troops from Indochina as a basis for the beginning of negotiations to establish a cease-fire and a coalition government in South Vietnam which could organize nationwide free elections.

David K.E. Bruce, U.S. Ambassador to the Paris peace talks, immediately labeled the proposal "old wine in new bottles."

However, the PRG proposal received support two weeks later from Ngo Cong Duc, editor of Saigon's largest daily newspaper and member of the South Vietnamese National Assembly.

Soon after a popular front of South Vietnamese peace groups was formed to support the basic points of the PRG proposal in opposition to the South Vietnamese government.

This coalition claims the support of over 1000 South Vietnamese organizations not affiliated with the NLF, including those groups responsible for the anti-American demonstrations in Saigon by students. Buddhists and disabled war veterans.

The "peace treaty" which the Ann Arbor conference will discuss was negotiated by a delegation of American students representing the National Student. Association, with members of various South Vietnamese student peace groups and North Vietnamese students in Hanoi.

Signed in Paris over Christmas, the treaty follows the PRG proposal in calling for the establishment of a coalition government to organize free elections upon the definite withdrawal of American troops.

The treaty also contains pledges by both South Vietnamese and North Vietnamese to seek protection for South Vietnamese who have allied themselveswith U.S. efforts, and to respect the neutrality of Laos and Cambodia.

The final point is a pledge to take actions to implement the treaty and "insure its acceptance by the government of the United States."

"It should be made clear that the Peace Treaty is not simply another petition drive," Frank Greer, president of the NSA, said in a statement released last month.

"We are asking each individual to declare peace with the people of Vietnam, and to pledge himself to take whatever actions are appropriate to implement the terms of this Joint Treaty and to ensure its acceptance by the government of the United States," he said.

At the Ann Arbor conference, which is sponsored in part by the NSA, the most important discussion will focus on plans for implementing, as well as ratifying, the treaty.

Some proposals which might be discussed at the conference call for a series of referendums on college campuses, coupled with efforts to win ratification for the treaty in institutions of local government and among the public in general.

Plans for a series of non-violent mass demonstrations of civil disobedience in Washington in late April and around Mayday will also be considered.

The Ann Anbor conference could also make other recommendations for direct responses to the invasion of Laos.