Lodge Leaves Paris

"We are at rock bottom now in these talks, so it doesn't really make any difference who sits around that table," one frustrated American official commented in Paris. The view from Washington seems similar and that helps explain why President Nixon last week accepted--"with great regret and warmest thanks"--Henry Cabot Lodge's resignation as chief U.S. negotiator at the deadlocked Paris peace talks. Lodge's deputy, Manhattan Attorney Lawrence Walsh, also quit. Both resignations will be effective on Dec. 8.

Lodge's eagerness to return to Massachusetts had been well known for more than a month (TIME, Oct. 17). He gave "personal matters at home" as his reason for leaving. Except for a few months' leave, Lodge has seen little of his family, which includes two married sons and ten grandchildren, since he became President Kennedy's Ambassador to Viet Nam in 1963. "I am not a diplomat. I am a family man, and I miss my family," Lodge explained. Lodge probably would have stayed on if he had seen any sign of movement in the talks. An exponent of the theory that the war will fade away rather than end with a formal settlement, he became convinced that the Communists have no desire to seek an agreement. They are not likely to do so, he thinks, unless the South Vietnamese forces prove their capacity to carry on the war indefinitely. They would require continued massive American support and that, Lodge believes, would be forthcoming--if at all--only with fewer draftees and more volunteers in a different U.S. Army. In sum, Lodge apparently feels, Hanoi more than ever hopes to dominate the South and discredit the U.S., thus advancing the cause of both international Communism and its own nationalism.

Apparently stung by Lodge's sudden departure, North Viet Nam Delegate Xuan Thuy took sharp issue in Paris with Lodge's portrayal of the Communist negotiators as intransigent. He told the New York Times' Harrison Salisbury that he had repeatedly offered to meet privately with Lodge to discuss "general problems" affecting South Viet Nam. Lodge had refused, claimed Thuy, because the discussion would not be confined to mutual troop withdrawals. What else did Thuy want to talk about? Plans for a coalition government in the South--a topic Lodge obviously could not discuss unless there were a major change in Nixon's Viet Nam policy.

Presidential aides insisted that the resignations did not mean that the U.S. seeks to downgrade or break up the talks. But no successor to Lodge was named, and one White House source added that "I don't think we'll be in any hurry to replace him." That leaves a knowledgeable and able career diplomat, Philip Charles Habib, in charge of the delegation. He has been with the talks since they started in the Johnson Administration under Ambassador Averell Harriman and, says Lodge, "no one knows more about the issues than Phil--and no one can read between the lines the way he can." At the moment, there are not many lines to read. The failure to replace Lodge with a well-known figure would be a clear signal to Hanoi that Nixon's patience with the talks is running out.

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