The wife of the only American doctor known to be a prisoner of South Vietnam's national Liberation Front, 27-year-old Mrs Valerie Kushner, has just returned from Cambodia, where she pleaded with N.L.F. representatives for her husband's release.

Mrs Kushner told a Hong Kong news conference yesterday (Saturday) that she received a more "cordial" reception than the wives of U.S. prisoners-of-war, who earlier this year made similar pleas with N.L.F. representatives at the Paris peace talks. But she objected to the fact that her husband was being held incommunicado.

Mrs Kushner comes from Virginia. She and her husband have two children, a girl who will be six on Christmas Day and a son of 19 months who has never been seen by his father.

Major Floyd Kushner was taken prisoner in Vietnam exactly two years ago. He is known to be working as a doctor among his fellow prisoners. While in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, his wife attempted to send medical supplies to him: