1.
GV PAN EXTERIOR PRG compound
0.08

2.
SV Newsman arriving for conference (3 shots)
0.19

3.
SV AND CU Guards patrolling camp (2 shots)
0.29

4.
GV INTERIOR Newsmen listening to Col. Vo Dong Giang speaking
0.35

5.
SCU Col. Giang continues
0.56

6.
GV Newsmen listen to translator (2 shots)
1.25


"Mr. Ford demands the Vietnamese people to cease their struggle while he's arrogantly reserving for himself the right to continue building the (indistinct) administration of the United States in South Vietnam ... in an effort to prolong the war, to sabotage the Paris Agreement on Vietnam and to oppose the fundamental national rights of the Vietnamese people."




Initials CL/1911 CL/1921


This film is serviced with Colonel Giang's comments in Vietnamese, with a translation into English.

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The Viet Cong, on Saturday (12 April), denounced President Ford's proposal for an emergency evacuation of Americans and Vietnamese from Saigon and said it was an excuse to prolong U.S. military involvement.

Colonel Vo Dong Giang, Deputy-leader of the Provisional Revolutionary Government delegation at the stalled military talks in Saigon, demanded the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. warships and marines standing by to take part in what he called "this new manoeuvre of interference".

President Ford had earlier appealed to Congress for power to send troops and aircraft into Saigon if necessary, to take out Vietnamese and Americans whose lives might be in danger.

About 150 newsmen turned up at the conference wondering if it would be the last before Saigon fell. Normally about a dozen would attend the weekly gathering.