University of Virginia Library

Thant Convenes UN Session,
At Odds Over Vietnam War

The U.N. General Assembly
opened its 23rd annual session
yesterday with the United States
and Secretary General Thant
sharply at odds over U.S. bombing
of North Vietnam. U.S.
Ambassador George W. Ball
prepared a statement to deliver as
soon as the General Assembly elects
Swaziland, the African country
which became independent from
Britain Sept. 8, as the 125th
member of the United Nations.

Delegates milled in the U.N.
corridors discussing Thant's
informal suggestion for a test vote in
the Assembly on total cessation of
the bombing of North Vietnam
which produced the controversy
between Thant and the United
States.

Thant conceded at a news
conference Monday that his
proposal was "impractical" but
read a hypothetical resolution and
wondered aloud if it would not
receive majority endorsement in an
Assembly vote.

Mr. Ball called on Thant
shortly after the news conference
and told the Burmese diplomat his
statement was not "in any way
helpful in furthering the serious and
sensitive negotiations now in
progress in Paris."

Mr. Ball made public his rebuke,
one of the strongest ever delivered
to a U.N. official by a
representative of the United States.

Thant issued a statement
Tuesday declaring that he had no
intention of putting the Vietnam
issue before the Assembly or
encouraging others to do so.

"The Secretary General wishes
it to be clearly understood that he
has no intention of proposing
himself, nor of suggesting to any
delegation to inscribe an item on
Vietnam on the agenda of the 23rd
session," a statement read by U.N.
spokesman William C. Powell said.

The Assembly president,
Romania's Foreign Minister
Corneliu Manescu, opened the 23rd
session with the traditional minute
of silence for meditation. The
voting for a new president
followed.

Afterwards, the Assembly
elected chairmen of its seven
standing committees which will
organize later this week to tackle
the 99-item agenda facing the
Assembly.

The annual general debate, in
which foreign ministers and other
chief delegates expound their
countries' policies, was also
scheduled to begin Wednesday and
continue until Oct. 25.